It’s been almost two weeks since the UCLA men’s soccer team has laced up the cleats and lined up to play a game, and the Bruins are itching to get back on the field.
UCLA will travel to play San Diego State on Saturday to play its last regular season game of the year after getting a bye week to rest and focus on practice.
“We’re just ready to go out there and get the result that we want – we want to win,” said senior defender Joe Sofia. “We had a good two weeks to prepare for it. I think everyone’s well rested, ready and anxious to get back on the field.”
As the regular season comes to an end, No. 2 UCLA (10-3-4, 5-1-3 Pac-12) will need to beat San Diego State (6-10-2, 2-5-2) if it wants to keep its hope of a Pac-12 three-peat alive. Even with a UCLA victory, No. 3 Washington can clinch the conference title if it wins on Sunday.
While the chance to win the Pac-12 remains, the team is beginning to shift its mentality to the playoffs. Senior forward Reed Williams knows that the Pac-12 championship is mostly out of the Bruins’ hands now.
“We just need to win and solidify our top-four spot in the playoffs; we’re not worried about winning the Pac-12 or anything,” Williams said. “We’re really just worried about finishing the season on a positive note and going into the playoffs.”
The bye week and rest could not have come at a better time. It has allowed the Bruins to catch their breaths before the playoffs and even gave UCLA a game after the long rest to iron out any kinks before the playoffs begin.
“We all feel fresh. It was nice to have a weekend off,” Williams said. “A lot of people got to see their families and just take their minds off soccer a little bit, just recover and take care of injuries that they all had. It’s going to benefit us for sure.”
Rustiness is always a concern following such a long break. Coach Jorge Salcedo tried to eliminate any possibilities of rust heading into the San Diego State game by having an inter-squad 11-on-11 scrimmage Tuesday to get everyone back on a full field again.
Even with the playoffs looming over everyone’s heads, the team has stressed that it needs to just worry about the next game on Saturday and worry about everything else afterward.
“It’s been great to recover and really refine some of the things we need to work on,” Salcedo said. “The guys are ready for a game now. We’re excited to get back on the field, we’re excited to get on the bus and head down to San Diego.”