Stepping off the field after Auburn’s 0-0 draw on Wednesday night with No. 25 Clemson, Auburn head coach James Armstrong kept his perspective:
Yes, he’d want to win. Yes, he’d want to score goals.
But this wasn’t the end of the line. This wasn’t the final destination. This was only the beginning.
“Heck of a fight. Blood, sweat and tears in that one,” Armstrong said after the tie, which went down pretty close to even on the stat sheet, and felt pretty close to even in the run of play. “We overcame a lot of adversity.”
Two starting Auburn defenders on the back row went down with injury during the game. Tahirah Turnage-Morales was substituted off in just the sixth minute of the game. Lily Devereaux left the game in the second half.
“For us to bend at times but never break, and still continue to be threatening on the counter-attack, I’m just really proud of the team effort tonight. I think it’s a great start,” Armstrong said. “Would we want to win? Of course.”
Kennedy Husbands created most of Auburn’s best chances, including a picture-perfect cross in early to Dylan Driver in front of the opposite post — for a shot the Clemson keeper seemed to only just save, off balance. Husbands is a midfield winger who transferred in from Mississippi State to re-join head coach James Armstrong.
Husbands sent a few dangerous crosses into the Clemson box throughout the course of the game. Late, with about 25 minutes left and with Clemson preparing for another one of those crosses in as Husbands operated with the ball in space on the wing, Husbands instead kept it herself, shook her way past a defender, and fired another shot on goal from a few yards out.
But Clemson’s keeper saved it, along with every other on-target attempt by Auburn on the night, and the game ended 0-0. Auburn’s season begins at 0-0-1.
“We had the best chance of the game,” Armstrong said of that pass from Husbands to Driver. “The keeper made a great save. That’s soccer sometimes. We’ve just got to build on this momentum now.”
Auburn held Clemson to six shots, with just two on goal, while Auburn fired eight shots. Four of those were on goal, with two of those on-target shots coming from Husbands.
Clemson mustered six corners to Auburn’s four. The statisticians recorded 56-percent of the possession in Clemson’s favor and 44-percent in Auburn’s.
The first half may have been the better half for Auburn, especially as far as possession goes. Five of Clemson’s six corner kicks came in the second half alone, with one offering an opportunity to Clemson with just a minute left to play, though Auburn cleared it away.
Auburn defender Holly Engelking played all 90 minutes as Tigers improvised its back-line plans with Turnage-Morales and Devereaux going down.
“There’s always adversity, so, just solving problems, and putting players in different positions and everyone being flexible I think is a huge part of that, and our team’s really great at that,” Engelking said.
“We gave it everything we had and we didn’t switch off for any moments,” she added, “and we locked the ball in when we needed to lock the ball in.”
Armstrong had no update on Turnage-Morales and Devereaux immediately after the game.
Auburn’s best late chance on offense was a ground cross sent in by Husbands with about 6:30 left to play, but booted out by a heads-up Clemson defender.