The atmosphere was an unfamiliar to an eerie extent.
The players stood still on the field, and those on the bench
kept their seats. The fans stood up silently in unison.
Their perfection at home. Their season. Their run for their
fifth national title.
It all came to an end last night for the UCLA men’s soccer
team as they suffered a devastating 3-0 loss against the Southern
Methodist Mustangs in the NCAA Tournament’s second-round
match-up.
“A lot of pain,” junior defender Brandon Owens said.
“A lot of confusion. Disbelief that it’s
over.”
The pain was echoed throughout Drake Stadium, where prior to
Tuesday night the Bruins had not allowed a single goal by an
opponent.
“Of all the games to give up our first goal at home, we
gave up three tonight,” coach Jorge Salcedo said.
The Bruins (12-5-3) were unable to play efficiently, failing to
capitalize on several shots, leading to their quick exit from the
NCAA Tournament.
“It was just a poor performance by us,” Salcedo
added.
Their inability to take advantage of their scoring opportunities
has been a problem that has plagued the Bruins throughout the
season as they set a record low for goals scored in a single
season, missing the previous mark by an astounding eight goals.
Their first missed scoring chance came in the 13th minute with
the Mustangs’ junior goalkeeper Matt Wideman on the ground.
But senior forward Jonathan Bornstein was unable to put the ball
into the back of the net.
From that point on, things began to go rapidly downhill ““
the Mustangs were able to catch the Bruins off-guard with a quick
counterattack.
Just one minute later, the Bruins’ shutout streak at home
came to an end as Kellan Zindel sent a ball past junior goalkeeper
Eric Reed, giving the Mustangs an early one-goal advantage.
“We were very susceptible on the counter,” Salcedo
said. “We struggled to deal with that.”
SMU’s game plan coming into the match-up was to hold UCLA
to as few goals as possible. They did just that, shutting out a
stagnant Bruin offense.
And after containing the Bruins in the first half, the Mustangs
made sure not to let them get on the board early in the second
half.
“Our concern was not to give up a goal in the first seven
minutes of the second half,” SMU coach Schellas Hyndman
said.
In fact, the Mustangs were able to capitalize on yet another
fast break with a goal by Duke Hashimoto.
The Bruins’ best opportunity to cut the Mustangs’
lead in half came in the 65th minute when an SMU defender was
called for a hand ball in the box.
However, sophomore defender Mike Zaher was unable to convert on
the penalty kick ““ his shot sailed high over the goal
post.
“The penalty kick would have been at a fortuitous
time,” Salcedo said. “If we tucked in the penalty kick
with 25 minutes to go, maybe things would’ve been
different.”
Hyndman also recognized that the missed penalty kick was what
led to the collapse of the Bruins after they fought so hard for
most of the match.
“It was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s
back for them,” he said.
Things continued to get worse for the Bruins as Hashimoto
cushioned his statistics with an assist to freshman teammate Paulo
da Silva, who had assisted Hashimoto on his first goal of the
postseason just minutes earlier.
“He proved to be a thorn in our sides,” Salcedo said
of Hashimoto.
But the Bruins’ loss did not come from a lack of effort.
“I think even though they played with a lot of inspiration,
the balls just didn’t bounce in their favor,” Hyndman
said.
The Mustangs will now go on to play UNC-Greensboro in a
third-round match-up Saturday.
The Bruins, on the other hand, have what may seem to be an
eternity to reflect on what went wrong in the game and what could
have happened differently.
They were eliminated before the third round of the NCAA
Tournament for the first time since 2000, and six seniors left
Drake Stadium for the final time.
“Our season came to an abrupt end here,” sophomore
defender Greg Folk said. “We expected to do a little better.
And in front of our home crowd, it’s never a good
feeling.”
“It hasn’t hit me yet,” Owens added. “I
won’t be around some of these guys again. It’s just
hard to believe it’s over right now.”