April 5, 2006
AUBURN, Ala. -
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The Auburn soccer team battled the Mexican National Team, which is ranked seventh in the world, tooth-and-nail before falling 2-0 as the Mexicans scored two second-half goals.
"You look at quality chances and it was really close," AU Head Coach Karen Hoppa said. "We are very pleased. We are pleased with the way the girls played and we thought it was a pretty competitive match."
With a full house cheering the Tigers on, AU held the highly-regarded Mexicans to just four first-half shots, only one of which was on goal.
"We took this as a learning experience. We wanted the girls to have fun with it, it was a great atmosphere and the crowd was outstanding," Hoppa said. "This is good momentum going into the fall. We can say, hey, we played right with the number seven team in the world. When we go play a top-25 team, hopefully there is no intimidation there."
"It was a lot of fun," AU's Ronda Brooks said. "We were very excited just to have an opportunity to play a national team. I know that we were the underdogs coming in, but I think we played really well and I am very proud of my teammates."
The Tigers had chances of their own, with the best coming in the final minutes of play of the first half but Brooks, who found herself uncovered inside of 10 yards to the left of the goal, fired a shot that went sailing past the goal wide.
The Mexicans turned up the heat in the second half, taking 13 shots and scoring twice. The Mexicans' first goal came at the 52:22 mark as Fatima Leyva took a feed from Tania Morales at the top of the box and beat AU keeper Anna Fiser.
"The first goal was a bomb and Fiser really didn't have a chance. It was in a crowd and the kid just hit it great. The one thing about the national team, every single player on that team can strike the ball with her right or left foot, and that's a little different from what we see in college," Hoppa said.
Mexico then sealed the game at the 67:34 mark as Charito Saucedo put one past Fiser from six yards out.
"Anna did a great job. She is playing against the number seven team in the world and she gave up two really good goals. I thought both did her and Allison (Whitworth) did a phenomenal job," Hoppa said.
The Tigers will continue their spring practices this weekend with a game against Alabama at the Orange Beach Soccer Complex at 7 p.m. CT on Saturday night.