With three games remaining on the schedule, the UCLA men’s soccer team finds itself third in the Pac-12, with the goal of a third straight Pac-12 championship beginning to show cracks – cracks that could shatter a goal that the team had set for itself since the very beginning of the season.
Winner of the past two Pac-12 championships and eight of the last 11, No. 3 UCLA currently holds 12 points. Ahead of it in the standings, No. 1 California sits with 13 points and No. 4 Washington leads with 14 points. The current favorite is California, which has five more games on its schedule, two more than UCLA and Washington.
“Every year it’s tough to win the Pac-12, and this year unfortunately we’ve had a few ties and a loss to Cal that’s made it a little bit hard for us to obtain the Pac-12 championship,” said senior defender Joe Sofia. “But hopefully we win out the rest of our games and we get a little luck in our favor.”
With each win being valued at three points, and a tie worth one point, the Bruins will need the Golden Bears to lose a couple of games if they hope to have any chance to catch up in the standings.
But with a history of Pac-12 dominance and the pride and confidence that comes from it, players and coaches still display a resolve in ending the season on top of the conference. For senior midfielder Victor Munoz, who began playing on the UCLA team his second collegiate year, winning is all he knows.
“It’s kind of our responsibility as UCLA to win the Pac-12,” Munoz said. “I’ve been here two years and I’ve won it both years; this is my third year and I definitely want to win it and to make it three out of three.”
Sustaining such a high level of success as the Bruins have done takes not just skill and desire, but a couple lucky bounces here and there, an element that seems to be missing in this season.
“This year we’ve had some bad luck in terms of some injuries, the way we finished games, and some unfortunate calls here and there,” said coach Jorge Salcedo. “To win a Pac-12 championship means you have a little bit of luck and things go your way as well; we haven’t had a ton of luck and some things haven’t gone our way.”
In conference play, UCLA (8-3-4, 3-1-3 Pac-12) has played to three ties and one loss. The one loss came to California in overtime, but UCLA will get its chance at a rematch this weekend, a crucial game that might decide how the conference shakes out.
“By no means are we throwing in the towel in the conference,” Salcedo said. “If we can go out and get two wins this weekend and the Northwest schools get a win or a tie against Cal, we have a really good chance in our last game to win the Pac-12 championship.”
But even if UCLA does not end up catching California, the season will not be lost. Even now, the Bruins are primarily concerned about themselves while keeping one eye past the regular season toward the playoffs.
“You just have to worry about what you can control and I think that’s been a theme for our team all season, and we’re going to continue that moving forward,” Sofia said. “If we don’t win our Pac-12 championship it’s not the end of the season; every single team hopes to have a big run in the playoffs and that’s one of our goals, to make it to the national championship and hopefully end our season with a win.”