The Bruins’ hopes for the Pac-10 title slipped away Sunday
when they fell to visiting Cal 4-1, after having tied Stanford 1-1
on Friday night.
The entire weekend ended up being a repeat of the No. 18
Bruins’ (9-5-3, 4-3-2 Pac-10) trip up to the Bay Area, where
they tied Stanford and lost to No. 6 Cal (12-4-1, 7-2), only this
time the results had bigger ramifications.
The Bears had 18 points in the conference going into the game,
ahead of several teams with 14 (including the Bruins), and with the
win, clinch the conference title with 21 points.
SLIDESHOW
Click here to see more photos from this weekend’s UCLA soccer
games.
“We’ve won the Pac-10 the last four years in a row,
and I’m very disappointed (to not win it this year),”
UCLA coach Jorge Salcedo said. “It was the worst loss in a
long time here at home.”’
UCLA came out flat in the first half in the very physical
matchup, having trouble connecting passes up the field and not
putting pressure on Cal. The Bears came out as the quintessential
opposite, playing a lot of successful balls in the air and making
intelligent runs that created chances.
Striking first for the Bears was Javier Ayala-Hil in the 12th
minute on the end of a well-manufactured drive. The Bruins were
able to stop the bleeding and went into the half down 1-0.
“We were poor in the first half,” Salcedo said.
“We didn’t have any energy, weren’t moving off
the ball, weren’t winning second balls. They were running the
game in midfield.”
After a talk at halftime the Bruins changed their strategy and
saw immediate results. They played with more urgency, moving off
the ball and finding each other on runs to create opportunities.
The first opportunity came less than five minutes into the half,
getting a penalty chance after a foul in the box.
Freshman Kyle Nakazawa powered a shot to the right that was
knocked clear by Cal goalie Justin Myers. UCLA defender Kiel
McClung recovered the ball near the corner and crossed it right
over Myers to the head of forward David Estrada, who put it in the
back of the net in the 50th minute.
“Jorge got into us at halftime because we had a bad first
half,” McClung said. “We came out, and were all over
them. We got the PK, missed the PK, but we got our goal right after
that. We were all over them.”
The Bruins had all of the momentum, getting a few very close
chances to take the lead, but then the Bears stole it all back.
On an attempt to clear the ball, McClung accidentally sent it to
Ayala-Hil, who capitalized to put Cal up 2-1.
“There was a guy far post wide open and he played a ball
over my head so I had to turn,” McClung said. “When I
turned at the last second I tried to hit it out, but I mis-hit it
and it rolled right to the guy.”
Cal’s Steve Purdy put the Bears up 3-1 in the 58th minute
on a free kick that fooled UCLA’s Brian Perk, who had been
playing a very strong game in goal up to that point.
Minutes later, Estrada was on a run to meet the ball in front of
the box when he was bowled over by Myers running out from goal.
Myers was given a yellow card on the play.
“You foul someone like that in the middle of the field and
it’s a straight red card,” Salcedo said.
Two minutes later, Ayala-Hil put the game entirely out of reach
with his third goal of the game, putting Cal up 4-1.
The Bruins walked off the field frustrated to finish the game
with such a lopsided score.
“We could’ve won it,” Estrada said.
“Four to one, you can’t tell that we were even in
it.”
Friday night, it was Estrada who kept the Bruins’ title
hopes alive with a goal in the 86th minute against Stanford that
led to the 1-1 tie.
On Sunday, UCLA was unable to find a different result against
Cal, and now with the Pac-10 decided, have to turn their focus to
qualifying for the NCAA tournament.