Onward and upward.
The Cal men’s soccer team (5-0-1) recorded a comfortable win against Charleston (1-5-0) on Sunday. The match looked secure for the Bears from kickoff to final whistle, and although this was expected, the result was still important as Cal maintained its unbeaten record.
These bread-and-butter wins for Cal are dangerous, in that victory is expected and defeat is a disappointment. In terms of the score sheet, however, the Bears did all that was expected of them. The lack of concentration in the first half that led to Charleston’s only goal was the sole exception. Despite the achievement, though, there is still much that the Bears can look to improve on.
“Hopefully we can improve upon a couple of areas to help us for next week’s match,” said head coach Kevin Grimes.
These areas of improvement were the Bears’ attacking play. Cal had little difficulty getting into the penalty box — demonstrated by its 18 shots — but once inside the box, the team’s ability to convert play into points was less impressive.
In the 29th minute, Ryan Neil produced beautiful football to get a one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but his shot, when it came, rebounded off the post. And in the 89th minute, when Stefano Bonomo was faced with an open goal, the goalkeeper ran out of the penalty box to deal with a mishit pass back, but his shot went wide.
“I’ve got to work on my first touch, holding the ball, and obviously putting my chances away,” said Bonomo.
The team, however, put in a strong performance by putting the game away in the first half and hanging on to their commanding lead in the second.
“The start to the game was great,” Grimes said. “As the game went on, it became a battle, and I think the team did that. They battled very, very hard for 90 minutes.”
The only goal that came for Charleston in the 30th minute was a rare defensive mistake for the Bears. A number of chaotic shots and flailing feet in the penalty box resulted in a consolation prize for Xavier Rajpaul and the visiting team.
In spite of this, the defense looked comfortable throughout the game, passing in the back effectively and providing some great long balls up the field to the two wings. Working in tandem with the backs, the wings made a couple of searing runs, with one of those runs from Alec Sundly in the 19th minute leading to Cal’s second goal of the game.
This control in possession was a strength of the squad as a whole, with the team passing well and looking commanding while in possession.
“I think we played well — as a squad, we possessed the ball very well,” Bonomo said.
Charleston, on the other hand, was tentative with the ball and never really looked dangerous. Its possession was limited to midfield, and there was little attacking intent from the players.
Ultimately, the Bears put in a dominant performance, which will put them in good stead for next week and beyond. To continue to move onward and upward, this win was necessary, and Cal delivered.
Daniella Mogilner covers men’s soccer. Contact her at [email protected].