For many of the upperclassmen on the UCLA men’s soccer
team, today’s match against Loyola Marymount seems very
familiar. And it should.
It will be the second time in three years that these Bruins will
face off against the Lions in the second round of the NCAA
Championships.
Not that this is a bad thing. During its path to the 2002 NCAA
title, UCLA ousted LMU, and this time around, the Bruins
don’t expect anything different.
“There are a lot of things looking very similar to the
year we won (the NCAA Championship),” senior defender Aaron
Lopez said. “But for us to consider this season a success, we
would have to win the championship again.”
“We got disappointed in the quarterfinals last year. This
year is a revenge year for some of the guys that are still left on
the team.”
But before the Bruins can seek vindication, they’ll be
faced with a dilemma of avoiding an early exit against the Lions.
In September, LMU battled the UCLA to a 0-0 tie even though the
Bruins outshot their opponents 14 to 11.
For the better part of the first half of the season, the Bruins
were plagued with an inability to convert goals. But that lull is
nothing but an afterthought for the players.
“Our chemistry wasn’t the same,” Lopez said.
“We played with a lot of individuality. We weren’t
trusting the guy next to us.
“We play more as a team now (so) the result will be a lot
different.”
With the offense peaking into the playoffs, the Bruins do not
anticipate a similar scoring problem. Whereas earlier in the
season, the offense depended solely on the production of senior
forward Mike Enfield, the Bruins have found scorers throughout
their lineup. In the last two games alone, four different Bruins
have scored for a total of seven goals.
“We were having trouble scoring, but we’ve solved
that problem within our team,” coach Jorge Salcedo said.
“Our confidence in our attack is very high. We have a better
understanding of what we need to do as a team every
game.”
“We’re just capitalizing on our chances, chances
that we’ve had all season but haven’t been able to
convert,” Enfield said. “We’re finding the back
of the net now.”
This recently prolific offense will face an LMU team that
scrambled for a 1-0 win over Cal State Northridge, a team UCLA beat
3-1 in September. The Lions did not even manage to get off a shot
during the first half of the game against the Matadors.
Comparatively, the Bruins had seven shots on goal in the first half
of their last game against UC Davis.
But regardless of how lopsided this matchup may look
statistically, UCLA has learned the hard way the dangers of
underestimating one’s opponent. Their 1-0 loss to Oregon
State, the worst team in the Pac-10, cost the Bruins a top-four
ranking going into the tournament. The defeat made the team realize
the implications of every game.
“The next game we have, regardless of the opponent, is the
most dangerous game,” Lopez added. “We take it game to
game, so the most dangerous team is the next team we will
face.”
The lesson of not underestimating lesser opponents was learned
at the expense of guaranteed homefield advantage throughout the
playoffs. Because the Bruins are hosting the semifinals and finals
at the Home Depot Center in Carson, if the Bruins had received a
top-four seed, they could have won the National Championship
without ever leaving Los Angeles. Instead, they face the
possibility of having to travel to play No. 3 Maryland in the
quarterfinals.
Rankings aside, the most risky potential matchup for UCLA in its
bracket may be No. 14 Creighton. The Bluejays handed the Bruins
their first loss of the season, a 3-2 defeat in September.
No. 2 Indiana Hoosiers, the team that upset the top-ranked
Bruins in 2003 in the quarterfinals, is in the bottom half of the
bracket and would not meet the Bruins until the NCAA semifinals.
Overall, UCLA has posted a 4-2-1 record against tournament teams
this season, the lone loss coming to the hands of Washington, a
team that was eliminated in the first round of play.
But as favorable as it will be to possibly play at home for the
Final Four, the Bruins are careful to not take any game for
granted.
“We’ve had talks these last few days about how
excited we are about the potential of playing in the Final Four
here in Los Angeles, but there is a lot of work ahead of us to get
there,” Salcedo said. “We have to concentrate 100
percent on LMU and, getting past that, whoever wins between Boston
College and St. Johns. It is going to be a heck of a second game
for either us or LMU.”