For the Cal men’s soccer team, Tuesday’s 11:30 a.m. home match against Houston Baptist is something out of the ordinary. The upcoming tilt is a shake-up for the players, accustomed to the typical weekend afternoon match.
Out of their regularly scheduled element, the Bears (2-2) are more concerned about how their performance than that of the Huskies (2-3).
“I’m sure it’s not going to be anything we haven’t seen before,” said senior Michael Munoz. “We’re more focusing on our game, and I think they’re going to have to adapt more to us that we are going to them.”
So far, Cal has defended its home turf with efficiency and success. In their first home match against University of Central Florida last Friday, the Bears dominated with three goals in the second half for a 4-1 rout.
Yet that win was on the heels of Cal’s weakest performance of the season thus far. In an East Coast trip two weeks ago, the Bears narrowly fell to Virginia, 2-1. Cal was then manhandled by a No. 4 Maryland in a 6-0 blowout.
Head coach Kevin Grimes reflected on the trip with a glass-half-full attitude. The East Coast sojourn was the result of early growing pains for the still-learning Bears, he said.
“We just really became a better team after the whole weekend in Maryland or Virginia,” he said. “There’s a lot of factors that go into it that make you that much mentally stronger and more prepared for the long term of your season.”
One of the most obvious areas of improvement from the last few weeks was Cal’s goal production. Munoz and other forwards focused solely on scoring in practice last week — and the preparation certainly paid off against UCF.
The Bears were constantly knocking on the Knights’ defensive doorstep; such relentless action led to the four-goal success.
The match against Houston Baptist is a test — the second in a series of six at home before the Bears start the Pac-12 grind. However, the Huskies compete in the MPSF, making it difficult for Cal to know how they stack up.
Playing in a relative unknown conference, Houston Baptsist is a tough team to decipher. The Huskies have shown both their good and bad sides this season: while Houston Baptist muscled out a surprising 1-1 tie against then-No. 16 Southern Methodist University in an exhibition match, the Huskies looked terrible in last weekend’s trip to San Diego. A 3-2 edging by San Diego State was quickly followed by a 2-0 blanking at the hands of the University of San Diego.
While the Huskies stayed neck-and-neck with USD in terms of shots — the Toreros mustered 12 to the Huskies’ 11 — the latter couldn’t capitalize on its opportunities.
Though the Huskies’ senior leadership consists of just three players, the younger athletes have had no problem taking the wheel offensively. Then-freshman forward Zach Pierce led his squad in goals and points last year and has already accumulated two goals across four starts in his sophomore campaign.
With a mercurial Houston Baptist coming into town, the Bears will try to not let anything out of the ordinary happen in this unusually scheduled game.
Contact Alex Matthews at [email protected]
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