The UCLA men’s soccer team hopes its slow start does not set the tone for the rest of the season. The Bruins opened the year ranked No. 14 but have since slipped from the polls.
Through its first five games, UCLA (1-3-1) played four ranked opponents. The offensive attack only scored a total of five goals, and the team has been shutout twice. Most importantly, the defense has been struggled, allowing nine opponent goals.
“Obviously, we’ve gotten off to a tough start,” coach Jorge Salcedo said. “After five games, having 12 new players on our team, we knew we were going to have some situations where we would go through some tough stretches. I think that we’ve had some very positive moments in the first five games and I think we’ve been a little bit unfortunate in some situations.”
The misfortunes began on opening night at the Home Depot Center, where UCLA was 45 seconds away from winning its first game of the year. Instead, Maryland scored on a corner kick and scored again in overtime to escape with a come-from-behind victory.
Things didn’t get much better when UCLA traveled across the country earlier this month. Looking to prove itself against two of the best teams in the nation, the Bruins lost 3-0 to No. 1 Wake Forest in the opening game of the Deacon Classic. The Bruin offense managed 12 shots but failed to score on the defending-NCAA champion Demon Deacons, who had the advantage of playing at home in Winston-Salem, N.C.
After battling No. 12 North Carolina to a 1-1 draw the following day, UCLA flew back to Los Angeles and shifted its focus to a Sept. 12 matchup at Drake Stadium against No. 19 Indiana. Salcedo and his team suffered another setback when Indiana scored three second-half goals in an eight-minute span to put the game out of reach and hand UCLA its second 3-0 loss of the week.
Despite the losses, senior midfielder Jason Leopoldo sees a benefit in taking on the best teams in the country.
“Our schedule is one of the toughest in the nation,” Leopoldo said. “Playing against tough competition will get us prepared for the postseason because everyone there is going to be good.”
If anyone knows what to expect come the NCAA tournament, it’s UCLA, who has advanced to the postseason for 25 consecutive years.
Plans are no different this season, but if the team plans to make the playoffs this year, it will have to hold its own against more formidable opponents. The crucial games left on the schedule include a home game versus Santa Clara, who eliminated UCLA in the second round last season, a rematch of the 2006 title game against No. 13 UC Santa Barbara, and two games against No. 6 California.
Beginning in 2002, UCLA won four consecutive Pac-10 championships. California, which has won the last two conference titles, figures to be the Bruins’ toughest competitor in the conference this season.
“Right now, it’s shaping up to be Cal again,” Salcedo said. “It’s definitely one of our goals, if not the priority for our season to get back to winning the Pac-10 Championship and getting ourselves on a good playoff run.”
In last year’s playoffs, UCLA failed to advance past the second round ““ a far cry from the previous season when they came close to capturing the national championship. For the players who were in St. Louis, Mo. when the final whistle blew, losing the final of the College Cup has left much to be desired. For Leopoldo, who scored the only goal in the game against UCSB that night, coming up short serves as a reminder of what the team has been trying to accomplish ever since.
“Getting close to winning the title in 2006 has definitely given us extra motivation,” Leopoldo said.
Starting this season off slow has not dampened those aspirations. In fact, the bumpy start has served as a building block.
“I really believe in this group and I urge them to believe in themselves all the time,” Salcedo said. “We still have a long way to go. We still control everything that happens to us this season. We have 15 games left and we basically play all of the best teams in the West. We’re looking at the first five games as something we can learn from and build from.”