UCLA men’s soccer to face UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Fullerton

If the UCLA men’s soccer team wants to maintain its soccer dominance over UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Fullerton this weekend, complacency must be completely eliminated.

The new-look Bruins (4-1-1) have already had three of their games go into overtime. Although the blame can partly be placed on a demanding Friday-Sunday game-day schedule that its opponents did not have, UCLA felt the pressure to score earlier.

It’s no surprise that coach Jorge Salcedo has lectured his No. 13 team on not becoming lackadaisical and getting on the other team early every time.

“It’s a lot easier said than done, but we try to get after that,” sophomore midfielder Ryan Hollingshead said.

“A couple of overtime games have let the other team stick around for too long. … We didn’t put them away when we had our chance. That needs to change for sure because it’s only going to get tougher to win in overtime.”

The team has meshed quite well and has gone undefeated since taking a 5-1 thrashing in Indiana, but there is still room for improvement.

“It just takes time, and I think we’ve done a great job, but I’ve told them all throughout this week that we can’t get complacent,” Salcedo said.

“This group has a lot of potential and our job as a staff is to get everything that we can out of them. Even though we have gotten off to a good start and obviously we are a young group, none of that matters to me. What matters is that we reach our full potential.”

That potential rests on freshmen such as Kelyn Rowe and Victor Chavez, as well as veterans Andy Rose, Shawn Singh and Eder Arreola.

With 10,000 spectators expected at UCSB (2-2-2) tonight, Gaucho midfielder Danny Barrera and leading scorer Sam Garza will look to feed off of the home crowd’s energy.

“We can’t let them take over the game in the beginning because they are playing at home in front of their home crowd, so they are going to want to try to come out harder than us,” Arreola said. “But we are going to match them or even more.”

Perhaps earlier on in the season, the young Bruins were unprepared and somewhat fazed by the road crowds, but the loss against the Hoosiers came after just two weeks of team practice.

“Since the (Indiana) match, our team has gotten so much better,” Hollingshead said.

“We are all clicking better, understanding how everyone plays and as a team becoming much more solid. That kind of competition prepares you. But more than that, just being able to play together and understanding each other more has gotten us ready for this weekend.”

The last time the Bruins traveled north to Santa Barbara was in 2006, where UCLA came out on top 3-1.

“It’s going to be a great matchup,” Salcedo said. “We obviously beat them last year in the playoffs. We’re a completely different team but a team that can be just as competitive as last year if we continue to push hard every week.”

Traditional rival CSUF (1-3-2) looms on Sunday, and the quick turnaround will give the Bruins no time to be complacent.