Iron Bowl Was For Played For Pride
The goal of every collegiate soccer team is to end the season with a victory. For some, that means a national championship.
For a much greater number, it is a positive finish to a less than satisfying season.
The Auburn Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide played such a game to close out the regular season. The last game of the season for Alabama. Auburn would advance to the SEC tournament.
On a rainy night in Tuscaloosa, Auburn got a goal from junior Chelsea Gandy-Comer and the Tigers got a 1-0 victory.
It was the third consecutive year Auburn has beaten Alabama in what is called the Iron Bowl of Soccer.
[show_disconnected][show_to accesslevel=’Subscriber’] That left Auburn with a 7-8-4 overall regular season record, while the season ended at 6-12-0 for the Crimson Tide.
“Typical Auburn and Alabama,” said Tigers head coach Karen Hoppa. “They played tough and it was very difficult. We were lucky to go into the half at 1-0 and it was great goal by Chelsea.”
On the other sideline the Crimson Tide finished the year 6-12 overall and 4-7 in the SEC.
“This is just a heartbreaker,” Alabama head coach Todd Bramble said after the game. “We threw everything we had at them and they just found a way to keep it out of the back of the net.
“We missed some chances we typically don’t miss and they also got some help from the woodwork. But that’s just the way it goes sometimes.”
Auburn’s 3-5-3 got the Tigers into the SEC tournament, where they knocked off LSU (1-0) in the opening game. The season came to an end in the semifinals with a 1-0 loss to nationally ranked Texas A&M.
There was a time during the regular season where the Tigers were mired in a seven-game SEC winless streak. That included a 7-0 shutout against Ole Miss in Oxford, MS.
They slipped into the conference tournament by beating Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Alabama in the final regular season games.
But the season came down to a 1-0 loss to the Aggies, who had 22 shots in the game. The Tigers finished south of .500 at 8-9-4 overall. It was the eighth game that was decided by one goal on Auburn’s schedule.
“It was a really hard-fought match,” said Hoppa. “Obviously, Texas A&M is a good team and they had us under a lot of pressure in the first half. Unfortunately, we gave up a deflection goal.”
The 2013 season didn’t end the way either Hoppa or Bramble had hoped. But, as they say, it is what it is!
Hoppa took a positive view of the Tigers’ last game saying the experience a lot of players gained this past season bode well for the future of Auburn soccer. For Bramble, there were questions without immediate answers.
“It feels like this game is a microcosm of this season,” said Bramble, looking back after the loss to the Crimson Tide. “It’s been a rough ride the whole way through.
“I have been surprised and I had a lot of confidence in this team. One day defensively we didn’t do enough and the next game offensively it wasn’t good enough.
“This team never fired on all cylinders. I have to figure out why in the offseason.”
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