Men’s soccer focuses on possession, solid defense for start of regular season

After two exhibition wins, coach Ryan Jorden is – technically speaking – undefeated to begin his career in Westwood.

But the Bruins’ next two games are the ones that actually count toward their record, and one of their next opponents is in contention for a national title.

UCLA men’s soccer will open the regular season in Bloomington, Indiana, where it will take part in the Adidas/IU Credit Union Classic. UCLA is set to face Northwestern and No. 2 Indiana on Friday and Sunday, respectively.

“Each one will be tough,” said junior midfielder Andrew Paoli. “Those are going to be good teams, but I’m excited to see how we do against them. I think we have a good team and we’re progressing smoothly, so I’m hopeful.”

While the Bruins posted two wins in exhibitions against Westmont and Omaha, Jorden said those matches cannot be used as indicators as to how well his squad will fare in the regular season.

“I don’t think exhibitions can ever tell you (how far a team will go),” Jorden said. “They are in place so that we can have a progression of growth for the team during the very short preseason time that we have. Our performance dramatically improved (from the first to second exhibition) so hopefully we have another improved performance in our season opener.”

Northwestern returns six seniors, including midfielder Matt Moderwell, who finished the 2018 campaign tied as the team leader in shots on goal with 10 shots and was the second leading scorer with five goals.

The last time the Northwestern qualified for the NCAA tournament was in 2014, which was also the last season it posted a winning record.

UCLA will take on Indiana on its home turf at Bill Armstrong Stadium, where the Hoosiers have recorded an undefeated record for the past two seasons.

Jorden said the Bruins will have to focus on solid defending in order to create attacking opportunities in a hostile environment.

“My expectation is that we have to be intelligent in our defending because it’s obviously a good team and they are good at attacking,” Jorden said. “We (need to avoid) conceding possessions in moments that we shouldn’t be. If we (do those two things), it should give us a chance to attack a really good team.”

In 2018, the Hoosiers won both the Big 10 regular-season title and postseason tournament for the first time since 2006. With last year’s qualification for the NCAA tournament, the Hoosiers have now made the postseason in 32 consecutive seasons.

Indiana was also the Big 10’s top-scoring team, pacing the conference with 47 goals – 11 more than second-place Michigan State. Jorden said he hopes the Bruins will be able to execute quality possessions and avoid relying on counter-attacking opportunities.

“Hopefully we create chances by winning the ball in good situations,” Jorden said. “I hope we can have good spells of possession and that we ask a lot of questions of (Indiana), putting them under enough pressure to create chances ourselves.”

Junior midfielder Eric Iloski – who scored UCLA’s lone goal in its exhibition win over Omaha – said he feels the team is improving with each outing.

“Hopefully we can keep carrying on and learning the system that (Jorden) has put in place for us and keep developing and moving forward from there,” Iloski said.

UCLA kicks off against Northwestern on Friday at 2 p.m. and is set to face Indiana on Sunday at 5 p.m.