Wednesday was supposed to be an off day for the men’s soccer team. It wasn’t.
With the team searching for answers during one of its roughest starts in recent past, captains senior Greg Folk, redshirt senior Brandon Owens and senior Mike Zaher decided to add an extra midweek workout to try and spark a season turnaround.
“Coach Jorge (Salcedo) wanted us to have a day off,” Zaher said. “But some of us felt like, especially the way things are going, (it was necessary). … It’s (also) always good to come out here and get a jog and stretch and work the lactic acid out. (It’s) helpful to lead into a good practice tomorrow, which will lead us into the weekend.”
The weekend could not be more important for UCLA (4-5-1, 0-1-0 Pac-10), which hosts Stanford (4-2-4, 1-0-1 Pac-10) and defending Pac-10 champion No. 16 Cal (7-2-1, 2-0-0 Pac-10) in two must-win games at Drake Stadium.
The games are not only vital for the Bruins’ hopes of winning the Pac-10 title, but Sunday’s game against Cal is also a grudge match. A season ago the Bruins were four-time defending Pac-10 champions, and clung to their title hopes going into a home weekend against the Bay Area schools. After tying Stanford, UCLA watched Cal clinch the Pac-10 title on the Bruins’ own field with a definitive 4-1 victory.
“They basically dominated us at their house,” sophomore forward David Estrada said. “And then we said “˜let’s take care of business here at home.’ And they basically just humiliated us.”
In that game, forward Javier Ayala-Hil scored a hat trick for the Bears. Ayala-Hil, now a senior, will be on the frontline for the Bears on Sunday.
A season after the disappointing loss, this home weekend against the Bay Area schools is just as important. Ranked No. 1 in the country before the season, the Bruins have already exceeded their loss total from last season, with only half the year behind them.
“I’ve been here for three years and I think the most we’ve lost in a season is four games,” Zaher said. “And that’s in an entire season … I’ve never had to experience something like this. (But) when you’re hit with it, you have to bounce back.”
With the high expectations placed on the program year in and year out, there is no time for Salcedo to sit and wait for things to change. With very few easy wins in the Pac-10, both defending the home field and getting some early wins under a team’s belt prove to be very important. Both of these tough tasks will be on the Bruins’ collective plate this weekend.
“We all know we need to win,” Salcedo said. “Does it feel like the pressure is really on? It always feels like the pressure is really on. I don’t think it’s any different from last year when we were in the middle of the Pac-10, having to win games. There’s pressure in the sense that we need to win all our home Pac-10 games.”
On the road, opposing teams have been able to give UCLA trouble by applying a lot of pressure and forcing the Bruins to get out of their finesse game. In the majority of the games that they lost, the Bruins had a strong first half, and then did not come out with the same intensity in the second.
Salcedo noted that he doesn’t expect teams to press as much at Drake, pointing out that the make-up of the Bay Area teams, with converted offensive players at the outside back positions, could leave them vulnerable if they did.
While going on the road has been troubling, the Bruins have been very successful at home. They are 1-5-1 on the road, and 3-0 at home. But the Cardinal and the Bears by no means represent easy home wins. Both teams come into the weekend on a hot streak. Stanford is unbeaten in its last five games, and Cal in its last six.
The Bruins’ matchup tonight in many ways seems like a precursor to Sunday’s game. While the Bruins and Cardinal tied last year in both contests, the Cardinal have not defeated the Bruins since Oct. 8, 2000, when they claimed a 1-0 victory in Palo Alto. While on the surface UCLA seems to have the advantage, Stanford’s goalkeeper redshirt senior Andrew Kartunen leads the Pac-10 with a 0.52 goals against average, and the Bruins have had some trouble in games they “should win.”
“We have a bull’s-eye on our backs so every team is coming at us strong,” Estrada said. “I think that sometimes we’re a little overconfident.”
The Bruins will need to get a win and some confidence Friday night before taking on the Pac-10 leading Bears Sunday. While Cal returns Ayala-Hil, it is freshman Andrew Wiedeman, a member of the U.S. Under-18 National Team, that leads the team with both four goals and assists.
UCLA returns midfielder junior Jason Leopoldo from a hamstring injury for the weekend, which could be a mixed blessing. While Leopoldo should help the Bruins attack, Salcedo noted that with a multitude of players coming back from missed playing time so far this season, the team has had a hard time falling into a rhythm.
Regardless of the reason for the team’s struggles, the UCLA players don’t need a pep talk to try and turn the season around.
“Sometimes it’s better left unsaid,” Zaher said. “When you have teammates coming from backgrounds of success, you know what needs to happen … We need to step up. Words are just banter. Everybody knows what we need to do from this point on. Hopefully we’ll just show it this weekend.”