They knew it before the official seeding was announced.
As the ESPNews anchor cut to the commercial break before
announcing the official seeding for the 2003 Men’s Soccer
NCAA Tournament, a voiceover asked the rhetorical question:
“Who’s No. 1? We’ll give you a hint.”
Simultaneously, clips of UCLA players netting goals left no doubt
in viewers’ minds: The Bruins (18-1-1) will enter the
postseason tournament as the No. 1 seed.
“If we weren’t seeded first, it would have been a
big disappointment,” fourth-year midfielder Adolfo Gregorio
said.
The only team in a position to steal the top slot in the seeding
was Maryland (17-2-1), who grabbed the second spot and was
consequently placed in the opposite half of the 48-team bracket.
Despite playing a difficult schedule, the Terrapins lost their
conference championship to Virginia in nine rounds of penalty kicks
just last Sunday. Certainly, such a a recent key loss reaffirmed
the Bruins’ top standing.
“If they lose to anyone but Maryland it will be an
upset,” Soccer America Senior Editor Will Kuhns said in the
telecast.
UCLA, however, has plenty of challenges ahead before it faces
Maryland. All 16 seeded teams received a first-round bye, and the
Bruins’ first game will be Nov. 26 against the winner from
the Oakland-Tulsa game, which will be played Saturday in Tulsa,
Okla.
Oakland (12-4-5), from Rochester, Mich., lost its Mid-Continent
Conference championship game to the University of Missouri-Kansas
City but fared well in its game against Pac-10 opponent Washington,
which resulted in a 1-1 tie. Tulsa (12-5-2) will be making its
second-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament. This meeting will be
the first between Tulsa and Oakland.
“Our first-round game is not going to be easy,” UCLA
coach Tom Fitzgerald said. “I know the coach at Oakland, and
he always puts a very competitive team on the field.”
Fitzgerald’s mantra of “one game at a time,”
clearly has found success at UCLA, but it’s hard not to look
toward the Final Four at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio
““ the same stadium where Fitzgerald coached the Columbus
Crew, the Major League Soccer team from which he was released
before coming to Westwood in fall 2002.
“The fact that I helped build the stadium there, it would
be a really nice homecoming,” Fitzgerald said. “It
would be pretty cool, but we can’t look ahead; we have to
focus on the next team.”
If the Bruins defeat the winner of the Oakland-Tulsa game, UCLA
will face the winner of Cal State Northridge’s game against
the victor of Florida International and Central Florida in the
third round. A quarterfinal opponent for the Bruins could be
Indiana (12-3-5), the No. 8 seed in the tournament and Big Ten
champions.
And, of course, although they don’t admit it up front,
there is the possibility of bringing home another College Cup to
Westwood.
“For the seniors to go out and get two national
championships would be unbelievable,” Gregorio said.
“There’s no feeling like it, but we will just have to
wait and see if we can go get that feeling back.”