M. SOCCER Today, 3 p.m. v. Virginia St.
Louis
Midfielder Sal Zizzo chuckled when asked if he’d ever
played in the snow. “Never,” Zizzo replied.
When asked if he was looking forward to it he chuckled again and
said, “Not really.”
Eighth-seeded UCLA takes on fourth-seeded Virginia at 3 p.m.
today in the semifinals of the College Cup in St. Louis (shown live
on ESPN2) with a weather report predicting 1 to 2 inches of snow
and a high of 28 degrees.
While the team from Los Angeles will be in new weather, it will
be facing an old opponent. UCLA and Virginia met on Sept. 4 in
Charlottesville, Va. Virginia won 1-0 on the strength of a goal
from forward Yannick Reyering in the 89th minute.
Both UCLA and Virginia’s teams have entirely different
looks than when they met in UCLA’s third game of the
year.
“(We are) two completely different teams and the emotions
will be totally different,” Zizzo said.
The Bruins’ emotions are all about business as they take
on the Cavaliers for a second time with a berth in the national
title game on the line.
“(We said that) if we got there we’d be there to
win, not just be content to get there,” Zizzo said.
The hardest part for the Bruins has been keeping themselves from
looking ahead in the weekend’s schedule, appearing in their
first College Cup since 2002, when they won it all.
“It’s hard not to look forward and say,
“˜We’re only two games away from a national
championship,'” defender Kiel McClung said.
“It’s hard not to focus on Sunday, but we really need
to focus on Virginia because if we don’t get past Virginia
we’re never going to see that game (on Sunday).”
Virginia comes into the game as a strong attacking team that
will look to put a lot of heat on UCLA’s defense. Leading the
way for the Bruins’ opponents are forwards Reyering and Adam
Cristman, who have 12 and 10 goals respectively.
“The strength of their team is their two outside
midfielders and their two forwards,” UCLA coach Jorge Salcedo
said. “The key to the game is going to be, can our four backs
with Tony Beltran defend against their front four? Our five against
their four. If we do a good job (of that) then I think we’re
going to have a good evening.”
The Cavaliers’ aggressive play could play right into the
Bruins’ strong suit.
Throughout the playoffs, UCLA has been capitalizing on strong
defense leading into counterattacks to create chances on goal. In
order to help do that, the Bruins are looking to have their
midfielders play the angles to limit shots and set up possible
counters.
“We’re trying to seal off our mid, so we’re
going to have Sal (Zizzo) and J (Jason Leopoldo) cutting off the
angles (to stop) them from getting the ball through,” McClung
said.
A key part of the counterattack has been Zizzo, who has been
involved in a majority of the Bruins’ postseason goals. The
sophomore’s speed and ability to move the ball up the wing
has opened up space for UCLA deep in the opponent’s half.
“The way we’re playing, winning balls on our half
and countering on teams really suits Sal well because it gives him
space to run at defenders,” Salcedo said.
The Bruins made the College Cup on the strength of an overtime
goal from Zizzo 30 seconds into overtime, on the road at
first-seeded Duke. Virginia qualified by defeating 12th-seeded
Notre Dame 3-2 at home.
Should the Bruins win, they will take on either second-seeded
Wake Forest or unseeded UC Santa Barbara, which play at 5:30
p.m.