By Brian Thompson
Daily Bruin Reporter
They knew that they were going to have their fair share of ups
and downs this year. And after going winless last weekend, the UCLA
men’s soccer team appears to be going through one of those
“down” times right now.
But the Bruins (3-3-2) pride themselves on being a resilient
bunch. The squad will look to bounce back on the road tonight at
San Diego and Sunday at San Diego State.
In tonight’s game, the Bruins face a hot USD team. The No.
10 Toreros have jumped out to a 6-1 record thus far behind the goal
scoring of forward Ryan Coiner (six goals, 13 points) and goalie
Justin Neerhoff (0.71 GGA). They play in a small, loud stadium that
often intimidates opponents. Oh, and by the way, these are the same
Toreros that knocked the Bruins out of the NCAA tournament a year
ago.
“Every game, we should be expecting a win,” Bruin
midfielder Ryan Futagaki said. “I love the atmosphere of away
games. It gets you more pumped up. But we should play well every
match, no matter if we are home or away.”
Likewise, UCLA head coach Todd Saldaña expects the Bruins
to come out ready.
“We have not had a hard time getting up for big
games,” he said.
“Everything tells me we are going to see that again Friday
night. They are a very aggressive team. They feed off their home
field advantage. They like to pressure you. But there are enough
guys here that went through that last year that they’ll be
comfortable in that environment.”
After tonight’s contest, the Bruins will remain in San
Diego to take on the Aztecs Sunday afternoon. San Diego State
(3-4-1) is coming off of home wins over UC Riverside and Brown.
One thing the Bruins have going for them heading into these
tough road games is their tendency to play very well on the road.
After dropping the season opener against Maryland, the Bruins have
responded by going undefeated in their last four road contests.
But a concern for the Bruins has to be their lack of production
on offense. The Bruins have had trouble finding any rhythm when in
possession of the ball, and putting goals on the scoreboard has
proven difficult. In this past week’s games at UC Santa
Barbara and at home to Loyola Marymount, the Bruins went
scoreless.
“We still have a lot of work to do offensively,”
Saldaña said. “We don’t have a proven goal scorer
or proven playmaker at this stage. So we’re trying to get it
done by committee.
“But I still feel it’s going to hit. My goal was
that by midseason, we’d fall into a rhythm, as certain
players would show us they could get it done at this level. We
needed the 10 games experience before that was going to happen. I
still feel it’s going to happen. It takes confidence and
experience.”
Defender Nelson Akwari agrees with his coach that the Bruins are
ready to break out.
“I feel confident that we’ll get the results that we
need,” he said. “We have to believe in ourselves, and
we have to be consistent.”
If the Bruins are going to get winning results, this weekend is
as good as any.