The No. 10 Bears emerged from a weekend in the Los Angeles with one blemish on their record.
After a heartbreaking loss to UCLA on Friday afternoon, the Cal women’s soccer team rebounded on Sunday with a 1-0 win against USC (5-10-3, 2-6-2 in Pac-12).
The No. 2 Bruins handed the Bears (15-4-0, 8-2-0) their worst loss of the season on Friday at Drake Stadium. The 3-0 loss snapped the Bears’ undefeated road streak as well as their eight-game winning streak.
With the win, the Bruins (15-0-2, 8-0-1) remain undefeated and maintain the second-place spot in the Pac-12 standings.
“It was disappointing to see the streak end, but it wasn’t the most disappointing thing,” Amanda Glass said. “We are just disappointed that we didn’t play as well as we could have.”
The Bears struggled to generate offensive chances against UCLA. Cal averages more than 16 shots per game yet recorded only four against the Bruins.
“Our biggest threat to other teams is our ability to possess the ball,” Glass said. “We couldn’t find our rhythm, and none of our lines were holding the ball.”
The Bears held off the 10-shot offensive onslaught in the first half, but they were unable to defend the Bruins’ 11-shot siege in the second. Cal allowed two goals within the first 10 minutes of the second half and one more in the closing minutes of the game.
“UCLA is a very, very good offensive team, and they gave us a lot of problems,” Glass said. “We balanced it well in first half, but they got through us in the second, and it was difficult to keep up with them.”
After struggling against UCLA, the Bears had to put the loss behind them and play a physical USC squad.
The Trojans employ a very direct style of play, getting the ball to the forwards with quick, long passes. But the Bears were able to counter this style by pressuring the Trojan midfield in the air and not letting the forwards turn upfield. Cal’s forwards also kept a high pressure on the USC back line so that the defense could not send those direct long balls upfield.
“We weren’t expecting Friday to turn out how it did,” Glass said. “But instead of dwelling on that, we did a good job of bouncing back and finding our rhythm and putting USC away.”
The teams battled at a stalemate until the 74th minute. The breakthrough came when goalkeeper Emily Kruger punched a USC throw-in away from her territory, and midfielder Betsy Hassett played the ball forward to Ifeoma Onumonu. Onumonu then singlehandedly took the ball up the flank, beating USC’s left defender before firing into the net.
“I had a feeling we would score in the second half, so it was a relief when we finally got it,” Glass said.
With the clock expiring, the Trojans felt the pressure to score and pounded the Bears’ back line.
The one-goal cushion allowed Cal to focus on defending the Trojan bombardment until the final whistle that signaled the end of the Bears’ toughest road trip of the season.
Taylor Brink covers women’s soccer. Contact her at [email protected]
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