Huge game for the Bruins vs. a hungry University of Washington team this evening at Drake. The Bruin lack of depth being exposed (V. Munoz hurting) a bit with Salcedo playing with a short bench vs. OSU on Friday. Fortunately the TV schedule gods were working in UCLA's favor with an extra day of rest.
Also good to see Kyle Bethel (former Duke - and short term UCLA) resurrect his career in his senior year with Oakland: http://www.collegesoccernews.com/index_files/Page7799.htm
Big Pac12 matchup here, Huskies have beaten Cal Poly and they took UConn to overtime in Connecticut before falling 1-0. UW currently ranked #27 nationally by Top Drawer. If Munoz misses this game our offense will suffer and Wiet/Sofia/Edwards will have to step up and try to keep a clean sheet.
On the bright side for UCLA offensively, at least Victor Chavez is looking dangerous again offensively. He still doesn't seem in top form (maybe still not 100% I don't know), but has been finishing nicely the last couple games. That extra weapon will help in terms of scoring options. I've been impressed with the scoring variety of UCLA this year. Last weekend in NorCal they had 6 different goal scorers. I think scoring by committee will ultimately serve this team well. On the defensive end, although they haven't been giving up many goals lately, they are still giving up some unnecessary chances that have been getting bailed out by saves from Edwards, opposition's offensive miscues, or last minute desperation defending. Their depth is an issue, but they are now starting to see significant bench contributions up front (Estrada & Chavez) and seem to have decent secondary options at outside back (Torre/Fender & Matchett). It's the midfield where they seem to be lacking a second set of players who contribute at a high enough level (seems Fender has recently been coming in as a midfield sub as well). Should be a good match tonight.
1st half recap: Bruins started off dominating possession and chances. Hollingshead asserted himself well but couldn't turn the possession into a goal. UW's Harris is doing flip long throws. One or two it looks like he releases before his feet hit the ground but ref lets it slide. Howe kills a couple of our attacks with cheap turnovers. Cummings then shoots us in the foot by trying to dribble through 2 UW players 22 yards in front of our goal, coughing it up cheaply, and hanging Edwards out to dry. UW scores from distance and goes up 1-0. Takes wind out of our sails a bit. Gets a bit choppy with UW starting to hack us. Ref not helping. Raynr taken down from behind and no yellow. Beautiful combination play by Chavez and Raynr leads to open net for Estrada who SOMEHOW misses the absolute sitter. Shocking miss by usually reliable Estrada: Hollingshead starts dropping deep to receive the ball, which hurts us going forward. Raynr nice 50 yard run up the middle for great shot on goal but saved. Chavez misses an open half volley from 11 yards out. In his defense it was a tough bouncing ball that was tough to get on top of. Stolz gets blown up on a slide tackle and ref no call. Wow this ref is awful. Monge gets revenge and gets a yellow: Raynr has been playing more centrally than ever, rarely seeing him on the wing. Howe is basically our RM at this point with Huskies dropping so deep. Man this UW formation is even more defensive than the christmas tree 4-3-2-1... it's a 5-4-1.
2nd half: We spend the first 15 minutes doing nothing with all our possession, then UW scores off a botched clearance off one of their long throws. Monge comes close on a header off a long throw. UW player kicks Reed Williams in the face and ref doesn't even give him a yellow. What a Joke: Williams and Fender getting crosses off but they are not very accurate. Raynr nice move to earn a shot on goal but gets saved, tough angle. Monge heads corner over the crossbar. UW misses an open look off a free kick. Horrible defending. GOAL! Raynr dribbles through 4 UW players up the middle, then it gets chipped over the top by Hollingshead and Estrada hits it home (and Raynr actually got a tip on it at the end). I'm not a fan of Raynr going up the middle, I think he is better as a winger, but whatever it's working. Hollingshead beautiful work up the middle, through on goal but his shot from 8 yards out is saved. Another nice shot by hollingshead but even better save by UW's keeper. Credit to UW
Nice recap. UW implemented their strategy well. They scored off the long throw early (Cummings give away was off a long throw), then parked the bus in front of the box and managed to score another goal off a long throw in the second half. Looks like the Stoke City only score off a long throw thing got UCLA this time around. I think more teams are going to implement the park the bus strategy against UCLA after Oregon State had some success with clogging the midfield and UW's win tonight. UCLA is going to have to start swinging more balls wide and serving them into the box on occasion to open things up for themselves if other teams employ the same strategy.
Couldn't agree more. I thought their two wins in NorCal with 3 goals a piece suggested they were going to start producing more goals, but this week they were back to the one goal per game output.
To be fair, the score should have been 2-2 if not for Estrada's awful missed sitter on an open net. But yeah, it was disappointing to see our guys dinking it around and playing possession while we were down 1-0 and then 2-0... they wasted too much time passing horizontally. Salcedo needs to coach them to go more vertical and direct when we are down and the clock is against us like that situation. I want to say that we needed to move it down the wings and whip more crosses in, but our crossers (in particular Fender) were providing pretty poor service. I think it's b/c Raynr and Hollingshead were going down the middle and playing so centrally. When those two guys play as true wingers they can provide great crosses to our forwards.
Bruins show some grit and win a wild affair tonight vs the SDSU Aztecs UCLA scores 4 goals (including a brace by Williams) to prevail 4-3 answering each of the 3 times the SDSU team draws even. Two of the Aztec goals come from set pieces after freshmen defenders Howe and Fender foul deep in the defensive third which has been a common theme all season. These guys need to recognize at some point that at this level, good teams will punish you for fouling deep, just as the Bruin team were punished on converted FK's in the UCI and Cal games.
Howe and Fender are talented but continue to make over-exuberant freshman mistakes. I like a lot of what they bring to the table but they always do a couple things every game that make me swear like a sailor. Hopefully they learn from the mistakes and can put it all together in time for the NCAA tournament.
Howe at right back, Fender subbed on last night at LB for Cummings. Lots of positional movement with the absence of Munoz (rumored scholastic issue) and Torre as Cummings was subbed back on as a left winger. Torre the obvious choice for a LB sub is in Europe with the US 20's.
UCLA 2 - OSU 1. UCLA will happily take the 3 points and road win, but OSU's Emery Welshman looked like the most MLS-ready prospect out there. What a freaking stud... he took on a defender and then split Wiet/Sofia right down the middle for a great individual goal. UCLA probably should have done a little better on some of the chances they created. It was a fairly open game in the second half as OSU had to open up to try to chase UCLA's lead. I recognized OSU's coach... he was out at the Earthquakes practice last weekend doing some observing or something... learning from Yallop the Jedi master. loving all these games we are getting on the pac 12 network and how they are available on the comcast website streaming
If UCLA still has their sights on a PAC 12 Conference Championship, then the Bruins are in a must win match vs. University of Washington tonight at 7! Match is televised via the PAC 12 network.
U-Dub is a very confident team right now despite the setback last night vs. the Bruins. I am not particularly a fan of their style of play, but hey, they are getting results playing the way they do. I think Clark will do pretty well by this program once he has a few recruiting cycles under his belt. They do graduate 8 seniors this year so Clarks ability to identify talent who can step right in and play will be key!
UCLA's win over Washington last night puts them in firm control over their Conference Championship destiny. They must garner 6 points over the next three games to secure a second consecutive PAC 12 title and a favorable seeding. However that will take some doing with Cal still fighting for at an at large and Stanford and SDSU posing a potential for a trip up. At some point I keep waiting for the Bruin lack of depth to be exposed .....hopefully it isn't during this stretch. Raynr's injury and Munoz's academic issue aren't helping matters any!
UCLA still plays Stanford (#70), Cal (#40), and SDSU (#91). Even with winning, the SOS could drop their RPI below a #4. Moreover, despite the lower RPI's, none of these teams are pushovers.
Great point! Bruins face a fiesty Stanford side tonight on two day's rest as well as "fighting for their postseason lives" Cal on Sunday.
Bruin's play an early afternoon game (1:30 Pacific kick-off) against the SDSU Aztecs. I expect a spirited match with SDSU having nothing to play for other than to potentially spoil the Bruin hopes for a second consecutive PAC 12 Conference championship and a potential top 4 seed in the NCAA's. The last match between the two was a wild 4-3 affair! U-Dub /Oregon State and CAL/Stanford all play at the same 1:30 time. (The Pac 12 TV Network is driving today's schedule with basketball season beginning tonight.)
I will be tuning in from my desk at work... love how the pac-12 network offers high def internet streaming.