UCLA Men's Soccer: The Bruins Face the #7 Washington Huskies on the Road
The Bruins have some momentum after beating Oregon State in Westwood last Saturday, 2-1.
The UCLA men’s soccer team (2-6-2, 1-5-2 Pac-12) is in Seattle to square off against the #7 ranked Washington Huskies (9-2-0, 6-2-0) this afternoon. Kickoff is at 4 pm PT.
This will be the Bruins’ penultimate game of the season, which will conclude when UCLA hosts UC Berkeley next week. UCLA will not qualify for the postseason this year.
Last Time Out
After an almost season-long drought, UCLA finally won its second game of the campaign last Saturday at Wallis Annenberg Stadium when the Bruins defeated the Oregon State Beavers by the score of 2-1. OSU, who had been as high as #4 in the country a few weeks ago and were sitting at #9 when they played the Bruins. They dropped to #18 after the loss to UCLA.
Although their record doesn’t necessarily reflect it, the Bruins have been playing better soccer of late, often out-shooting their opponents. Last Saturday versus the Beavers, the shots were just ten to nine in UCLA’s favor with five to three on frame in UCLA’s favor, but the Bruins found the back of the net twice, while the Beavers only scored once.
Junior forward Kevin Diaz started things off for UCLA by burying a left-footed penalty in the 33rd minute. It was Diaz’s second goal on the season, leading the team. The PK was the result of freshman forward Grayson Doody getting taken down from behind on the edge of the box.
Sophomore defender Constantinos Michaelides doubled UCLA’s lead in the 63rd minute after making a strong run down the left channel and beating the Oregon State keeper with the side of his right foot.
The Beavers would claw one back in the 78th minute to make the game interesting for the last 12-plus minutes, but Oregon State would not be able to equalize, giving the Bruins their second win of the season.
Washington Huskies
The Huskies are poised to make the postseason and have a sparkling #7 ranking, but UW’s record of late reflects a team that has not been dominant. Although Washington has won three of its last four games, all three wins have been close contests with one goal margins and the other game was a 2-0 road loss to San Diego State, who have an identical conference record as UCLA.
The last time U-Dub won by more than a single tally was on March 14th when the Huskies beat the Bruins 2-0 and that game was 1-0 for most of the contest with the Huskies getting a goal in the 88th minute as UCLA was pushing for the equalizer. Further, UCLA outshot UW in that one, nine to eight, with each squad putting four shots on goal.
Outlook
Washington is 6-1 at home and, although UCLA played them tough in Westwood, I am not sure that the Bruins can get a result in Seattle. I think that U-Dub wins this one in a tight match by the score of 1-0.
UCLA Men’s Soccer (2-6-2, 1-5-2 Pac-12)
Opponent: Washington Huskies (9-2-0, 6-2-0 Pac-12)
Game Time: 4:00 pm PT, Thursday, April 8, 2021
Where: Husky Soccer Stadium, Seattle, WA
Live TV: Pac-12 Networks National, Los Angeles and Washington with Elise Woodward
Live Stream: Pac-12.com and the Pac-12 Now app
Live Audio: None
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Game Notes
UCLA
Washington
This is your UCLA men’s soccer versus Washington game thread.
Go Bruins!!!
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