After a 0–2 start to the conference, UCLA heads to Corvallis to face Oregon State as the Bruins look to get their first win of conference play.

While UCLA won in the possession department, they were unable to win where it mattered the most: on the scoreboard. UCLA fell to Stanford 0–1 and, in the process, recorded back-to-back losses in conference play and at home.

In the first half, UCLA held much of the possession and created more opportunities, but could not convert when they needed to. Stanford, on the other hand, made more of the opportunities they had in front of them. In the 35th minute of the game, a long ball made its way into the Bruin box and Cardinal Drew Skundrich headed the ball past Bruin goalkeeper Kevin Silva to give his team a 1-0 lead.

The second half was similar to the first. The Bruins held the majority of the possession and even outshot the Cardinals 4-0. Once again, UCLA could not convert to at least salvage a draw. With the loss to Stanford, UCLA is now 0-2 in the conference. This is not the way that Salcedo and the team wanted to start out conference play.

UCLA has too much talent to keep losing like this and each loss makes a bigger case that Jorge Salcedo is not the right guy to lead the Bruins.

Tonight should be a breath of fresh air for UCLA as they face Oregon State, who has also struggled this season. They played their first conference game last week where they lost to Washington. As has happened in past games, the Bruins have been able to defeat unranked teams. While the Beavers aren’t going to be a walk in the park, no team really is, UCLA should be able to get their first conference win tonight. If that doesn’t happen, if a win doesn’t occur against an unranked team, then someone is going to have to face some consequences. Sadly, I don’t see that happening with our current AD.

Anyway, UCLA needs to win tonight if they want to have any chance of winning the conference title or even making it past the regular season.

This is your men’s soccer UCLA vs. Oregon State open thread.

Go Bruins!