UCLA got f'ed up big time. How does the 3rd-ranked in all the polls get tagged as the 7th seed by the selection committee? Assuming the Bruins get by this Friday against Loyola Marymount, and on Sunday against the winner of USC-San Diego, the Bruins will face either Texas or Texas A&M the following week. A week after that, the next opponent will come from the UNC bracket. What the hell is that? Talk about the group of death. There's no frigging way UCLA's a 7th seed, in a 3rd-round group that includes unranked Texas & Texas A&M. UCLA should have been seeded no lower than 4th.
Yeah, the quarters would be played at UNC. The higher seeded team will always get to host the quarters. UCLA deserved much better than what they got. I get home from enjoying a relaxing day off expecting to go online and see the Bruins as the No. 3 seed and instead I see they are the No. 7(!) seed. How is that possible? Needless to say I am not happy about the way the NCAA planned out the seedings.
For the next three weeks, I will be a big Bruins fan. With the way you guys played us, you got the goods to win against Texas & Texas A&M. Texas A&M are soooo over-rated. Texas are dangerous, but live & die by playing direct to their forwards. North Carolina's tough, but I hope the Bruins will prevail. Winning this tough bracket will be sweet after being screwed by the selection committee.
It's that special NCAA selection committee thinking. Maybe they're all related to April Heinrichs. You're welcome. And yes, the brackets are definitely not quite fair. I'm trying to be over fuming about it, but I'm still very frustrated. So I'm just trying to take cachundo's attitude now: Oh yes.
Soccer America's take Excerpts taken from this article: http://www.socceramerica.com/article.asp?Art_ID=562132577
Bruins Begin Quest for NCAA Title This Friday The lights that were put in at Drake this year have been great and I'm glad that it has allowed for night games, especially for these First and Second round games. Last season the first game was at 11am and UCLA-Fullerton followed at 2pm. Neither were very convenient times.
UCLA Rolls Over LMU, 4-0 in NCAA 1st Round The weather is so nice in SoCal right now. It was still in the high 70s when I got to UCLA at 6:30pm (it got colder by the time the UCLA-LMU game ended at 10:40pm though). My friends and I are taking advantage of the warm weather by going to the beach today. The weather in LA for tomorrow at game time should be in the 80s. As SomebodyOrOther said, UCLA pretty much dominated the match. LMU probably had only two or three really good scoring opportunities in the game. One was following a scramble in front of the UCLA goal after a corner, another was just before the first half ended (but Bardo made a great save) and the last was at the end of the game (but at that point the game was pretty much already over). Sarah-Gayle's two goals were beautiful. Her first was when Iris started the attack by pushing the ball forward and LMU's keeper was forced to come way out of the box and punch the ball out. Unfortunately for her, it wasn't a good clear and Sarah settled the ball and lofted it into an empty net. LMU seemed to be playing a little nervous. One thing that UCLA should've done all day until it stopped working was dribble up the flanks, especially the left. Early in the game, I noticed that LMU was letting Kendal go up the left side without anyone trying to stop her. They gave her so much space and just let her dribble into their defensive third. Two of UCLA's goals came late in the game. You like to see those come earlier to really put a stamp on the game, but I can't complain about the result. Once again it's UCLA vs. USC in the NCAA playoffs.
Bardo's save was SWEEEEEEET! Agreed!! I, too, noticed the Lions just letting Kendal run all over the place. They're lucky they didn't get stung worse by letting her roam around like that. Most shocking moment (in a good way) of the night (for me): Kat Lee in the attacking 1/3 of the field and contributing on offense. Are you kidding me? That was awesome! If we play that well against USC, we will steamroll them.
Bruins vs. USC Billingsley Nets Golden Goal in Double Overtime What an exciting, hard-fought game. It gave a lot of UCLA fans heart attacks, but in the end the better team won. SC was content with playing and concentrating on defense, and looked to score off counterattacks rather than create their own chances. The Trojans played with four defenders, but at times it seemed like a bunker defense because most of their midfielders were withdrawn. SC's offense was pretty much non-existent, as can be seen by the fact that they only had two shots all game. Julie Peterson (SC keeper) had a great game. She had ten saves, including a Nandi Pryce PK. This game was all UCLA. I wish that it didn't have to go to two OTs though. The Bruins were doing everything right, but they just couldn't get anything past Peterson, who was having the game of her life. It seems like opposing keepers always seem to have the game of their lives when they play UCLA in big games. The score after regulation could have been 3-0, Bruins. One shot ricocheted off the crossbar in the first half, and another ball appeared to go into the net but the ref didn't count the goal. Perhaps because he thought the ball didn't cross the line, but we all saw it hit the side netting and come back out. The Bruins should have had a second PK awarded in the first OT when Kim Devine was on a breakaway and was shoved from behind in the box. Jill got a yellow for yelling at the ref (and rightfully so) for the non-call. Although the Bruin defense didn't have too many SC threats to deal with, they did a good job of stopping even the smallest of chances. Each defender played extremely well, and for that, the entire Bruin defense gets my vote for MVP of the match. Kendal even got the game-winner to boot. Tracey Winzen, a central defender, left the game in the first half because of an injury (I'm not exactly sure what happened but I don't think it's serious) and didn't return, so Amy came in for her. When Amy is in, the defense changes to (from left to right) Amy, Nandi, Kat, and Kendal. This is the starting backline I expect to see next season. Amy had a great game. Anytime she was fed the ball on the left flank with room to go forward, she did exactly that. She has some wheels on her too, chasing down some balls that I thought were headed out of bounds. The game-winner would not have been possible without her hustle play. After Crystal James overran a pass from Stacy Lindstrom to the far side, Amy ran down to the endline and was able to get off a cross that deflected off an SC player to get a UCLA corner. This of course led to the game-winning goal. UCLA 1, SC 0. Next week's UCLA-A&M game is at 7pm on Saturday. There's another big game (football) earlier that day--UCLA vs. USC at the Rose Bowl. On another injury note, Jill Oakes was injured early in the first half and didn't return (ankle I think). She watched the game from the trainer's table on the track and was in good spirits, so let's hope that's a good sign.