Men’s soccer adjusts to starting Pac-12 play early into season
Sophomore midfielder Riley Ferch – a part of the All-Pac-12 Second Team in his freshman season – led all Bruins with nine assists in 2019. (Tony Martinez/Daily Bruin)
By Jake Greenberg-Bell
Feb. 24, 2021 10:51 a.m.
After waiting more than a year for their season to begin, the Bruins are already into the heart of the season.
UCLA men’s soccer (1-1-1, 0-0-1 Pac-12) had two exhibitions and five regular-season games before facing its first Pac-12 opponent last season. This season – which was postponed and shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic – the team had two regular-season games to prepare for its first Pac-12 match, in which it tied San Diego State (0-0-1, 0-0-1) 1-1.
Next up, UCLA will face off against No. 13 Oregon State, No. 4 Stanford and No. 22 Washington in successive weekends, according to the TopDrawerSoccer national rankings. The three teams have a combined 9-1 record and dealt the Bruins all six of their conference losses last season.
The 11 players brought in by the Bruins over the offseason witnessed their first Pac-12 match against the Aztecs. After the game, sophomore midfielder Riley Ferch said conference matches will require an extra level of physicality from his team.
“It’s going to be tough against every team,” Ferch said. “For a lot of these guys, it was their first Pac-12 game. These are how Pac-12 games go. They’re very tough, they’re very physical.”
With the six-team Pac-12 men’s soccer conference schedule, UCLA will get a chance to play each team twice.
Coach Ryan Jorden said the Bruins will need to learn from their mistakes against the Aztecs when it comes to their attacking and defending so they can win games.
“The challenge for us was that we played into where they wanted us to play into, and so we need to not do that in the future, we got to grow in our ability to not do that,” Jorden said. “We got to be more intelligent in our discipline of giving fouls away in places we shouldn’t.”
While UCLA didn’t have as many regular-season games to prepare for its Pac-12 slate as it did last season, it had more time to acclimate its new recruits to the Westwood style of play, fitness and training.
“We’ve been training a long time for this time – we’ve been waiting and always been trying to put in that work,” said sophomore forward Ollie de Visser. “So we were definitely prepared.”
