UCLA Men’s Soccer Heads to the Valley to Face Cal State Northridge

This evening, the UCLA men’s soccer team goes over the hill to face the Cal State Northridge Matadors what looks to be an important test for the Bruins under new head coach Ryan Jorden. Tonight’s game kicks off at 5 pm PT and will stream on BigWest.tv.

Last Time Out

The Bruins have been off since Monday when they lost to the Georgetown Hoyas, 5-1, at home. Milan Iloski scored the Bruins’ only goal just 2:01 into the game to give UCLA a 1-0 lead.

Unfortunately, that was the only highlight for the Bruins.

The rest of the game could fill a Hoya highlight reel. In the 31st minute, Zach Riviere scored the first of three goals for Georgetown. Then, in the 39th minute, Riviere put Georgetown ahead for good with his second goal of the game.

After the break, Will Sands and Paul Rothrock scored a pair of insurance goals for the Hoyas in the 52nd minute and 58th minute, respectively. The final goal of the game came when Riviere finished his hat trick for the Hoyas in the 68th minute.

Cal State University Northridge Matadors

So far this season, the Matadors are 4-0-1. CSUN has beaten Ohio State and Dayton on the road while they’ve beaten San Francisco and Washington at home. Their tie came against Utah Valley.

The Matadors are led by senior Johnny Rodriguez who has scored six goals already this season. Rodriguez has scored in every game so far and scored twice against Washington. CSUN’s other big goal scorer is Daniel Trejo who has added five goals. He has scored in every game for the Matadors except the season opener against Ohio State.

Look for redshirt junior Paul Lewis to be in the net for the Matadors. Lewis has allowed an average 1.41 goals per game. He combined with redshirt freshman David Preys for a clean sheet against San Francisco.

Outlook

Tonight’s game is going to be a good test for the Bruins. Of course, if the Bruins are to retake their place as a national power in men’s soccer, they need to be able to beat a team like Cal State Northridge. Will UCLA be able to pull it off?

I’m not sure. I can tell you that the Bruins have never lost back-to-back games to the Matadors and, in fact, UCLA is 17-3-3 all-time against them. But the Bruins are just 5-2-0 over the past ten years. So, CSUN has been playing UCLA tough recently. The question here is, though, how much of the Matadors’ success has to do with Jorge Salcedo’s failure to build the Bruin program and how much of it has to do with the success Terry Davila has had as the head coach of the Matadors.

I think UCLA wins a close one, 2-1.


Go Bruins!!!