The UCLA men’s soccer team has been a bit of an enigma on the field this season.
There are the benchmark road wins at No. 21 North Carolina and No. 23 New Mexico, which seem to render UCLA a legitimate contender.
Then, there are the head-scratchers, such as the scoreless efforts against No. 78 San Diego, No. 76 Cal Poly and No. 47 Santa Clara. Luckily for UCLA, the game against USD was the only one of those three that ended as a loss; the other two were ties.
As a result of this inconsistency, the Bruins have been ranked anywhere from No. 1 in the country to No. 12 – their current ranking after their losing to the USD Torreros, 1-0, last Friday.
But if there’s one bright spot to the inconsistent play so far, it’s that the Bruins have neither gotten too high nor too low, according to coach Jorge Salcedo.
“What I like in the group is that when we’ve had a little bit of adversity, or some questions asked of our group, we’ve turned around and responded emphatically,” said Salcedo, whose team has yet to lose back-to-back contests this season.
With the Bruins saving their best play for after losses, and for games when they are playing highly-ranked opponents (UCLA is 4-0 v. teams in the top 35), it seems as if the team’s Achilles’ heel is motivation.
(Photo by Austin Yu/Bruin Sports senior staff)
“If guys on the team feel the pressure that they need to win, we do better than if it’s a game that we’re supposed to win,” said senior midfielder Leo Stolz.
The start of Pac-12 play on Saturday could bring the best out of the Bruins. The Pac-12 currently has four of its other five men’s soccer teams ranked in the top 40 nationally, meaning that if past is prologue, and if UCLA continues to play its best against more challenging opponents, then the Bruins should start to have more consistently high levels of motivation.
“I think once Pac-12 starts and everyone knows (they) have to be motivated, it’s all or nothing. I think sometimes we really need that,” Stolz said.
Yet, the Bruins will still have to be on letdown alert in their Pac-12 opener on Saturday. UCLA is coming off a 3-0 win against Cal State Northridge on Sunday, and will face the lowest-ranked team in the Pac-12 – No. 50 San Diego State – on Saturday.
The Bruins said they hope that the highly motivated version of themselves shows up on Saturday. That’s what they’re planning for.
“The guys are going to work hard this week to prepare for San Diego State,” Salcedo said. “And we have a couple guys that are injured that are coming back this week. … They’re going to add to our attack and add to what we do in the final third.”
New-look offense
UCLA’s 3-0 win against CSUN on Sunday marked its highest-scoring offensive performance since its season opener on Aug. 29, although one of UCLA’s three goals against CSUN was an own-goal by the Matadors.
Freshman Seyi Adekoya, who made his second start of the season at forward in that game, said that he saw the UCLA offense doing some different things that led to the increased scoring output. Specifically, the freshman forward noted that the UCLA defense was playing higher up on the field, which he said allowed for more goal-scoring opportunities off of the counterattack.