Heading into a weekend with major Pac-10 conference standings implications, the No. 4 UCLA men’s soccer team has one less thing to worry about.
The health of goalkeeper Brian Perk.
After sustaining something of a terrifying injury in the Bruins’ last match against San Diego State, with Perk getting kicked in the eye by an opposing player, UCLA can breathe a sigh of relief as coach Jorge Salcedo confirmed Thursday that his senior goalie will start for the Bruins Friday against Cal and Sunday against Stanford.
“I’m ready to go,” Perk said after practice Thursday. “After something like that I think your first thought is just getting back on the field. That’s really what I’m concerned with, and I’m excited for (tonight).”
Earlier in the week, Salcedo expressed his uncertainty regarding Perk’s status for the weekend, but after a week of practice, Salcedo is more than confident that Perk will be at his best.
“Perk will start in goal tomorrow,” Salcedo said. “He’s fine, it won’t be an issue tomorrow, and he’ll be ready to go.”
With his right eye still bruised and maintaining a hue of purple and yellow, the senior standout talked about his and Salcedo’s decision-making process as to whether he would be able to compete in this weekend’s crucial contests.
“I talked to coach (Thursday), and he asked me was I 100 percent, and I told him I was, so yeah, I’m going to go,” Perk said. “It’s as best as I can hope. There’s not any damage, it’s not fractured, so just thank God.”
As for Cal, who is ranked No. 10 in the country and currently atop the Pac-10 standings, the Bruins are certainly up against one of their toughest tests all season, a fact that Salcedo realizes but feels his squad is prepared for.
“They’ve had good years recently, and we expect a big fight from them tomorrow,” Salcedo said. “But they’ve played their first three Pac-10 games at home, and we’ve played our first three on the road. That makes a big difference, and we need to take care of our home games.”
Perk reiterated Salcedo’s sentiments and is looking at the Bruins’ weekend matches against Cal and No. 18 ranked Stanford as not only Pac-10 matches but statement games.
“I think we need to show Cal our quality because we’re at home … and this is probably the meat of our season,” Perk said. “If we win these two games, it will put us in the driver’s seat in the conference, and that’s what we’re really focused on.”
Over recent years, UCLA and Cal have served as each other’s stiffest competition in conference. In the past seven years, either the Bruins or Golden Bears have taken home the Pac-10 championship, UCLA claiming five titles and Cal claiming two.
As for this season, although Cal is at the top of the Pac-10 standings with six points and UCLA is in second with five, the Bears dropped a home game against Washington 2-0, the same team that the Bruins tied on the Huskies’ home field 12 days ago.
The Bruins will take on Cal today at 7 p.m. then bounce back to go against the Cardinal Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Both games will take place at Drake Stadium.