A coach might think his team deserved better after losing at home to a last-minute corner.
But when UCLA men’s soccer (0-2) conceded in the final minute against California (2-0) on Sunday night to register its second consecutive opening-season loss, coach Ryan Jorden said he thought his team got exactly what they deserved.
“We were better than them in the first half, but you have to score goals when you’re better than the opponent. We didn’t,” he said. “We put ourselves in that position.”
The Bruins had a strong start at Wallis Annenberg Stadium, outshooting California 4-2 in the first half, with three of those shots coming from sophomore midfielder Tamir Ratoviz. The team pressed high, with Jorden repeatedly instructing his frontline, including junior defender-turned-midfielder Philip Naef, to push farther up the pitch.
However, after a half-time presentation celebrating Westwood’s 1985 national championship-winning team, the Golden Bears were able to nullify the Bruins’ attack, and the latter registered no second-half shots or corners.
“Towards the second half, they kind of figured out a way to stop us, and we didn’t really have a solution for it,” said senior midfielder Tarun Karumanchi.
The team might be lacking fluency because of the difficulty in incorporating the 18 new players that joined the squad this season, Jorden said. Freshman goalkeeper Ryan Tiltack started the game, while freshman midfielders Zach Mastrodimos and Dylan Cantafio – who stand at 5-foot-5 and 5-foot-7, respectively – debuted off the bench.
“We got a lot of new bodies,” Jorden said. “The reality is, okay, how do we try to get those guys integrated and onto the same page so we can do the things that we want to do?”
The Bears also played their way into the game in attack, forcing two strong saves from Tiltack in the 74th and 84th minutes, respectively. Both attempts came from inside the Bruins’ 18-yard box and were among the Bears’ 12 second-half shots.
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As the game wore on, the Bears increasingly focused on putting long balls into the box, a task aided by the Bruins’ ten second-half fouls. Then, with 18 seconds to go, California’s 6-foot-3 striker Luka Lukic – who was taller than any of UCLA’s players on the pitch – headed an inswinging corner.
Tiltack clawed at thin air. The ball hit the back of the net. Lukic ran towards the crowd. The Bears goalkeeper slid to the ground in celebration a hundred yards away. And the California parents to the north of the main stands erupted in cheers.
“Their guy jumped better than our guys did,” Jorden said. “They put a ball right on him, and he ends up heading the ball in.”
Sunday also marked a victorious return to Westwood for California senior midfielder Cam Wilkerson, who played 75 minutes of the game. Wilkerson transferred north this summer after playing in 14 of UCLA’s 19 games last season, starting seven.
While the Bruins’ performance was an improvement on their 2-0 loss at UC Irvine on Thursday, the team still feels there is work to do to get the squad to the level they want to be playing at.
“The performance itself was definitely better than the last game, which is a positive,” Tiltack said. “But you know, we’ve got to just go out next week and just do better, perform better. Our standards are so much higher.”
Contributing reports by Sam Mulick, Daily Bruin senior staff.
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