Within the past four days, the NCAA Tournament outlook for the
men’s soccer team has become somewhat of a mystery.
The No. 6 Bruins (12-4-3, 7-1-2 Pac-10), who were looking to
earn two pivotal wins this weekend, traveled south to the
University of San Diego on Thursday for what became a
nightmare.
The Bruins gave up four goals in a 4-2 loss to the Toreros, the
most they have allowed all season.
“There were a lot of factors on Thursday,” UCLA
coach Jorge Salcedo said. “It just comes back to winning the
Pac-10; driving down to San Diego and playing on the same day we
traveled. The field down there is small; we were playing against a
team that was desperate to get a win to give them a shot of getting
into the postseason.”
However, there was a more pressing issue that led to the
Bruins’ fourth loss of the season.
Many players on the team struggled to have impressive outings,
something the Bruins hadn’t quite experienced in their past
games.
“The more important reason we played poorly was because we
had several poor individual performances,” Salcedo said.
“Those are all factors and, in a way, excuses,” he
added.
On Sunday afternoon, the Bruins traveled once again to the San
Diego area to take on the No. 16 Aztecs of San Diego State and were
hoping that no excuses would be necessary in that particular
contest.
The Pac-10 rivals held each other scoreless through the entirety
of regulation, although the Bruins were dominating possession and
had several scoring opportunities.
“The first half was very, very good, and in the second
half we were also pretty solid,” Salcedo said. “We
missed a penalty kick and hit the post a few times.”
Because of their inability to score in the first 90 minutes of
play, the Bruins found themselves in yet another double overtime
game with the Aztecs.
Unlike the first match, though, UCLA was able to capitalize
three minutes into the second overtime period on a game-winning
goal by sophomore forward Kamani Hill.
As a safety measure, the Bruins decided not to play sophomore
defender Marvell Wynne, who was suffering a swollen ligament in his
left foot, in either game.
“Marvell could’ve played this weekend, but we chose
to rest him an get him ready for the playoffs,” Salcedo said.
“He’ll be ready for us when we need him.”
The short-handed Bruins went into Sunday’s match-up
needing to bounce back from Thursday’s disappointing loss to
show that they are deserving of a high seed in the NCAA
Tournament.
“I think the game against San Diego State was a test of
character”“to see how we would respond after a game like
Thursday’s, and I thought we had a great response,”
Salcedo said of his team’s performance on Sunday.
Had the Bruins won both games this weekend, the probability of
them getting one of four No. 1 seeds would have drastically
increased, providing them with home-field advantage for the first
three rounds of the tournament.
With the loss, however, the Bruins will have to settle for less
than they had hoped for when the bracket is announced this
afternoon.
“I think it’s a toss-up for what can happen,”
Salcedo said. “We’re looking forward to see what
we’re going to be seeded.”