The UCLA men’s soccer team experienced mirror vision in its recent weekend homestand against the Stanford Cardinal and California Golden Bears. Exactly one week after falling to Stanford and beating California on the road, the Bruins flipped the script and finished this weekend’s games in the exact opposite fashion.
The Bruins defeated the Cardinal 1-0 on Friday night thanks to a game-winner from sophomore midfielder Evan Raynr, and fell to the Golden Bears 1-0 on a counterattack in overtime on Sunday.
“We created more chances, obviously, more shots, more corners (against Cal),” UCLA coach Jorge Salcedo said. “We dominated most of the play, but we weren’t good enough in the final third. We did a great job to get there, did a great job to create goal-scoring opportunities, but we just weren’t good enough in the final third.”
The similarities between the two weekends run deeper than just the results for No. 11 UCLA (10-4-1, 5-2-0 Pac-10).
In the Bruins’ loss against the Cardinal (7-8-0, 3-4-0) on Oct. 15 in Palo Alto, Stanford midfielder Dersu Abolfathi came on as a late substitute in the 85th minute and promptly scored the deciding goal that put the Cardinal on top 2-1 less than 30 seconds after his entrance.
But it was Raynr who provided the late heroics for UCLA on Friday as a late substitute. Raynr entered the game in the 72nd minute and scored before the clock reached 73:00.
“I like thinking of myself, when I don’t get to start that second half, (as) a super-sub,” Raynr said. “I can’t say how good it feels. There’s no more satisfying team to beat than Stanford.”
Raynr came close to notching his third game-winner of the season and second in three days in the extra-time period against No. 12 Cal (9-2-3, 5-1-1), but his shot from the right side of the box was saved by the Golden Bears’ goalkeeper, David Bingham, who staved off a barrage of 25 UCLA shots. However, many of those shots were from long range, and the Bruins only managed to get eight shots on target.
“(Bingham) is a tough keeper to beat from distance,” Salcedo said. “We should have done a better job of driving at them and trying to put their defenders in situations where we can pass them out of the game. Our crossing wasn’t as good as it needed to be. There were a lot of things that were disappointing.”
The Golden Bears avenged the 1-0 overtime loss they suffered at the hands of the Bruins at Berkeley on Oct. 17, when UCLA freshman midfielder Kelyn Rowe scored the lone goal of the match to secure the 1-0 win.
Cal came out on top in Sunday’s battle, even though the Bruins dominated possession for the match’s entirety, and Cal senior forward Davis Paul finally put the game to rest with a 99th-minute, left-footed shot that avoided UCLA redshirt junior goalkeeper Brian Rowe’s outstretched hands and found the inside of the net.
“It was especially disappointing since we had more opportunities and we were in it most of the game,” Rowe said.
“It was so tough at the end. Both teams were getting open, everyone was getting tired. Both teams had opportunities, but unfortunately, they were able to finish theirs first.”
The loss marks the Bruins’ first regular-season loss at Drake Stadium since Sept. 12, 2008, when the Indiana Hoosiers blanked UCLA in a 3-0 victory. It was the Bruins’ first Pac-10 home game loss at Drake Stadium since Oct. 28, 2007, when the Washington Huskies defeated UCLA 1-0.
The Bruins fall back into second place in the Pac-10 with a 5-2-0 record, and the Golden Bears reclaim the top spot at 5-1-1.
“(Sunday would have been) a big game to beat Cal here, because it would have put us in a really good spot in the (Pac-10),” Salcedo said. “Now we need a little bit of help. We need someone to take a point from Cal. They have three home games, they’re in a good spot. We have three road games, so we’ve got to go and do the job.”
UCLA will take on the Cal State Northridge Matadors (2-11-2, 1-5-1 Big West) at Northridge on Wednesday.