Men’s Soccer Weekend Preview
Image courtesy of Oregon State Athletics
Last weekend, the Beaver football team came oh-so-close to giving the Trojans the best farewell gift they could possibly give them in the last meeting between the schools on the gridiron before they head to the Big Ten. Tonight, the men’s soccer team gets their first shot at letting UCLA know what they think of their impending departure. The 21st ranked Bruins currently lead the conference table after defeating Cal and battling to a scoreless draw with 6th ranked Stanford a couple weekends ago. This will be the first conference game for the defending champion Beavers.
One Bruin to watch is left back Tommy Silva. He leads the team in assists (4) and has twice been recognized nationally as a player of the week. The Bruins are 11-1-1 when the junior from Arizona scores or assists on a goal in his career. Strangely enough, his given name is Derrick Nicholas Silva, but he goes by “Tommy”....a little nugget to keep in your back pocket for when the Bruins visit Lorenz later this season. Can’t wait to hit him with some “Deeeeeeeerickkkkk” chants.
UCLA has dominated the all-time series against the Beavs, with 36 wins in 47 contests. OSU has won five of the last seven meetings, however, they have only one win in program history against the Bruins in L.A. While both teams have struggled to score this season (OSU has scored six goals in their six games this year, while UCLA has just 3 goals in their last four), the two teams combined for 12 goals in their two matchups last year (a 4-3 win by OSU in Corvallis and a 3-2 Bruin victory in L.A.).
The Beavs come in playing their best soccer of the season, having taken down the 10th ranked Denver Pioneers on the road last weekend. Denver seemed to almost dare OSU to shoot from outside the box, and Javier Armas obliged. The junior from Spain got off five shots, as many as the entire Denver team and as many as the rest of the Beaver team combined. Here’s some footage of Armas peppering the Denver goal:
Oh wait……sorry. Here’s the real thing:
Armas was recognized as the Pac-12 player of the week as well as the College Soccer News national player of the week for his efforts.
I don’t expect this game to be a high scoring affair as last year’s matchups were, so the guess here is that the team that scores first wins. We’ll say 1-0 Beavs as freshman Clarence Awoudor, a forward from France who joined the team after the season started (visa issues I believe) gets his first collegiate goal.
Sunday sees the Beavs visit San Diego State, a member of the Pac-12 in men’s soccer only, but perhaps future full fledged conference member taking UCLA’s spot? The Beavs haven’t allowed a goal to the Aztecs in their last five matchups, but SDSU is a tough team that will have already played four teams ranked in the top ten this season. They play No. 2 Washington tonight, and did not lose any of the first three, getting a win over Denver and draws vs. Creighton and Stanford, and feature Top Drawer Soccer’s No. 1 ranked 2022 recruiting class. The prediction here is a 1-1 draw, with a Beaver goal from Adrian Molina Diaz.
CHOP ‘EM
