UCLA opens season with Maryland, Virginia games

  Daily Bruin File Photo Sophomore midfielder
Adolfo Gregorio forces his way past a Washington
defender last year.

By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Born in Virginia, raised in Maryland, sophomore defender and
2001 Hermann Trophy candidate Alex Yi is ready to unleash
UCLA’s new offensive-minded defensive scheme at the Virginia
Soccer Classic in Charlottesville, Va.

In a homecoming of sorts, Yi will lead what he calls the best
back-four in college soccer when the No. 24 UCLA soccer squad (12-7
in 2000) opens its 2001 campaign on Friday against unranked
Maryland at 2 p.m. PST. Then two days later, on Sunday, a much
anticipated game against No. 7 Virginia will take place at 11:30
a.m. PST.

Yi knows what’s in store for the Bruins in hostile
territory, but at the same time he’s not lacking
confidence.

“We’re not going to leave any shady areas,” Yi
said. “We’re going to come out with two wins that
weekend.”

This spring, after the departure of offensive stalwarts McKinley
Tennyson Jr. and Shaun Tsakiris to graduation, a remodeling project
took place.

"We’re not going to leave any shady areas." Alex
Yi Defender

UCLA head coach Todd Saldaña decided to take advantage of
the talented defensive core and switch to a flat-back four. The
change is aimed at starting the attack from further back and make
the task of scoring goals a collective effort.

And with the Virginia Soccer Classic fast approaching,
Saldaña feels ready to unveal his new scheme.

“We had an excellent spring,” Saldaña said.
“We were able to work on sort of a new system for our team.
We feel good. We feel like this is an extension of what we worked
on in the spring.”

Maryland (10-9-1 in ’00) will be a warm-up to the real
test for UCLA’s new scheme ““ Virginia (17-6-1 in
’00) and its two Hermann Trophy candidates.

Sophomore forward Alecko Eskandarian, who scored a Cavalier
freshman record 38 points last season (including 16 goals), and
junior midfielder Kyle Martino should push UCLA to its limits on
Sunday.

“If we come out there and play our game, come as a team, I
think we’ll do fine,” said junior midfielder Ryan
Futagaki, who missed last season with a knee injury. “We
should come out with two victories. I have so much confidence in
our team now. We’re a lot more like a team. We’re not
like individuals.”