UCLA Men’s Soccer Faces LMU in Final Non-conference Game of the Season

After beating San Diego State last Saturday on the road, the Bruins return home for their final non-conference game of the regular season tonight when they welcome the Loyola Marymount Lions to Wallis Annenberg Stadium.

Last Time Out

Against the Aztecs, both teams played to a scoreless first half, but things changed almost immediately in the second half when Freddie Amaya chipped the ball into the net over San Diego State’s charging goalkeeper Max Watkin.

It stayed 1-0 until the 72nd minute when the Aztecs scored an equalizer.

That sent the game into overtime where freshman midfielder Cody Sundquist took a crossing pass from Joab Santoyo to score the game-winner in the 99th minute for the Bruins.

The win leaves UCLA in second place just a point behind Stanford in the Pac-12 Conference standings. It also means that the Bruins have a three-game winning streak heading into tonight’s game against the Lions.

LMU Lions

The Lions enter tonight’s game with a 5-8 record. While that doesn’t sound like a very good record overall, they did manage to top Cal State Northridge, 2-1, which the Bruins couldn’t do.

So far this season, LMU’s top scorer is Kris Fourcand, a sophomore from Haiti, who has three goals, but Fourcand has missed the Lions’ last three matches and he hasn’t played since October 2nd. So, whether he will play tonight or not appears to be questionable as there’s been no explanation for Fourcand’s absence in the last three games.

Look for Paul Lewis to be in goal for the Lions as he has started 12 of LMU’s 13 games so far this season.

Outlook

While Lewis is averaging 1.83 goals per game this season, I’m expecting that to be higher after tonight’s game, but that could also depend on whether or not Bruin phenom Mohammed Kamara returns to action.

Kamara hasn’t played since leaving the September 30th game against Stanford in the 71st minute.

If Kamara returns tonight, I’m looking for this to be a pretty easy 3-1 Bruin win. Without him, it could finish 2-1 or even 1-0, but the outcome shouldn’t be in question as UCLA should win this game.

This is your UCLA men’s soccer vs. LMU Lions open thread.


Go Bruins!