BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Scot
Thompson attempts to head the ball during a game against
LMU. UCLA narrowly defeated Santa Clara 1-0 in overtime
Thursday.
By Brian Thompson
Daily Bruin Contributor
In this Olympic year, the UCLA men’s soccer season can be
compared to Michael Johnson’s running of the 400 meters in
Sydney.
The Bruins shot out of the blocks quickly, stringing together a
7-0 record to go to the front of the field and earn the No. 1
ranking in the nation.
But now they’re heading down the backstretch of their
season. They know that they must maintain a high level of play
since the rest of the pack is hunting them down.
The next team trying to catch UCLA is St. Mary’s College,
which comes to Westwood on Sunday for a 2 p.m. game at Drake
Stadium.
“I think we’re sitting in a really good
position,” UCLA head coach Todd Saldaña said.
“Going into the season, we wanted to make sure we challenged
ourselves. And we’re at that part of the season where
[challenges] come frequently.”
Since the fast climb to the top of the polls, UCLA has
maintained its status as the team to beat. While most observers
expect this type of play from UCLA, the fact that the team has 14
freshmen on the roster makes this feat even more impressive.
“The freshmen are really stepping up,” junior
midfielder Ryan Futagaki said. “I think what’s helping
us is the work rate that we’re all putting in. All of the
guys are hustling. We have a strong bench and that makes us a
better team than last year. Last year, we didn’t have as much
depth on the bench.”
Last week, the Bruins downed UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara.
On their home field last week, the Anteaters took the Bruins to
overtime, but freshman Adolfo Gregorio scored the golden goal two
minutes into the extra frame to preserve UCLA’s undefeated
streak.
Last Sunday against the Gauchos, the Bruins started off
slowly.
Without playmaking midfielder Shaun Tsakiris, who was out
nursing a back injury, UCLA had trouble gaining any rhythm
offensively. The Bruins, however, were able to pull away in the
second half with goals by forwards McKinley Tennyson, Jr. and Cliff
McKinley.
Thursday night against Santa Clara the Bruins again had trouble
on the offensive front, as the Broncos kept the game scoreless
until it went into overtime. There the Bruins managed to notch
their seventh straight win when Tsakiris, who was subbed into the
game, scored the team’s lone goal on a penalty kick.
Coming off of Thursday’s big game on the road, the Bruins
enter that part of the year when their season comes to a grind.
While the team has played well, almost everyone believes that the
Bruins’ best soccer is still ahead of them.
“I think we could be doing a lot better,” sophomore
defender Scot Thompson said. “Our potential is so much higher
than we’ve played.”
UCLA could reach that potential by restoring Futagaki and
Tsakiris to the Bruin lineup.
While Futagaki is still more than a week away from returning as
he heals his injured knee, Saldaña hopes to play Tsakiris on
Sunday.
“Shaun is a playmaker,” Saldaña said. “He
can go get the ball off of our defense, pick and choose the right
passes. He controls the rhythm for us.”
Thompson agrees that Tsakiris’ addition will help the
Bruins tremendously.
“He connects the defense to the offense,” he said.
“Without him there, it’s kind of hard to bridge that
gap.”
With or without Tsakiris, the Bruins will be ready for the Gaels
on Sunday.
While St. Mary’s has a losing record, the Gaels know they
can make a name for themselves with a victory at UCLA. They are led
by freshman Alex Monsalve, who has three goals on the year. They
should also be boosted by the debut of freshman defender John
Duffy, who missed the first seven games because of an injury.
Saldaña, for one, is ready for his team to be tested.
“It Ãs time to find out what we’re really made
of,” he said. “We have a tough game every week
now.”
“But we’re sitting in the position that we
wanted,” he added. “The guys know that we still have a
lot of room for growth. I think that’s a good sign. If I was
saying right now, “˜We’ve played our best soccer of the
year,’ I would be concerned.”
The process of molding his young team into champions continues
on Sunday. If the Bruins still want to be at the head of the pack
when they come down the homestretch, they will have to maintain and
build on the pace they have already established.