UCLA’s pair of games this past weekend only reaffirmed the
obvious: the men’s soccer team belongs at their No. 1 spot in
the national rankings.
Friday night, the Bruins (12-1, 5-0 Pac-10) outscored Cal
(5-6-2, 1-2-1) in front of 1,067 spectators at Drake Stadium to win
4-2.
On Sunday, they kept their record intact with a 3-0 victory over
Stanford.
The only anomalies on Friday night were the two goals the Bruins
allowed against themselves.
“As long as we score four, I don’t care if the other
team gets two,” UCLA head coach Tom Fitzgerald said.
UCLA and Cal traded goals for almost the entire match, but the
Bruins finally pulled ahead to win by a two-point margin.
The first goal of the night came from senior forward Matt
Taylor, who scored with only 15 minutes on the clock.
Cal scored next off an initially-blocked shot by UCLA goalie
Zach Wells that was rebounded to tie it up.
Senior forward Cliff McKinley scored in the 50th minute to put
UCLA up 2-1 off a Taylor assist.
After another Cal goal, Taylor scored the game-winner after Cal
keeper Mike Oseguera played too far from the box and Taylor’s
shot found an empty net.
Finally, sophomore defender Jordan Harvey made the game final on
his first goal of the season with 10 minutes remaining in the
match.
“We’re a high-scoring team, and I’m a little
surprised that we gave up two because our defense has been playing
so well,” McKinley said.
One source of the Bruins’ weakness in the back might have
stemmed from UCLA’s 3-4-3 formation.
“Playing three front-runners left us a little bit
vulnerable in the back,” Fitzgerald said.
The Bruins were anything but vulnerable on Sunday, however, as
they faced Stanford (2-10-2, 0-5) in a rematch of last year’s
College Cup championship that was a hardly a nail-biter.
Stanford’s offense was weak, and its defense had to play
without two key members, sophomore Chad Marshall and junior James
Twellman.
“That takes a bite out of an already-depleted team,”
Fitzgerald said.
Taylor scored first off a clean cross from senior midfielder
Adolfo Gregorio in the game’s 11th minute. With the energy
high, Gregorio returned two minutes later and scored off a Taylor
left cross.
The energy waned a bit at the end of the first half, but the
Bruins returned in the second on a Harvey goal from a cross from
freshman Chad Barrett.
“At halftime, Coach kind of gave us a kick in the
butt,” Harvey said. “We came back in the second half
with a better attitude.”