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UCLA reached it by pulverizing Duke 6-1 Saturday night at Drake Stadium.

UCLA haven't lost at home in more than three years (a 55-game stretch).

The bracket.

The 4 p.m. Friday game against North Carolina will be shown live on ESPN2.

When Cal State Dominguez Hills goalkeeper Derby Carillo left for Division 1 St. John's the job was up for grabs this year.

Daily Breeze 2004 Player of the Year Miguel Benitez of Gardena transferred over from Loyola Marymount where the former Bishop Montgomery High star played five games in three seasons and CSUDH never missed a beat. Now Cal State Dominguez Hills leaves Tuesday for Tampa, Fla., and a place in the Division II final four.

The Toros will host a pep rally on campus at 11:30 a.m. Monday ahead of their Friday game against Tampa.

Benitez chatted via e-mail:

Question: You came over from Loyola Marymount in search of playing time - and you got it. How has the experience of playing with the Toros been compared to the Lions?
Answer: It has been great. The time I spent with the Lions was a good learning experience for me, but I always lacked that game experience that I needed in order to get better and bring my game up. There was always something that kept me out of the line up at LMU, whether it was the coaches, injuries, or whatever. I needed the opportunity to get out on the pitch and get better. The Toros have given me just that. I feel that all the game experience that I have received here with the Toros has made me a much better goalkeeper, and honestly, I feel that I'm at the best I have ever been in my college career.

Goals actually haunt me now, whether it's in games or even at practice because I feel that I have gotten to a level now where I can make a save on every shot.

Q: Coach Flanagan called you a "difference maker" in your last game over Midwestern State where you made six saves. How was the game from your perspective? How does that game stack up from both a personal and team point of view with others you have played?
A: The Midwestern game was an incredible game. They had the best two central midfielders that I have seen all year, they were dangerous on the ball and moved it around well. The first half, I feel that we struggled a bit to find a rhythm offensively, but as soon as the second half came, we found it and together with the great support we got off the bench from Scott Mariano and Jordan Rover, we found the back of the net. The last 10 minutes though were honestly the longest 10 minutes I have ever played through.

Midwestern State was playing for their season so they were doing their best to outwork us and dump in as many balls as they could to try and get something. I knew that I was going to have to really stay on my toes mentally and physically, to both organize the team and make saves to keep us in it. But in the end, we really held it together and even though we gave up a goal in the last five minutes, I feel we all put a really great effort in to hold on to the win.

Q: You said in the CSUDH media guide that your goal was to win a national championship. You are now one game away from playing for the national title. Are you surprised that you came over from LMU and are promptly in the Final Four?
A: When I first came to Dominguez Hills last spring to talk to Joe Flanagan about becoming a Toro, I told him that I was tired of losing. I came here to win games. So to me it's no surprise to me that we're in the Final Four. At the beginning of the year when we first got together as a team for a pre-game dinner all the players sat together and established what our goals as a team were. We made it clear that we are here to win a championship, and now we're only two games away, we are where we are suppose to be.

Q: Do you know much about your opponents on Friday? Who are their main threats? What are you going to have to watch closely for?
A: We haven't really discussed them much as team yet in practice. Usually when we come up against a team we haven't seen or played before, we focus on the one thing we can control, us. If we go and play our game I feel we'll be fine. One thing I am worried about is playing Tampa at Tampa. It's always tough playing on the road but in this case I feel it will be especially hard because of the importance of this game, it's a national semifinal and Tampa is playing at home.

Q: Can the team win a national title? What's the mood of the team going into the weekend?
Answer: I definitely feel we can win a national title. Ever since our first game in playoffs, we started counting down the games to the title. Now, there are only two games left until we have that title. All we have to do as a team is get out there and play the way we know how, outwork our opponents, and most importantly finish our chances. Personally, I'm going to have to stay focused throughout both games so that I can come up big when I have to. I've had a couple of big saves this year in big games so I just have to keep doing what I have been doing and yell and scream to organize the team and be there to make those big saves when I have to. There's a huge buzz going around in our team right now, we all know what's at stake, but we're confident that we can go to Tampa and bring back an NCAA national title to Dominguez Hills.

Before you head to Gramma's house for the holiday, know that:

*Those English newspaper reports were true for once and MLS Deputy Commissioner Ivan Gazidis is off to England's Arsenal as chief executive officer in the new year. Is this Stan Kroenke at work?

Arsenal Chairman Peter Hill-Wood said: "Ivan's credentials are first class. It is evident that he has a wealth of business acumen together with a broad knowledge of football that will not only help to maintain Arsenal's pre-eminent standing but enhance our reputation within the football community and international commercial markets."

The South African was one of the founding executives of MLS and was responsible for all player contracts.

*The Sigi Schmid family's run of cup success continues. UC Irvine, (15-1-6) where the MLS Cup-winning Schmid has a son who plays and another who is an assistant coach beat Cal Poly 3-0 Tuesday to advance to a NCAA Tournament semifinal Saturday against St John's. The game was played before the first-ever sellout (and drenched) crowd of 2,500 in the OC.

Complete bracket.

Soccer on TV today:
*At 11 a.m. on ESPNU the U.S. Under-20 Women's National Team plays China in its third and final group game of the U-20 World Cup; the U.S. is through to the final round already, while China must win.

*At 11:30 a.m. on ESPN Bordeaux plays Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League.

*At 2 p.m. on ESPN Classic it's Sporting Lisbon-Barcelona.

* At 5 p.m. on Fox Soccer Channel it's the Houston Dynamo and El Salvador's CD Luis Angel Firpo in the CONCACAF Champions League. The Dynamo must win to advance.

Back later with word on the MLS Expansion Draft.

Lists are "in" these days in online journalism circles. So here's mine.

Who did I miss?

The MLS season is over, but soccer never ends.

Today's televised Champions League games:
*11:30 a.m. ESPN Villarreal-Manchester United
22 p.m. ESPn Classic Bate Borisov-Real Madrid at 5pm on ESPN Classic

Lastly, the NCAA Tournament resumes tonight.

I have it on good authority that Sigi Schmid, coach of the MLS Champion Columbus Crew, will be at the Cal Poly-UC Irvine game. Both his sons are involved (one playing, one coaching) with the Anteaters' program.

A 13th minute goal proved lucky for UCLA (21-0-2) Saturday, giving them a 1-0 win over USC (16-5-2) and a sixth straight NCAA Quarterfinal appearance.

Game story.

The Cal State Dominguez Hills men defeated Midwestern State 2-1 and earned a place in the NCAA Division II Final Four for the first time in seven years. Jordan Rover (Los Alamitos High) and Scott Mariano (Artesia) scored for CSUDH.

CSUDH will play Dec. 5 against the winner of Sunday's Tusculum-Tampa match-up.

Game story.

Earlier today, the U.S. Under-20 Women's National Team beat Argentina 3-0 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Under-20 Women's World Cup in Chile. UCLA's Sydney Leroux got her second assist in two games.

The Bruins are done for the season.

Despite riding an eight-game unbeaten streak dating back to Oct. 12, UCLA (10-5-6) lost 1-0 to Cal Poly (11-5-6) Friday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Cal Poly faces UC Irvine Tuesday.

"I'm heartbroken," said Maxwell Griffin, one of four seniors playing in his final college game. "This was my last time playing in a UCLA shirt. I can't believe it. It just wasn't our night. We weren't keeping possession like we used to, and we didn't match up with them for the duration of the game."

Palos Verdes Estates' Kyle Nakazawa was not in the UCLA lineup.

More here.

A few quick items before I head out to the HDC this morning:

*Tickets priced as low as $15 remain for MLS Cup Sunday, but officials have begun to sell $36 "seats" on the grass berm in an indication the game between the Columbus Crew and New York Sunday is heading for a capacity crowd.

*The Chicago Fire's Cuauhtémoc Blanco became the latest MLS player to go out on loan during the MLS offseason, joining Santos Laguna of the Mexican Primera Division for the playoffs of the Apertura. He will rejoin the Fire for next season.

*Former Galaxy midfielder Jovan Kirovski is training with the club and is under consideration for a spot on the roster for the New Zealand trip, club officials said. He remains the property of San Jose. Also on the team's training field in recent days: former Galaxy holding midfielder Simon Elliot, Torrance's Jack Stewart, last seen with Real Salt Lake in MLS and Cedric Uras, a guest player from Litex Lovech in Bulgaria who played with Greg Vanney at Bastia, according to the Galaxy blog. Coach Bruce Arena just returned from a scouting trip to Argentina.

*Pac-10 champion UCLA (10-4-6) opens NCAA Tournament play at 7 tonight against Cal Poly (10-5-6) at Marshall Field at Drake Stadium. Tickets are $9 for adults, $7 for students and youth.

Game preview here.

UCLA striker Sydney Leroux, who played for her native Canada at age 14 in the Under-20 Women's World Cup four years ago, came off the bench to score two goals and create another in the 3-0 U.S. win today over France in Chile.

"Today, it was Sydney who was the star," said U.S. Coach Tony DiCicco. "I have a lot of players who can step in and be the star. We felt that this was the right situation where Sydney could step in and help us in the second half. She was very determined to prove that we were correct."

Leroux came on at the half and set up Alex Morgan's game-winning goal in the 55th minute. Leroux added goals in the 56th and 71st minutes, her third and fourth strikes of the year.

She scored five goals and added six assists for the Bruins this season.

After a 0-0 draw between Argentina and China in the first game of today's doubleheader, the U.S. now sits in first place in Group B with three points. The Americans play Argentina Saturday.

It's that time of the year.

Real Salt Lake forward Will Johnson's game-winner in a crucial Oct. 18 game against Dallas was voted the MLs Goal of the Year in balloting revealed today. Nicely-controlled and well-executed, but Goal of the Year material? I think not.

MLS detractors will seize upon this as more evidence of the stolidly unspectacular level of play in the league. I will simply note there were better candidates. See it here.

Which begs the question: how many of these previous Goals of the Year do you recall?
2007: Cuauhtémoc Blanco - Chicago Fire
2006: Brian Ching - Houston Dynamo
2005: Dwayne De Rosario - San Jose Earthquakes
2004: Dwayne De Rosario - San Jose Earthquakes
2003: Damani Ralph - Chicago Fire
2002: Carlos Ruiz - Los Angeles Galaxy
2001: Clint Mathis - MetroStars
2000: Marcelo Balboa - Colorado Rapids
1999: Marco Etcheverry - D.C. United
1998: Brian McBride - Columbus Crew
1997: Marco Etcheverry - D.C. United
1996: Eric Wynalda - San Jose Clash

Meanwhile, those still seething that Landon Donovan prevailed over Tim Howard for the Honda Player of the Year Award have a chance to put things right in the annual U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year competition. Those two are among the finalists for the Male Athlete of the Year Award. Voting began today.

Shannon Boxx of Torrance is a contender for the women's version.

Robbie Rogers of Rolling Hills Estates and Maurice Edu of Fontana are among those up for Young Male Athlete of the Year, along with Sacha Kljestan of Chivas USA.

The complete list:
U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year Candidates
Shannon Boxx, Midfielder
Lori Chalupny, Defender
Angela, Hucles, Midfielder/Forward
Carli Lloyd, Midfielder
Christie Rampone Defender
Hope Solo, Goalkeeper

U.S. Soccer Male Athlete of the Year Candidates
Carlos Bocanegra, Defender
Michael Bradley, Midfielder
Clint Dempsey, Midfielder
Landon Donovan, Midfielder/Forward
Tim Howard, Goalkeeeper
Oguchi Onyewu, Defender

U.S. Soccer Young Female Athlete of the Year Candidates
Kristie Mewis, Midfielder
Vicki DiMartino, Forward
Michelle Enyeart, Forward
Alyssa Naeher, Goalkeeper
Keelin Winters, Midfielder
Courtney Verloo, Forward

U.S. Soccer Young Male Athlete of the Year Candidates
Maurice Edu, Midfielder/Defender
Stuart Holden, Midfielder
Sacha Kljestan, Midfielder
Michael Orozco, Defender
Robbie Rogers, Midfielder
Marvell Wynne, Defender

Vote here.

Finally, UCLA Coach Jorge Salcido was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year after leading a young Bruin team (12 newcomers) to a fifth conference title in seven years and a dominant 7-1-2 record.

And junior midfielder Michael Stephens was named the Pac-10 Men's Soccer Player of the Year, the third Bruin - Matt Taylor (2003) and Patrick Ianni (2004) were the others - to receive the honor. He has seven goals and nine assists on the season.

I had never written a fairytale before.

But the literary device seemed apt for today's column.

Of course, Red Bull New York is a bit of a Cinderella story, too, so come Sunday we'll see who lives happily ever after.

Columbus management gave Sigi the time and perhaps most importantly, didn't interfere in the playing side of things, and are now reaping the reward. Are you listening, Galaxy front office?

"I've always felt if you hire somebody to do the job let them do the job and if you're not going to let them do the job don't hire them," Schmid said. "It's impossible for anyone to have too many fingers in (too many) pies."

Updated:
UCLA beat San Diego 1-0 Monday on an own goal in a game delayed by the unhealthy air quality caused by the wildfires this weekend to advance to the last 16 of the NCAA Tournament. The Bruins play USC at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday at Drake Stadium.

Quotable:

"This is the NCAA Tournament and nothing is going to be easy and nothing is going to be handed to you," said UCLA head coach Jillian Ellis. "To be able to win and not play as well as we can play - we have to take that as a positive. Good teams find a way to win. San Diego certainly didn't make it easy for us."

Notable:
*UCLA outshot San Diego 20-9 on the night.
*The Bruins have allowed goals in just four of their 22 games this season.
*It is the fourth season in a row that UCLA has reached the 20-win mark, and the Bruins' 10th straight appearance in the round of 16.
*The Bruins defeated the Trojans 2-1 earlier this season.

U.S. Soccer has named its annual award finalists. Voting begins today here.

UCLA (10-4-6) hosts Cal Poly Friday (10-5-6) at 7 p.m. Friday at Drake Stadium with the winner playing 14th-seeded UC Irvine (14-1-6) on Tuesday.

Chatted with former Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid on Sunday who took pains to point out this is the Anteaters (!) first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance. His son, Kyle, is on the team, while another son, Kurt, is an assistant coach. More with Sigi in Tuesday's column.

Complete pairings here.

A busy day as I write Tuesday's column about the karmic Sigi Schmid, but wanted to note in passing that:

*The Galaxy's poor season cost David Beckham a spot on England's squad to face Germany Wednesday so cue speculation he must leave MLS for good to keep playing for England.

*MLS Rookie of the Year and Cal State Northridge product Sean Franklin was named to his first U.S. squad along with Chivas USA's Sacha Kljestan and Jonathan Bornstein and Rolling Hills Estates' John Thorrington.

The full roster for Wednesday's meaningless (from a U.S. perspective) World Cup qualifier against Guatemala:

goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Troy Perkins (Valerenga IF), Matt Pickens (out of contract); defenders Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Sean Franklin (Los Angeles Galaxy), Cory Gibbs (Colorado Rapids), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Drew Moor (FC Dallas), Michael Parkhurst (New England Revolution); midfielders Freddy Adu (AS Monaco), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids), John Thorrington (Chicago Fire); forwards Jozy Altidore (Villarreal), Davy Arnaud (Kansas City Wizards), Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Kenny Cooper (FC Dallas), Chris Rolfe (Chicago Fire).

And the season ended Sunday for the Cal State Dominguez Hills women.

It's Red Bull New York verses Columbus Crew at 12:30 p.m. Sunday at MLS Cup in Carson.

NYRB beat RSL 1-0 Saturday.

Juan Carlos Osorio has done what Bruce Arena couldn't in New York. Former Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid has done what his former employer failed to do. And Juan Pablo Angel and Guillermo Barros Schelotto have outshined David Beckham in MLS.

No doubt MLS is just glad it's not a Columbus-Salt Lake final; the two smallest markets contesting the championship of the most lightly regarded major sports league would have spelled marketing disaster.

Instead we have clear favorites against an erratic underdog, small town America against urban heavyweight and plenty of story lines.

Western Conference Final highlights:

Saturday's College Scores
*USC beat BYU 2-1 Saturday afternoon on penalty kicks. USC plays either UCLA or San Diego in the NCAA Tournament third round.

*Cal State Dominguez Hills beat Cal State L.A. 4-0 to win the 2008 NCAA West Region title Saturday in Carson. The Toros host a quarterfinal match-up next Saturday against Midwestern State, a 5-0 winner Saturday over Fort Lewis.

Complete game story here.

*The UCLA men beat San Diego State 6-1 Saturday extending their unbeaten streak to eight games. Junior forward David Estrada scored two goals and added an assist, while junior midfielder Michael Stephens tied the school record with four assists.

Notable: The six goals scored were the most by a Bruin team since a 7-1 NCAA quarterfinal win in 2002 over Penn State.

Quotable: "I'm very pleased with how strong we finished the regular season," said UCLA head coach Jorge Salcedo. "We possessed the ball really well, defended well and scored goals, and we look forward to continuing that in the postseason."

Long Beach State's run in the NCAA Tournament was short.

UCLA had no such problems.

Former West (Torrance) High star Jessica Murphey led CSUDH past San Francisco Friday and into the next round of the NCAA Division 2 Far West Regional.

Either Real Salt Lake or Red Bull New York will make club history tonight when the victor of the 6:30 p.m. game (live on Fos Soccer Channel) will face Sigi Schmid's Columbus Crew next weekend at MLS Cup in Carson.

And lastly, David Beckham apparently doesn't expect to be named next week to the England squad.

Bayern Munich will decide next week whether to sign Landon Donovan from the Galaxy.

Donovan even took a bit of a swipe at David Beckham in the article when he rejected any comparison with Becks: "I am not a good-looking posterboy, I am a footballer," he said.

Ouch!

Meanwhile, Long Beach State is gearing up for its first-ever NCAA Tournament game tonight at UCLA's Drake Stadium.

Thanks to those readers who asked about my mum, BTW. She was evacuated last night because of the massive fire in Santa Barbara. She's safe and her little rented cottage has escaped the flames (for now) although the fire came very close and burned some homes just up the street.

As you can imagine I've had concerns other than blogging, but I'll return with more later, (the Santa Ana winds permitting).