Amending strategy, rebuilding confidence

The UCLA men’s soccer team has been working this week to
ensure that what happened last weekend against Cal doesn’t
repeat this weekend against No. 22 San Diego State and San
Diego.

To do this, coach Jorge Salcedo has done the unexpected ““
he cut down practice time.

The method may seem unorthodox, but looking back at why the
Bruins (9-5-3, 4-3-2 Pac-10) lost to the Bears, it makes more
sense. The most obvious reason for the loss was the team’s
flat play in the first half.

“For those who watched our game against Cal it was night
and day between the beginning of the first half and the beginning
of the second,” Salcedo said. “We were much better in
the second, so we need to have a better start to our
game.”

Salcedo believes that if his players practice all-out for a
shorter amount of time, they will be able to come out strong and
stay strong for the full 90 minutes of the game.

“Jorge has really been focusing on high energy at
practice,” senior defender Kiel McClung said. “He cut
our practice time down 30 minutes so he can really bust us.
We’ve been doing possession drills only for eight minutes at
a time, but we go all-out every minute. Hopefully that will
resonate in the game and we can come out strong in the first
half.”

Salcedo is confident in his practice plan for the week.

“Toward the end of the year, you don’t need to train
as much, because obviously they’ve trained the whole
year,” Salcedo said.

At this point in the season, the Pac-10 title has already
slipped through the Bruins’ hands, but the next two games are
crucial for the possibility of earning a second-place tie in the
Pac-10 and a good seed in the NCAA Tournament.

If the team finishes strong, it still has a chance to host a
game in the tournament.

However, Salcedo thinks the most important reason to win is to
get the team’s confidence back up.

“Our goal is to go into the tournament playing well, and
we have two games to do that. If we don’t get a high seed,
we’ve proven we can travel to hostile environments and play
well and we’re very comfortable with that.”

Among these road victories is a 2-1 win over San Diego State on
Oct. 8.

McClung agrees that confidence has been an important factor with
this team, and that the main purpose of the next two games ought to
be to get back into winning mode.

“Looking back at our season, we’ve been a team on
streaks. We won our first four on a streak and then the next five,
so hopefully we can get into a streak going into the
playoffs.”

San Diego State has been on a two-game winning streak of its
own, so the Bruins will have to come out energetically to cut the
Aztecs’ streak short.

“They’re feeling good about themselves,”
Salcedo said.

UCLA will face San Diego State (9-5-3, 5-2-2 Pac-10) this Friday
at 7 p.m. at Drake Stadium. A victory would leave the two teams
tied for second in the Pac-10.

UCLA faces unranked San Diego (10-6-1, 5-5-1 WCC) on Sunday,
which is both Senior Day and the last game of the regular
season.

UCLA will be honoring senior defender Kiel McClung and senior
goalkeeper Eric Reed.

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