The glass was half-empty for the Bruins. Last night, the No. 6
UCLA men’s soccer team played 110 minutes against the
University of San Francisco and couldn’t determine a winner,
as the game ended in a 1-1 stalemate.
“This is definitely a team we should’ve
beaten,” junior midfielder Adolfo Gregorio said. “We
couldn’t finish.”
The Bruins (12-3-3, 7-2 Pac-10) outshot the Dons (10-8-1, 3-2
West Coast Conference) 22-13 but didn’t dominate the entire
game.
With two minutes left in the first half, USF had outshot UCLA
7-3 and had a 1-0 lead.
“Our first half was awful,” Bruin head coach Tom
Fitzgerald said. “It wasn’t a great performance by
us.”
The Dons’ goal came in the first half’s 19th minute
when freshman Luke Holmes lobbed a pass to freshman Cameron
Kolovos, who kicked it into the goal.
Still, UCLA carried some momentum with them into the second half
with two late shots on goal.
Only three minutes into the second half, Gregorio kicked the
ball into the net on a pass from senior Jimmy Frazelle. Junior Matt
Taylor also got credit for an assist.
“It was a good combination,” Gregorio said. “I
played the pass through, and I had an open shot.”
From that point on, the Bruins outshot the Dons 13-5 but still
couldn’t muster a goal.
The best chance may have come when forward Tim Pierce passed it
to Cliff McKinley, who had an open goal. McKinley’s shot
missed wide.
“We just didn’t finish our chances,” McKinley
said. “We didn’t come prepared at all.
There was controversy over McKinley’s opportunity because
USF head coach Erik Visser thought the UCLA forward was offsides.
He argued vehemently with the line judge and was ultimately given a
yellow card.
The Bruins nearly won the game at the end of regulation when a
shot by Pierce went off of the goalie. After the resulting corner
kick and a pass from McKinley, Aaron Lopez had a shot fly just wide
of the net.
“It’s tough to score a goal in soccer,”
McKinley said. “For whatever reason, we didn’t score on
a lot of opportunities we usually make.”
The Bruins took seven more shots in overtime, including a Matt
Taylor breakaway attempt that the goalkeeper stopped.
USF managed just two shots in the overtime period but also could
not find the back of the net.
“Fortunately, we didn’t lose,” Fitzgerald
said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t win.”
UCLA’s next match will be on Sunday at Fresno State. If
the Bruins win and Cal (13-3-2, 6-1-1 Pac-10) either ties or loses
one of its last two games against Oregon State and Washington, UCLA
will win the Pac-10. If the Bruins tie against the Bulldogs, Cal
would need to lose a game for the Bruins to capture the Pac-10
title.