I have a lot of confidence in the recruits coming in. A lot of quality boys in this group with experience playing at a high level. These boys can play at this level, no doubt about it. Next year's additions of Paul and Nate S. will add to what should be a very strong squad by the end of this season.
I think Oracle's point pertains to the concern of offensive production in 2012. Correct me if I am wrong, but both Arriola and Smith won't enter the Bruin program until the Fall of 2013. I share Oracle's concern. Sources tell me the Bruins dropped their Spring match with Cal Irvine 1 - 2 with the only Bruin goal coming from a late PK. That would make five Spring games with but a single goal resulting from the run of play with 3 goals total scored all Spring. I still don't think the Bruins have figured out how to backfill the OCM role with the loss of recruit Pelosi to Liverpool and Kelyn Rowe to the MLS. Sure - Rodrigues may be goal scorer as the premier incoming forward in 2012 but without someone setting him up, his talent will be wasted. If I recall, most of the incoming recruits for the Fall of 2012 are of the defensive sort so perhaps there is a rabbit in a hat in the form of a offensive CM from a JUCO in the works. But I guess that is just wishful thinking on my part.....
Yeah Arriola is entering in 2013. For CAM or OCM or whatever... I think Munoz will be able to play that position... he had 8 assists last season. Hollingshead had 7 assists from the wing. Chavez and Williams should see some decent service from those two. The team will be a step down from last year no doubt... that's the nature of college sports. But they still have talent and should be able to make the ncaa tournament.
Perhaps not the right place for this question, but does anyone know what Brian Rowe's status is? I think he got cut by Chivas, but don't know where he's gone from there. Is he playing for someone somewhere?
I believe he is a pool player for MLS... he will get called in when a team has an injury. He popped up in Toronto a couple weeks ago and it looks like he is with Seattle right now, but hasn't signed a full contract with any club yet: http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/soccer/post/_/id/15883/galaxy-youngsters-pace-reserve-win#more
Thanks! Didn't know about the pool player thing even existing. Hope he gets picked up by someone eventually. I was impressed with his progress while at UCLA.
Oh. Thanks. I guess I was confused. I thought transfers had to sit out a year, but now that I think about it, Ben Speas didn't have to sit out after the Akron/UNC transfer. Not sure why I thought he would have to sit out.
Bruins wrapped up their Spring Season this past Saturday with a 1-2 loss vs. Cal State Bakersfield. Final Spring Record 1 - 3 - 2.
Yeah, thanks! Nice turnout in Bakersfield, and there can't be too much doubt that they were the better team, in part because they didn't need to replace as many players from last fall. One criticism of Sanchez and Zardes is that they tended to rely too much on playground moves (like Zardes repeatedly popping the ball into the air for himself), but there's no doubt that they should be a strong team again this fall.
Victor Chavez scored in back to back games in PDL play for the Ventura Fusion against "lesser" sides: http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/soccer/post/_/id/16653/locals-blue-star-fusion-surge-ahead
Just saw this announcement of UCLA new assistant coach Nick Carlin-Voight http://www.uclabruins.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/052412aab.html
2012 Fall Schedule Released! http://www.uclabruins.com/sports/m-soccer/sched/ucla-m-soccer-sched.html
NM 3 - UCLA 2. Very disappointing error by our highly touted U-20 national team keeper Earl Edwards... sounds like maybe the injury messed with him:
Word is that the injury was still effecting him when he came back in but that he was playing well before the injury. Don't think he was anywhere near 100% for the rest of the game after that.
Halftime UCLA 2 - Maryland 1. Williams 2 goals for UCLA. Cervantes in for Edwards at keeper. His distribution seems a bit off... has kicked it out of bounds. Maryland pressure effective, preventing UCLA from keeping it on the ground and forcing the Bruins to play more direct. McKenna missed a sitter at the end of the first half. Hollingshead with a blazing run down the left wing and excellent cross to set him, he has to at least get that on frame.
Welp, disappointing... Cervantes did poorly on UM's first goal... coming out and then missing the cross only to allow a tap in at the far post. Then Ref gives UM a completely BS pk in the second half for the equalizer. UM dominated play and deserved a draw though. What happened to our possession style? I guess the plan is to abandon it and play more defensive and direct against good teams, which I am completely fine with. Our direct style would've gotten us a win if not for the bs pk tonight. Monge is a good CM but he is no Andy Rose when it comes to distributing on the ground. I would've liked to have seen more of Victor Munoz. He had some excellent play at the end of overtime. He has a lot of quality on the ball. I love the long throws from Sofia though! Between the long throws and Hollingshead holding up the aerial longball for Williams' first goal, we looked positively Stoke-esque. Tony Pulis would be proud lol
Ha ha, on the stoke thing. I actually thought UCLA looked pretty good in the first half, but seemed to completely run out of gas in the second and were thus dominated by Maryland in the second half. They similarly struggled against New Mexico for the later part of the second half, which at the time I had attributed to the momentum shift when Edwards got hurt (he apparently didn't play either game this weekend because of the injury vs. New Mexico). Granted, it was apparently hot and humid in Maryland, which I'm sure they're not used to like Maryland is, and they had recently flown all the way across country playing a top 10 team that substituted like crazy. But, part of me wonders a bit if there's a fitness issue. It will be interesting to see how things develop for this squad. The last couple years they started out slow with a 2010 5-1 blowout by Indiana, and series of poor games to start out 2011 (including losses to Louisville and DAVIS!), yet they righted the ship and ended up in the elite 8 and college cup respectively. In my view, they've looked better at the start of this year than they did last year.