College Friday Football Gameday: UCLA at USC & More
I'll forgo the usual weekend preview today (I'll have more later today) to hype up a game that's increasing in magnitude with every passing year when the No. 3 USC (12-2-1) women host No. 9 UCLA (13-0-2) tonight at 7 at the Coliseum.
A big game - it's a rematch of last year's NCAA semifinal that saw USC defeat the Bruins and go on to win the national title - so a big crowd is expected.
Here's the Daily Bruin version.
And here's what the Daily Trojan had to say.
Tickets are just $7 adults, $5 children 12 and under or organize a group of 10 or more of your closest friends and pay just $3 a ticket. Take a minibus though; in best L.A. tradition parking is more expensive than a seat - it's $8 in Coliseum lots 4, 5 and 6.
Notable:
*UCLA has conceded just two goals all season, but the Bruins' defense faces a USC offense ranked No. 10 in the nation with an average of 2.8 goals per game.
*USC is unbeaten in a program record 19 home games.
In other UCLA soccer news, former Bruins Paul Caligiuri and Brad Friedel have been selected to the NCAA Division I Men's Soccer 50th Anniversary team.
A list of more than 100 former players athletes and 10 head coaches was narrowed down to 32 and six, respectively, through a voting subcommittee. The finalists were then put on an online ballot and voted on by the public through NCAA.com.
The winners and their college affiliations: Jeff Agoos, Virginia; Armando Betancourt, Indiana; Paul Caligiuri, UCLA; Richard Chinapoo, Long Island; Angelo DiBernardo, Indiana; Brad Friedel, UCLA; John Harkes, Virginia; Glenn Myernick, Hartwick; Farrukh Quraishi, SUNY Oneonta; Claudio Reyna, Virginia; and Al Trost, Saint Louis. The coach is Indiana's Jerry Yeagley.
Former Galaxy defender Caligiuri, now coaching at Cal Poly Pomona, led UCLA to its first-ever national title in 1985 before playing 114 times with the U.S. National Team.
Friedel, currently mentoring former Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan at Aston Villa, led UCLA to the 1990 NCAA title as a freshman and still holds the program's record for career goals against average (0.60). He played 82 games for the U.S.
Team members will be honored at the College Cup in December.
Finally, in a college game Thursday the Loyola Marymount men lost at home for the first time this season in conference play, falling 2-0 to San Diego despite hitting the woodwork three times. The Lions are now (4-5-5, 2-3-1 WCC), while the Toreros (5-6-3, 5-1-0 WCC) finish the first half of WCC play atop the league standings.
Quotable:
"We outplayed them, we hit the post three times," said LMU Coach Paul Krumpe. "For whatever reason we've been very unlucky putting things away this year."
About 100 Percent Soccer
Sportswriter Nick Green has written the 100 Percent Soccer column since 2005 for the Daily News, Daily Breeze and other Los Angeles area newspapers. The blog of the same name began in 2007. A native of England, he began writing about soccer in the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat in the stands for one in the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer and is married to a long-suffering soccer widow. Join Nick on FaceBook and follow him on Twitter.
Leave a comment