ASU Soccer: ASU vs USC Preview

After a tough overtime loss to Washington State, things won’t be getting easier for the Sun Devils as they host a USC team whose been in top-form as of late.

The Trojans have one of the top defenses in the entire nation. They’re second in the Pac-12 in goals allowed with seven.

Recently, they had a 10-game winning streak that was snapped by Cal. During that stretch, they outscored opponents by a whopping 28-2. There defensive wall led by senior Mandy Freeman and sophomore Ally Prisock will be extremely difficult for an Arizona State that rarely gets shots on goal.

USC’s knows how to strike the ball too. They have scored 30 goals this season, which is tied for first in the Pac-12 with Stanford and UCLA. They have three great goal scorers in senior Morgan Andrews, junior Alex Anthony and senior Katie Johnson. Together they have combined for 19 of the Trojans’ 30 goals. Expect to see USC attack often against an ASU defense that has allowed at least two goals in three of their last five games.

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For the Sun Devils, they need to attack early and often. The only way they can really get an edge against one of the top teams in the Pac-12 is to score as quickly as possible. The best way for this to happen is to feed the ball to junior forward Jazmarie Mader.

After a quick cool down after her extremely hot start in the beginning of the season, Mader seems to be back in form, scoring two goals in her last three games. In order for ASU to have a chance, Mader will definitely need to have some good chances on net.

This would also be a golden opportunity for sophomore forward Natalie Stephens to break her scoring drought. So far, Stephens has failed to score in any of the 13 games that she has played. She can possibly give the Sun Devils the lift that they need in these final few games of the regular season.

Next: ASU Soccer: Late-Season Roundtable

The game starts at 6 p.m. and can be seen on the Pac 12 live stream on Pac-12.com.