The Trojans will battle the Minnesota Gophers at their temporary home field, Dignity Health Sports Park, Thursday at 6 p.m. This game will mark the Trojans’ home opener after nine consecutive games on the road to start the season.

When facing USC (7-1-1, 3-0 Big Ten) this week, Minnesota (8-1-1, 2-1 Big Ten) hopes to build on a one-game winning streak from their last matchup in 2012, where the Gophers brought home a 4-1 win through strategic offensive crosses and crashes.

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USC’s second home game of the season will be against Wisconsin (5-2-2, 1-1-1 Big Ten) Sunday at 11 a.m. It will be the first meeting between the Trojans and the Badgers since August 2002.

Wisconsin may have taken down USC in 2002, but looking at the current squads, both teams seem to be neck-in-neck on the offensive side of things. Minnesota has a 48.7% shot on goal percentage and an average of 2.00 goals per game, which is slightly higher than USC’s 43% shot on goal percentage and average of 1.67 goals per game.

On the defensive end, USC holds a stronger advantage in the keeper’s box with a season save percentage of 82.4% in comparison to Minnesota’s 79.4%. The Trojans will be looking to capitalize on this higher percentage to fight off the Minnesota attack.

This past Sunday, the Trojans faced the Indiana Hoosiers, as an exciting second half added another win to their record, placing them at 3-0 in Big Ten play. This game challenged the Trojans’ defense, allowing them to showcase strategy to shut down the Hoosier attack before shifting to swiftly constructed, well-executed counterattacks.

The Trojans hope to implement some of this new strategy Sunday when they face off with the Badgers. The game will be a big opportunity to make a statement against a strong team in their new conference. 

“They’ve always just been a strong, competitive team. That’s a crazy thought that we haven’t played them [since 2002],” said Head Coach Jane Alukonis. “But their reputation is just well coached, well organized, just sturdy and difficult to play against.”

Based on Big Ten play so far, USC seem to be the dominant favorites, as they lead the conference with a record of 3-0 in comparison to Wisconsin’s 1-1-1 start to the season.

So far this season, the Trojans have been more impressive than the Badgers, with a season average of 1.67 goals to 0.67, putting them ahead of Wisconsin’s average of 1.44 goals to 0.78.

But Wisconsin has been more clinical in the final third, with a shot on goal percentage of 50%,  ahead of USC’s percentage of 43%. The Trojans have attempted 109 shots, 47 of which have been on target.

“The key to defending is hard competitiveness and refusal to get beat … [being] tough in our 1v1 battles, compact behind the ball, transition quickly, all of those things,” Alukonis said.

Despite this statistical disadvantage, the Trojan top scorers will look to break down the Wisconsin defense and continue their increasing goal-scoring trend, with senior forward Maile Hayes looking to build on her current marks of 15 shots and two goals.

And, following an exciting secondary assist during Sunday’s game against Indiana, freshman forward Jaiden Anderson hopes to add some more firepower to the Trojan attack, along with fellow assist leaders freshman forward Faith George and senior midfielder Helena Sampaio, each with three assists.

“Some key principles that we always focus on is keeping dominating position, switching the point of attack, moving the ball quickly,” Alukonis said. “We do want to increase our number of shots on goal, and we certainly have the players and the creativity to do that.”

Pivoting to the defensive end, USC will seek to shut down Wisconsin, as they have several of their opponents so far this season. Going into this game, graduate student goalkeeper Laurence Gladu boasts a strong save percentage of 82.4%, with a total of 28 saves this season, in comparison to Wisconsin junior goalkeeper Drew Stover’s 74.1% save percentage and 20 saves.

Statistically speaking, it will be interesting to see how the Trojans and Badgers approach this game, with Wisconsin having a higher shot on goal percentage and USC having a higher goal save percentage.

No matter the outcome, this weekend looks to be an exciting one for players and fans alike as USC hosts their first two Big Ten matchups at Dignity Health Sports Park, taking on Minnesota Thursday at 6 p.m. and Wisconsin Sunday at 11 a.m.