The UCLA men’s soccer team has been very sharp these past
few games. It’s won six of its past seven games and has shot
up to a No. 9 ranking. But until they’re No. 1, there’s
room to improve and move up in the standings. “We are a very
athletic and talented team, but we’re still working on
things,” coach Jorge Salcedo said. The Bruins have been
working hard to fine-tune a few areas of their already solid game.
And instead of being satisfied with being just a good team, Salcedo
has pushed the Bruins to continue to improve. Salcedo says that
although his team has no glaring problems, one thing he would like
to see is quicker passes from his defenders and midfielders.
“We really just want to get that one or two touch and then a
pass,” Salcedo said. “That keeps the other team on
their toes.” Another area the team has been working on is
balancing the field. This allows the team to move the ball from one
side of the field to the other with ease and wears out the opposing
defenders. “Moving the ball from wing to wing is what we want
to do,” sophomore defender Marvell Wynne said. “We like
to use our different players and move around a lot, get around the
defenders, and get into open spots.” Practices have also
focused on team unity and doing what’s best for the team as a
whole. “Sometimes, with such a talented team we can run into
problems with individuals,” sophomore forward Kamani Hill
said. “Some of us have the habit of taking the ball up
ourselves too much.” Rather than playing selfishly, the
Bruins are working on setting up fellow teammates for the best
possible shot. Sometimes that means forwards Hill and Sal Zizzo
don’t take the majority of the shots; on Sunday’s game
against Stanford, defender Jordan Harvey took a team-high three
shots. Although the Bruins have a tough schedule ahead, they feel
confident in their talent and ability to play together. As a matter
of fact, playing top-ranked teams brings out the best in the squad.
“Our team rises up to their level,” sophomore defender
Marvell Wynne said. “Against good teams we tend to shy off
and play more defensively, but against bigger teams that we know
are going to come at us really hard, we kind of go at them and get
up for the game a little more so we come out more fierce and
attack.”
LOOKING AHEAD: After shutting out both
California and Stanford on Friday and Sunday, respectively, UCLA is
off to a promising 2-0 start in Pac-10 competition. Coach Salcedo
wouldn’t expect anything less from this year’s team.
“Not winning these two games would be unacceptable,”
Salcedo said. “These wins were huge.” As big as the
wins against Stanford and Cal were, the Bruins face two more Pac-10
powers this week: Washington and Oregon State. If the Bruins are
going to make a run at their fourth straight Pac-10, they’ll
have to continue their solid play on the road. “We’re
prepared now for two huge road games,” Salcedo said.
“If we can win these two road games, that puts us in a great
spot for our conference.” If the Bruins are to pick up
victories in Washington and Oregon State, the Bruins may have to
battle tough weather conditions that they are not used to seeing at
home in Drake Stadium. “It’s a very difficult place to
go and from what I’ve heard it could be raining so it could
be a tough match.” Salcedo said of Washington. “But
going up there and getting two victories would put us at 4-0 so
that right now is our big goal.”
TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY: There was certainly much
to applaud about at No. 9 UCLA’s 2-0 victory over the
Cardinal, but perhaps the largest round of applause was reserved
for halftime, when the 1985 NCAA championship Bruins were honored.
Many members of the crowd rose to their feet as they celebrated the
20th anniversary of UCLA’s first soccer title. It took the
Bruins an NCAA-record eight overtimes to pull out a narrow 1-0
victory over American University at the Kingdome in Seattle, Wash.,
on Dec. 14, 1985. The members of the 1985 squad who were honored
include game-winning goal-scorer Andy Burke, Eric Biefeld, Peter
Drummond, Dale Ervine, Drew Leonard, Anton Nistl, Peter Pelle,
Hubert Rotteveel, Thomas Silvas, Nick Skvarna, Doug Swanson,
academic counselor Fred Stroock, trainer Tony Spino and coach Sigi
Schmid.