Men's Soccer - Bruins Perfect in PAC 12 Conference Play!

That seems pretty impressive, and I know we’ve been on Salcedo’s case for a while.

What are your expectations in terms of seeding? And can this team win it all? With that defense it certainly sounds feasible.

I expect the Bruin team to garner a 16 seed in today’s selection process….so a first round bye on Thursday, a home game next Sunday and then most likely will be hitting the road.

You are really putting me on the spot asking me if this team can win it all !

I watched both UCONN and St. John’s in the Big East Final as well as the ACC Final between UNC and Boston College yesterday. UCONN and UNC looked awfully good. The speed at which these two particular teams play going forward is really really fast.

My biggest concern with this year’s UCLA team is the lack of goal distribution. Granted Hoffman’s play this season has been stellar, but in the tournament, you need offensive production from more than one player. The fact that Kelyn Rowe has been struggling and getting limited minutes in recent games, isn’t going to help!

But the defense has been stingy all year but for a couple of hiccups (Cal State Northridge comes to mind). But make no mistake, the PAC 12 really was weak this year and the Bruin results vs. it’s out of conference has been less than stellar.

So a long winded answer to your question as to how deep they will go ……I am not all that optimistic benchmarking against the aforementioned programs as well as thinking that the Bruins will most likely have to go thru a red hot UCSB and/or UCI. But if they catch fire and K Rowe returns to his 2010 form….who knows?

“can this season be considered a success already regardless of the tournament?”

Yet another loaded question…lol! And a tough one!

I would think the standard for success for the Bruins is making it to the Final Four at a minimum of once every four years. Last season, the team was magical and came so very close. This year, as much as I want to believe in this team, I just don’t see them getting there. They just aren’t as explosive offensively as the other team’s I have witnessed play this season.

With all of the forwards, UCLA has rostered, the second forward besides Hoffman just never has emerged all season. It was almost as if the team had too many forwards with Salcedo, to keep players happy with respect to play time, routinely rotated players in and out with very predicable and routine substitutions. The consequence IMHO, was that the required chemistry between that second forward and Hoffman never fully developed. In addition, these forwards were never able to fully get into a rhythm being pulled off at the prescribed 25 minute mark.

There is so much parity in college soccer these days. No longer does UCLA have the franchise on getting all of the top players both in the state of California (see the emergence of UCI and UCSB) nor nationally. To his credit, Jorge doesn’t cut players but perhaps that commitment to players not making the soccer performance grade may be holding the program back some. UCI and UCSB routinely backfill with players from the JUCO ranks and that strategy has served those programs well. But I digress….

 The UCLA Men’s Soccer team has been seeded No. 13 in the NCAA Tournament & will host the winner of Delaware/Virginia Sun. night in 2nd Rd.

Congratulations to our boys.