The UCLA men’s soccer team just can’t seem to find the back of the net.
The Bruins (5-5-2, 1-1-1 Pac-10) have scored 14 goals in 13 games this season, and in 10 of those games they were held to one goal or less.
The slow start for the offense this season has led to some close losses.
But coach Jorge Salcedo isn’t panicking.
“I would be more concerned if we weren’t finding ways to be goal-dangerous,” Salcedo said. “I think we have been, even though we have had games where we were scoreless.”
At least one Bruin has stood out in his offensive play: forward Maxwell Griffin. The junior is the leading scorer for the Bruins, and helped bring in a win over Cal at home this weekend by scoring the game’s only goal in the closing minutes of the match.
“We would have liked to get the goal earlier, but it was huge to get the goal,” Griffin said. “Towards the end of the game, the play broke up on the attack. I just scored after that.”
Griffin said his strategy doesn’t differ much from other players’.
“I just get plenty of rest and think about my goal,” Griffin said. “I think about what I did wrong before and try to fix it.”
And it’s clear that Salcedo thinks highly of Griffin.
“He’s someone that I think complements and does well with guys that get him service,” Salcedo said. “You think about the goals he’s scored, (like) the goals against Penn State where he got a hat trick. He does a very good job in one of those goals of picking up a loose ball. (In) other ones it’s great team play to get him into the box to finish.”
Overall this season, the offense has had a uniform strategy that they have been trying to improve.
“(We try) to get the ball wide,” Griffin said. “You get more opportunities.”
While the Bruins haven’t been too successful with this strategy, it has led to at least some game-winning goals. Another one of these came a few weeks ago for Chance Myers late in the game. For now, the goal for the rest of the season is just to keep improving the offense.
“Hopefully (the win against Cal) just got us a little momentum,” Griffin said. “Hopefully we get a lot more wins. We started getting goals for ourselves. We’re just taking one game at a time. We hope to make a good run at the playoffs, (and) we hope to get the National Championship.”
BRUINS HONOR TRADITION: The current team is following the standard and goals of previous teams.
On Sunday, the Bruins honored the 1967 team, the first NCAA-sanctioned soccer team at the school. UCLA wore throwback baby-blue jerseys to commemorate the original Bruin soccer team.
“All of us here who have played at UCLA after them have been able to experience what they started,” assistant coach Jose Lopez said. “They had to fight with J.D. Morgan to get the sport to be an NCAA sport. Thanks to them, we’ve had a lot of fun since, and a lot of success.
“I mean, they started it. They went 12-1-1 their first season. They set the standard for us to follow.”