Scoring problems plague UCLA at recent matches
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 21, 2001 9:00 p.m.
Washington d. UCLA 3-1 Oregon
St. d. UCLA 1-0
By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
There’s a reason UCLA men’s soccer head coach Todd
Saldaña calls the road games at Washington and Oregon State
“the toughest trip in the Pac-10.”
The muddy and soggy fields created by the rainy weather, along
with the level of competition, drained the Bruins of their momentum
after a 1-3 loss to the Huskies on Friday and a 0-1 loss to the
Beavers on Sunday.
No. 20 UCLA (6-6-2 overall, 2-2 Pac-10) defeated Cal and
then-No. 2 Stanford to open conference play, but No 4 Washington
was not willing to make it three in a row.
The Huskies (10-1, 2-1) took the early lead in the ninth minute
when midfielder Benjamin Somoza’s free kick cleared the
wall.
The game leveled out after that, and Washington head coach Dean
Wurzberger told his team at halftime there is no way the 1-0 lead
will hold up. He was right.
UCLA forward Tim Pierce curved a shot into the top right corner
from 18-feet out to tie the game in the 68th minute.
With a feel that the game was stale and flat, Wurzberger decided
to substitute in forwards Greg Foisie and Trover Frobose to add
some fresh legs. Foisie proceeded to score in the 73rd minute with
a header off a Somoza cross.
“We were in for a fight, and then we turned it up a notch
a little bit,” Wurzberger said. “Very few teams come up
and play us level. UCLA was everything we thought they
were.”
What followed was a sequence of events that left both coaches
dumbfounded.
Bruin forwards Tim Pierce and Matt Taylor each missed from about
three yards out, hitting the crossbar each time.
“It literally looked almost impossible not to hit the net
with the shot,” Saldaña said.
Wurzberger added, “The chances of that happening are very
small. It’s incredible they didn’t score.”
The Bruins outshot the Huskies 18-17, but their inability to
consistently score has hampered them this season.
“We’ve done a great job creating opportunities to
score goals and we’ve just done a very poor job of finishing
them,” Saldaña said.
The emphasis on a smothering attack has left Bruin defense
vulnerable, according to Saldaña.
Following the near misses by Pierce and Taylor, Washington
forward Jake Sagare scored on a counterattack in the 85th minute to
make it 3-1 and officially put the game away.
Against OSU (5-6, 1-1), the story was nearly the same as UCLA
outshot its opponent 25-12. The Bruins had three or four clear-cut
chances to score before a ball was played through in a
counterattack and Bruin goalkeeper Zach Wells lost a challenge to
Beaver forward Aaron McHardy.
“With the luck we’ve had recently, the ball popped
back to that forward, and he was able to put it into the
goal,” Saldaña said.
UCLA will next play Friday when it hosts the Pacific Soccer
Classic.
