Wednesday, October 1, 1997
Knee injury cuts Victorine’s season short
SOCCER: Team hastens to fill leader’s spot, stay in contention
for title
By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Staff
Four words never fail to strike fear in the minds of all
athletes: anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear. For UCLA
midfielder Sasha Victorine, those words became a harsh reality
Monday night, when an MRI on his left knee revealed a tear.
Victorine, a sophomore, is now forced to sit out the rest of the
men’s soccer season after undergoing surgery on the knee Monday
night. The injury is a great blow to the national-title hopes of
the Bruins, who must now scramble to find a replacement for one of
their most valuable players.
"The whole team is built around a player like (Victorine),"
junior forward Seth George said. "A player like an outside fullback
or an outside midfielder is replaceable, but a center midfielder
such as Sasha in the position that he plays is a huge loss to our
team and is going to take some rebuilding."
Although the No. 3 Bruins (7-1) possess a lot of depth this
season, no one is capable of simply stepping in and replacing a
player as talented as Victorine. One of the co-captains, along with
seniors Josh Keller and Nick Theslof, Victorine provided the team
with a defensive midfielder capable of creating many scoring
opportunities with his skills and decision-making abilities.
Senior defenseman and co-captain Josh Keller himself suffered a
knee injury last year which knocked him out for the season in the
12th match. Keller is well aware of not only the physical hardship
which Victorine will undergo, but also of the mental anguish which
both the team and Victorine are now forced to confront.
"(The loss is) definitely hard to deal with," Keller said. "It’s
the middle of the season, we’ve been playing real well together, we
were just starting to get in our groove. And then he goes down, so
he’s got to be feeling real bad. … For him it’s not the end of
the world. Granted it’s the end of the season and that’s going to
be tough to deal with, but he’s still got two more years after this
so he’s just got to rehab and make sure he gets (the knee) strong
for next year."
However, the fact of the matter is, Bruin coach Sigi Schmid
cannot think about next year just yet. For now, he has several
options for how to approach the situation at hand. The most obvious
option at the moment seems the possibility of dropping sophomore
Pete Vagenas to a more defensive midfield position. Vagenas appears
to be the most comfortable player at Victorine’s position. Vagenas’
absence in the attacking midfield position could be filled up by
true freshman Shaun Tsakiris.
Another option Schmid has is dropping Theslof from his current
forward position to an attacking midfield position, which he played
last season. Then players such as sophomore Martin Bruno or true
freshman McKinley Tennyson Jr. could fill the vacated forward
position. Finally, Keller could go into the middle of the
midfield.
"(Victorine’s injury) is a setback for our team," Schmid said.
"But it’s an opportunity for our depth to show itself and for the
rest of the team to just add a little thing to their game and we’ll
be able to carry it the rest of the way without (Victorine). It’s
definitely a hurdle for us, but I think we’re a good enough team to
overcome it."
Within the next three to five games Schmid will likely decide on
the new outlook for UCLA’s starting squad. After the lineup changes
are made, time will tell if the Bruins are able to cope with the
loss of Victorine and stay in contention for the national
title.
PATRICK LAM/Daily Bruin
Sasha Victorine takes control of the ball in Sunday’s Fresno
State game.
"The whole team is built around a player like (Victorine)."
Seth George
Forward