No one has come closer to knocking down No. 1 Maryland than UCLA.
The Bruins were the only team to stop the Terrapins’ offensive onslaught. When the two faced off on Oct. 3, the Terrapins managed only two shots on goal – the lowest mark of their season.
No. 4 seed UCLA men’s soccer (6-6-4, 5-3-2 Big Ten) will have another shot at No. 1 seed Maryland (12-0-3, 8-0-2) on Wednesday in the semifinal of the Big Ten tournament, this time across the country at Ludwig Field in College Park. A win over the undefeated Terrapins would all but guarantee the Bruins a spot in the NCAA tournament – even without the automatic bid of winning the conference championship.
“We will go there and fight for our season. Basically, we need to go there and win – and that’s the mentality that we had in Washington, and it’s the same mentality that we will have on Wednesday,” said redshirt sophomore forward Sergi Solans Ormo. “We believe in ourselves, and we believe in our ability to win the game, and I feel very confident about going there and beating Maryland.”
The Terrapins were only ranked 18th in their last matchup against the Bruins.
But they had already begun the winning trajectory that has now earned them the top spot in the country in both RPI and in the NCAA Coaches Poll.
“Our job is to take the information from the last game, see if we can be better in a couple facets of it, and also be able to reinforce the principles that put us in a situation where we could shut out the number one team in the country – they weren’t that at the time, but we knew they were good and were going to probably end up moving in that direction,” said coach Ryan Jorden. “So we’re going to enjoy it, but also take both the confidence of the last performance and try to build on it.”
A key part of the equation on defense in the Bruins’ tie was versatile junior defender Tre Wright, who shifted to center back after starting the season at outside back. His speed – compared to other central defender options’ heights – helped shut out star forwards Sadam Masereka and Stephane Njike, who have combined for 16 goals on the season.
But Wright’s availability may be questionable, as he left UCLA’s game against Washington in the 52nd minute after getting hit in the face in an aerial challenge.
“They (Masereka and Njike) are very good attacking in the space and running and going one-vs.-one. But we also believe that our defenders – our full backs and our centerbacks – are in a high level right now. We trust them,” Solans Ormo said. “We hope also that Tre (Wright) can play, because he is the most important guy in the defense right now, and we know that if we control these two guys, we will have a lot of opportunities to score.”
And behind Maryland’s primary goal scorers is an arsenal of players who have been stockpiling assists. The Terrapins’ roster has four players who have recorded five or more assists this season, and 19 players have notched at least one. On the other hand, the Bruins have just one player with more than five assists – junior midfielder Phillip Naef – and only 11 players with multiple assists.
And across the season, Maryland has scored 40 goals compared to UCLA’s 25.
The Bruins have been on a scoring tear to end the regular season though, burying 14 goals in the last three games.
After qualifying for the Big Ten tournament with a come-from-behind win against No. 15 Washington on Friday night, the Bruins returned home Saturday. They had one day of rest in Westwood before flying to Maryland on Monday.
“It’s kind of a short turnover. So we came back today (Saturday). We had a little recovery session on the field today, all the guys went into the cold tub, then we practice again tomorrow,” said junior forward Oliver Roche. “Overall focus is to recover and really make sure guys like me, who got a little thing bugging them are as close to 100%, if not more, when we get to Wednesday.”
Last year, the Bruins tied the Terrapins during the regular season and smashed them 6-0 in the Big Ten tournament. But multiple members of that Maryland team had food poisoning, skewing the impressiveness of that result.
This year, UCLA is headed into Maryland’s home territory, rather than a neutral site, and it will face the challenge of knocking out one of the NCAA’s two remaining undefeated teams at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
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