Men’s soccer prepares fresh start bolstered by mix of new recruits, veterans

When coach Ryan Jorden came to UCLA in 2019, there were only 17 names on his roster.

After two years of instilling his soccer philosophy into the team and growing his talent pool, Jorden enters his third year with men’s soccer having won and secured clean sheets in its first two exhibition games against Westmont and Cal Poly by scores of 3-0 and 1-0, respectively.

After recruitment seasons that brought in 11 players in 2020 and five in 2021, the roster now sits at 27 – the most since Jorden’s arrival to Westwood – and is more or less evenly distributed across the grades. Beyond sheer depth, Jorden said he is encouraged by the experience he sees in the team.

“We have some experienced players in that starting 11, but we’re also starting six guys that are sophomore or below,” Jorden said. “It’s a really nice balance of some young guys who are very talented and have some great qualities.”

The players Jorden and his staff brought in for last season saw immediate contributions. On defense, it was then-junior transfer defender Ahmed Longmire and then-freshman defender Tommy Silva whose performances landed them All-Pac-12 Second Team and an honorable mention for the Pac-12 All-Conference Team, respectively. Offensively, it was then-freshman forward Grayson Doody – who started all 12 games last season and tied for first on the team in scoring.

While the team finished fifth in the Pac-12, a conference record that matched their worst in history last season, UCLA won two of their last three games to finish the season, including an upset win against then-No. 9 Oregon State.

Since 2020-2021 season was played in the spring instead of the fall because of COVID-19, it has been just over four months since that group of award-winning newcomers and experienced upperclassmen left the field. The team was able to train for two weeks following the season to solidify their end-of-season progress and now with two shutout exhibition wins to set up their 2021 season opener, these factors have led to major sparks of optimism within the Bruins.

For junior midfielder Ollie de Visser, who scored the game-winning goal against Cal Poly last Saturday to give UCLA a 1-0 win, that short period between the end of their last season and the start of this one has only grown his excitement for what his team could achieve this year.

“We definitely felt like we ended the spring season on a high, and we only had a month or two apart before we started training camp again,” de Visser said. “So it’s definitely kind of like we’re on the back of spring season and we can just get right into it.”

Luckily for the Bruins, the roster has once again been bolstered by a recruiting class ranked fourth in the nation, which includes graduate student midfielder Yoni Sorokin – a two-time American Athletic Conference midfielder of the year at UCF.

It’s all these factors for the Bruins: a squad of young and older players with experience across the roster, an exciting end to their last season and a fresh recruiting class that Jorden expects to play an immediate role, which have redshirt junior midfielder Jose Sosa playing the waiting game for their fresh start and new season to begin.

“We have a lot of young players as well this year, but we also have a pretty strong base with experience,” said Sosa. “We came back (to Westwood) ready and I think having fresh players (creating) competition throughout every position, that’s kind of just improved everyone’s game and I think everyone’s just ready for the season start because we’re looking good, we’re looking excited, so it’s just a waiting game now.”