Bruins Bruise Bulldogs

No. 1 UCLA comes into Bulldog Stadium and blanks overmatched Bulldogs 5-0

By John McHugh

The Fresno State men’s soccer team lost to No.1 UCLA 5-0 at Bulldog Stadium on Sunday.

The Bruins (10-1) are the defending NCAA national champions and showed their class as they stylishly out-passed and out-worked the defenseless Bulldogs (3-8).

The Bruins set out with an ultra-offensive 3-4-3 formation, expecting little resistance from the Bulldogs.

“ I thought we played really well,” said UCLA forward Matt Taylor. “We usually don’t come out this strong, but we’ve changed our formation.”

Taylor impressed at Bulldog Stadium, scoring the first goal eight minutes in after a nutmeg on the defender. Taylor’s effective showboating style resulted in another goal and an assist in the game.

“ We wanted to go right at [Fresno State] and it paid off with two early goals,” Taylor said. “It’s usually tough because all the teams are out to beat us. Fresno came at us, which is pretty unusual because most teams just sit off.”

Fresno State needed to get back to basics to compete with UCLA, said freshman forward Albert Naugle.

“ We need to get back to playing,” Naugle said. “[UCLA was] very impressive, but I still think we could have competed with them. We lost sight of the fact that we are just playing soccer.”

UCLA increased its lead four minutes later after Cliff McKinley’s emphatic finish in the top corner of the goal.

“ They’re a much better team than we are,” Fresno State coach Dave Chesler said. “When you’re playing poorly you can still run and put them under pressure.”

The Bulldogs conceded again just before the end of the first half to make it 3-0, after UCLA’s Brandon Owens rose like a fresh-water salmon following a corner-kick and powered his header beyond Bulldogs’ goalkeeper Eric Kronberg.

Although Fresno State battled bravely in the second half and produced a much more solid defensive display, the Bulldogs finally went down 5-0 after goals from Chad Barrett and Taylor.

“ UCLA did everything we talked about that we needed to stop,” Chesler said.

The Bruins effectively counter attacked within their fluent attacking style.

“ They don’t defend with a lot of energy, they just sit back and get forward quickly on the break,” Chesler said.

The fact that UCLA outshot Fresno State 15-6 shows the Bulldogs lack of creativity in their attack. The Bulldogs’ are now 0-3 in the Pac-10 conference and have conceded 11 goals without scoring in their past three games.

“ The big thing now is psychological,” Chesler said. “We’ve given up goals without scoring any. This is a tough period of games.”

Junior midfielder Eli Delgado wanted to see more passion from the Bulldogs in Sunday’s game.

“ We need heart and passion,” Delgado said. “We lost balls, but it looked like the intensity wasn’t there.”