Men’s soccer trumped by Cal State Northridge Matadors
Men’s soccer
CSUN 3
UCLA 2
By Daniel Khayat
Oct. 24, 2011 12:46 a.m.
Midway through the first half of the UCLA men’s soccer game against Cal State Northridge on Saturday night, the head referee stopped the proceedings for nearly 10 minutes. One of the linesmen had pulled his calf muscle, and the game officials had to ask the fans at Drake Stadium if there happened to be a somewhat experienced replacement in their midst.
Luckily there was, and play resumed with the unexpected addition to the refereeing squad not making any high-profile mistakes.
Instead it was the No. 7/8 Bruins who committed some costly errors and the team found themselves on the wrong side of a 3-2 result after the final whistle sounded.
The Matadors had fought back from a 2-1 halftime deficit with two goals in the last 10 minutes of the game, handing UCLA just its fourth loss of the season and gaining their first-ever victory in Westwood.
The Bruins can now only hope that, like the delay in the first half, the upset loss will turn out to be nothing more than a blip on the radar.
“It’s unfortunate, but it’s not the end of everything,” senior midfielder/defender Andy Rose said. “We’ll come back and get better. I think we’ll take our usual form back into the Pac-12 next week and make a really good response.”
After conceding the game’s first goal shortly after play was resumed in the first half, the Bruins (10-4-1) jumped out in front thanks to a quick-fire double from a familiar source.
Junior forward Chandler Hoffman scored twice in the half’s final seven minutes to increase his team-high total to 13 goals in 15 games and give the Bruins momentum and a 2-1 lead heading into halftime.
But despite accounting for both UCLA goals on the night, Hoffman might feel like he could have put the game away for his team. Early in the second half, Hoffman received a cross from the left flank at point-blank range but scuffed his left-footed shot wide of the far post.
“We had a couple of chances to go up 3-1,” coach Jorge Salcedo said. “We couldn’t finish the couple good chances we had to end the game, and our mentality to close the game out was poor.”
Sure enough, after a spell of play that saw both teams bogged down in midfield, the Matadors (7-7-1) sprang to life, getting a goal from forward Brian Behrad in the 83rd minute and the winner from forward Edwin Rivas in the 86th.
“We had a great response to that first goal, very positive to get two at the end of the first half,” Rose said. “But sometimes when you don’t kill a game off, it comes back around and bites you. When you don’t take (chances) against a good team, they can punish you.”
The most telling statistic from Saturday’s match was the Bruins’ woeful shot on goal percentage ““ of the eight shots taken by UCLA, only two were on target, and both found the back of the net. The Bruins’ average shot on goal percentage for the season is .377.
Salcedo said that his team’s lack of clinical finishing in front of goal was a combination between a poor mentality and a lack of execution.
“We talked a lot before the game and throughout the week about us having to step on the field and perform well and have a good approach,” he said. “And I thought for certain periods of the game that we did, but not enough. Where we’ve been over the past few weeks, winning games and really having good 90-minute performances, tonight we didn’t do that.”
UCLA has been down this road once already this season.
After having won their previous five matches, the Bruins lost a 2-1 home decision to an unranked SMU team on September 25, right before a stretch of five Pac-12 games.
The Bruins ended up brushing the surprise defeat aside and rattled off another impressive five-match winning streak, outscoring all five Pac-12 opponents by a combined score of 11-2 and grabbing a stranglehold of the conference lead.
It remains to be seen whether or not the Bruins can repeat that feat with another full slate of conference games fast approaching.
“We’re still sitting well in the Pac-12,” redshirt senior goalkeeper Brian Rowe said. “I think this will give us a little bit of a chip on our shoulder looking forward. This will show us that we can be beaten. We need to take teams seriously and fight to the very end.”
Hollingshead sits out
Junior midfielder/forward Ryan Hollingshead missed his second consecutive match Saturday because of a knee injury, but Salcedo fully expects him to be ready for Friday’s showdown with No. 23 Washington (10-3-2, 5-2).
“Ryan brings a variety of intangibles,” Salcedo said. “Having him on the field gives us more bite, more fight to our game, so we did miss him tonight. He’ll be fine for next week.”
