California Golden Bears Athletics
Thursday, September 28
Los Angeles, CA
8:00 PM
California
at
UCLA
9/26/2017 8:16 PM | Men's Soccer
BERKELEY – After closing the non-conference portion of the 2017 season on a four-game win streak, California (5-2, 0-0 Pac-12) heads to SoCal to open Pac-12 play this week.
Cal's first stop on the two-game trip will be to UCLA (3-3, 0-0) on Thursday. Game time is slated for 8 p.m. and will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.
On Sunday, the Golden Bears are pitted against the San Diego State Aztecs (4-4, 0-0) with a noon kickoff.
Cal has built significant momentum through the first seven games, including impressive wins in closely-contested matches (a 2-1, 2OT win at Portland, a 3-2 win at USF, and 3-2 win vs. Santa Clara) and notching two Pac-12 Player of the Week honors (Drake Callender on Sept. -- and Paul Salcedo-Borrego on Sept. 26). The Bears are receiving votes in the national rankings polls for the first time this season.
Cal's Callender also leads the conference with 29 saves, while senior captain Jose Carrera-Garcia shares the top spot in the league with five assists.
"A four game winning streak is great but that doesn't matter now," said Carrera-Garcia. "All that matters is that we are playing great football, the chemistry is great, different players are stepping up in crucial moments and we are having fun. We are ready for our next mission.
"We are now headed into the most important stage of our season, but we still take it game by game. We are only focused on UCLA at the moment and no one else. Once we get the job done we focus on the next opponent."
The Bears split the series with the Bruins a season ago, giving up victories on their home fields. Cal found its footing in Los Angeles at Drake Stadium, pulling a 2-1 upset over a then 24th-ranked UCLA to grab its lone conference win of 2016.
The last time Cal swept a regular season series with UCLA was in 2014, with the series split in three of the last four years.
The Bears have won four of the lasts six meetings with the Bruins, but have gone 10-5-2 in LA since 2000.
San Diego State has been a recent challenge for Cal which gave up the sweep a season ago. The Bears' last victory over the Aztecs came in 2015 when the Bears posted a 4-3, double overtime win on Oct. 23 in Berkeley.
Cal went scoreless last year against SDSU with a pair of 1-0 losses, including an overtime bout at Goldman Field.
Since 2000, Cal trails 10-12-3 in the series.
Scouting UCLA
The Bruins are coming off of an NCAA playoff bid, where they dropped to Louisville in the second round last season. The team has won two of its last three contest including a 2-1 win against CSUN. After opening the season at ranked 21st and moving as high as 15th, the Bruins have dropped out of the top 25 after bouts with then sixth-ranked Maryland and then eighth-ranked Clemson ended unfavorably. UCLA is led by senior Brian Iloski who leads the league with 1.67 points per game and the team with his five goals which is tied for third in conference. Goalkeeper Kevin Silva has tabbed 20 saves in six games this season and has delivered one shutout. The Bruins have only been outscored by opponents by a single goal this season with 11-10 goal count.
Scouting San Diego State
The Aztecs are 4-4 on the year pulling in back-to-back wins as they head into their Pac-12 opener versus 11th-ranked Stanford. SDSU is outscoring its opponents 9-7, with the bulk of the load carried by Jeroen Meefout who's posted four goals this season. Meefout, an All-Pac-12 honorable mention in 2016, is ranked fifth in the Pac-12 for total goals and goals per game (0.5). Senior Adam Allmaras leads the charge in goal with 21 saves on the season, second in conference behind Callender. Allamaras holds a 3-4 record and has delivered two shutouts so far.
For more information on Cal men's soccer follow the team @CalMSoc on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
A four-game win-streak has not only bolstered the team, but showcased some of California's depth as players Drake Callender and Paul Salcedo-Borrego each earned Pac-12 Player of the Week heading into the conference season. Callender nabbed his first and the team's first of the season on Sept. 12 after a career-best nine-save performance in Cal's double overtime win at Portland. Senior Salcdeo-Borrego hat-tricked his way into an honor on Sept. 26 after a career-best three-goal second half lifted Cal past Santa Clara and moved the team's win streak to four.
Drizzy Drake Callender
Sophomore Drake Callender is climbing up the charts. After a single-game career-high nine saves on Sept. 9 at Portland, including a crucial denial on a penalty kick in the 90' to force extended play, Callender leads the Pac-12 in saves (20), save percentage (.800) and saves per game (5). The Fair Oaks, Calif. native, also picked up the league's Player of the Week award on Sept. 12 for his performance against the Pilots.
JCG "Just Call'em Good"
Redshirt senior Jose Carrera-Garcia or "JCG" as he's referred to on the pitch, enters his fifth and final year with the Golden Bears. Elected as team co-captain, the preseason All-Pac-12 honoree's leadership has been best demonstrated in his consistent performance. JCG returns after leading the team with five assists and is the top scorer remaining from last year's lot after Christian Thierjung, who led the team with nine goals, graduated. Additionally, after amassing six goals in 2016 JCG was named to the All-Pac-12 first team. It was his second all-league honor after picking up second team recognition the season before. Known for his fancy footwork and aggressive attacking, the Ontario, Calif., native, knocked in a season-high brace against Oregon State in a double-overtime draw last season in one of the team's many closely-contested competitions.
Shining Shinya
Junior Shinya Kadono has come into his own early in the season for the Bears. The Irvine, Calif. native (by way of Japan), leads the team with three goals. He posted a pair of scores against USF on Sept. 17 in a 3-2 shootout win for the Bears, including the game-winning score in the 88th minute. Kadono has made his way to the starting 11 after seeing significant playing time off the bench a season ago.
Fab Five
What do you get when you combine seniors Jose Carrera-Garcia, Paul Salcedo-Borrego, Josh Morton, Ugo Rebechinni and Aravind Sivakumar? Nearly half of your returning starters that combined for close to 6,000 playing minutes last season. And that is fabulous news for the Golden Bears who lost impact players in Nick Lima, Christian Thierjung and Trevor Haberkorn to graduation a season ago. The group accounted for a third of the team's goals (8) and 15 of Cal's 25 total assists in 2016. Carrera-Garcia and Salcedo-Borrego were a forceful presence in the front and tabbed All-Pac-12 honors, each for the second time, to close out closely-contested league play. Carrera-Garcia was also recently named to the 2017 preseason all-conference team. What makes this group most potent, however, is their desire to conclude their collegiate careers with a return to the post season. The Bears have not seen NCAA tournament play since 2014, when the five returnees were sophomores, a fact that has not been lost on the group. The Bears upset a pair of top 25 teams (then 25th-ranked UCSB and 24th-ranked UCLA), last year but Cal fell on the wrong side of hard-fought decisions. The highlights and disappointments have sparked the senior leaders as they return to the pitch one final time in the Blue and Gold.
Six Newcomers
Cal welcomes six in-state newbies to the pitch this season and though young, the group is expected to have an immediate impact. In the midfield, Lucas Churchill (Sacramento, Calif.) and Francisco Perez (Santa Clarita, Calif.), who add depth with duo Alonzo Del Mundo (Richmond, Calif.) and Tommy Williamson (Villa Park, Calif.) listed as forwards. Defender Christopher Grey (San Jose, Calif.) joins the Bears and brings international experience as a member of the U.S. U-18 Men's National Team and the Jamaica U-20 Men's National Team. In the goal, Chris Gustini (Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.) adds some fresh legs and has two returnees to show him the way.
Soccer Scholars
While many people use the summers to relax and get away from everyday stresses, a pair of Cal men's soccer members kicked things up a notch, academically-speaking, with prestigious summer internships. Senior starter Aravind Sivakumar spent his vacation days interning at the Bay-Area based Twitter headquarters. The computer science major worked on the social media giants Ads Targeting team for 10 weeks that included machine learning and writing code. He also found time to take a selfie with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that can be seen on his Instagram @aravinho. Across the bridge, junior Halil Beqaj participated as a research intern at UC San Francisco. Intrigued by injuries that plagued former Cal teammate Trevor Long, Beqaj focused on femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), a condition that affects the hip. With local professors and physicians to guide him, the molecular and cell biology major participated in radiology imaging, data analysis and was observed a few surgeries. In 2016, nine Bears received All-Academic honors from the Pac-12 highlighting the team's balance of classroom success and athletic competitiveness. Sivakumar, picked up his second first-team honor.
2016 In Review
In 2016, the Bears compiled a 5-10-2 overall (1-8-1 in the Pac-12 Conference) to fall shy of an NCAA bid for the second consecutive season. Despite opening the season 4-2-1 and spending the early season in the top-25 of various national polls, the Bears faced a packed and potent Pac-12 schedule that tested the team. Even with a pair of noteworthy wins over then 25th-ranked UCSB and league-opponent and then 24th-ranked UCLA, the Bears missed out on the playoffs, finishing sixth in the conference. While Cal took eventual national champion Stanford to the wire in both matchups, the Blue and Gold fell short in critical closely-contested games.
Grimes Among Country's Elite
Head coach Kevin Grimes begins his 18th season with the Golden Bears and has cemented himself as one of the nation's best. The 2013 NSCAA (National Soccer Coaches Association of America) All Far West Region Coach of the Year has compiled a record of 178-115-40 record in Berkeley over the course of 16 seasons and trails only Cal Athletics Hall of Famer Bob DiGrazia in total wins (202 from 1952-1980).
Go-Pro Bears!
With starting goalie Jonathan Klinsmann signing to Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club in Berlin, Germany in the late summer, Cal's active professional soccer player count moves to 17, one of the most of any Division I program in the country. Recent graduates Nick Lima and Christian Thierjung have also made their professional debuts in the past year with Lima signing a homegrown contract with the San Jose Earthquakes and TJ, originally drafted 50th overall in the MLS SuperDraft to the Quakes, finding a home with the Tulsa Roughnecks FC. They join the following former Bears in the professional ranks: Stefano Bonomo (New York Red Bulls II, USL), David Bingham (San Jose Earthquakes, MLS), Steve Birnbaum (D.C. United, MLS), Servando Carrasco (Orlando City SC, MLS), Seth Casiple (Reno 1868 FC, USL), Chris Cortez (Phoneix Rising FC, USL), Christian Dean (Vancouver Whitecaps FC, MLS), Stefan Frei (Seattle Sounders FC, MLS), Andrew Jacobson (Vancouver Whitecaps FC, MLS), Hector Jimenez (Columbus Crew, MLS), Eric Kronberg (Montreal Impact, MLS), Alex Mangels (San Francisco Deltas, NASL), Josh Saunders (Orlando City SC, MLS) and Andrew Wiedeman (FC Cincinnati, USL). Six of the 17 pro-Bears were goalies under longtime Cal goalkeeper coach Henry Foulk, who is entering his 18th season with the program as well
Cal's first stop on the two-game trip will be to UCLA (3-3, 0-0) on Thursday. Game time is slated for 8 p.m. and will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.
On Sunday, the Golden Bears are pitted against the San Diego State Aztecs (4-4, 0-0) with a noon kickoff.
Cal has built significant momentum through the first seven games, including impressive wins in closely-contested matches (a 2-1, 2OT win at Portland, a 3-2 win at USF, and 3-2 win vs. Santa Clara) and notching two Pac-12 Player of the Week honors (Drake Callender on Sept. -- and Paul Salcedo-Borrego on Sept. 26). The Bears are receiving votes in the national rankings polls for the first time this season.
Cal's Callender also leads the conference with 29 saves, while senior captain Jose Carrera-Garcia shares the top spot in the league with five assists.
"A four game winning streak is great but that doesn't matter now," said Carrera-Garcia. "All that matters is that we are playing great football, the chemistry is great, different players are stepping up in crucial moments and we are having fun. We are ready for our next mission.
"We are now headed into the most important stage of our season, but we still take it game by game. We are only focused on UCLA at the moment and no one else. Once we get the job done we focus on the next opponent."
The Bears split the series with the Bruins a season ago, giving up victories on their home fields. Cal found its footing in Los Angeles at Drake Stadium, pulling a 2-1 upset over a then 24th-ranked UCLA to grab its lone conference win of 2016.
The last time Cal swept a regular season series with UCLA was in 2014, with the series split in three of the last four years.
The Bears have won four of the lasts six meetings with the Bruins, but have gone 10-5-2 in LA since 2000.
San Diego State has been a recent challenge for Cal which gave up the sweep a season ago. The Bears' last victory over the Aztecs came in 2015 when the Bears posted a 4-3, double overtime win on Oct. 23 in Berkeley.
Cal went scoreless last year against SDSU with a pair of 1-0 losses, including an overtime bout at Goldman Field.
Since 2000, Cal trails 10-12-3 in the series.
Scouting UCLA
The Bruins are coming off of an NCAA playoff bid, where they dropped to Louisville in the second round last season. The team has won two of its last three contest including a 2-1 win against CSUN. After opening the season at ranked 21st and moving as high as 15th, the Bruins have dropped out of the top 25 after bouts with then sixth-ranked Maryland and then eighth-ranked Clemson ended unfavorably. UCLA is led by senior Brian Iloski who leads the league with 1.67 points per game and the team with his five goals which is tied for third in conference. Goalkeeper Kevin Silva has tabbed 20 saves in six games this season and has delivered one shutout. The Bruins have only been outscored by opponents by a single goal this season with 11-10 goal count.
Scouting San Diego State
The Aztecs are 4-4 on the year pulling in back-to-back wins as they head into their Pac-12 opener versus 11th-ranked Stanford. SDSU is outscoring its opponents 9-7, with the bulk of the load carried by Jeroen Meefout who's posted four goals this season. Meefout, an All-Pac-12 honorable mention in 2016, is ranked fifth in the Pac-12 for total goals and goals per game (0.5). Senior Adam Allmaras leads the charge in goal with 21 saves on the season, second in conference behind Callender. Allamaras holds a 3-4 record and has delivered two shutouts so far.
For more information on Cal men's soccer follow the team @CalMSoc on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
STORYLINES FOR THE SEASON
Player PlayerA four-game win-streak has not only bolstered the team, but showcased some of California's depth as players Drake Callender and Paul Salcedo-Borrego each earned Pac-12 Player of the Week heading into the conference season. Callender nabbed his first and the team's first of the season on Sept. 12 after a career-best nine-save performance in Cal's double overtime win at Portland. Senior Salcdeo-Borrego hat-tricked his way into an honor on Sept. 26 after a career-best three-goal second half lifted Cal past Santa Clara and moved the team's win streak to four.
Drizzy Drake Callender
Sophomore Drake Callender is climbing up the charts. After a single-game career-high nine saves on Sept. 9 at Portland, including a crucial denial on a penalty kick in the 90' to force extended play, Callender leads the Pac-12 in saves (20), save percentage (.800) and saves per game (5). The Fair Oaks, Calif. native, also picked up the league's Player of the Week award on Sept. 12 for his performance against the Pilots.
JCG "Just Call'em Good"
Redshirt senior Jose Carrera-Garcia or "JCG" as he's referred to on the pitch, enters his fifth and final year with the Golden Bears. Elected as team co-captain, the preseason All-Pac-12 honoree's leadership has been best demonstrated in his consistent performance. JCG returns after leading the team with five assists and is the top scorer remaining from last year's lot after Christian Thierjung, who led the team with nine goals, graduated. Additionally, after amassing six goals in 2016 JCG was named to the All-Pac-12 first team. It was his second all-league honor after picking up second team recognition the season before. Known for his fancy footwork and aggressive attacking, the Ontario, Calif., native, knocked in a season-high brace against Oregon State in a double-overtime draw last season in one of the team's many closely-contested competitions.
Shining Shinya
Junior Shinya Kadono has come into his own early in the season for the Bears. The Irvine, Calif. native (by way of Japan), leads the team with three goals. He posted a pair of scores against USF on Sept. 17 in a 3-2 shootout win for the Bears, including the game-winning score in the 88th minute. Kadono has made his way to the starting 11 after seeing significant playing time off the bench a season ago.
Fab Five
What do you get when you combine seniors Jose Carrera-Garcia, Paul Salcedo-Borrego, Josh Morton, Ugo Rebechinni and Aravind Sivakumar? Nearly half of your returning starters that combined for close to 6,000 playing minutes last season. And that is fabulous news for the Golden Bears who lost impact players in Nick Lima, Christian Thierjung and Trevor Haberkorn to graduation a season ago. The group accounted for a third of the team's goals (8) and 15 of Cal's 25 total assists in 2016. Carrera-Garcia and Salcedo-Borrego were a forceful presence in the front and tabbed All-Pac-12 honors, each for the second time, to close out closely-contested league play. Carrera-Garcia was also recently named to the 2017 preseason all-conference team. What makes this group most potent, however, is their desire to conclude their collegiate careers with a return to the post season. The Bears have not seen NCAA tournament play since 2014, when the five returnees were sophomores, a fact that has not been lost on the group. The Bears upset a pair of top 25 teams (then 25th-ranked UCSB and 24th-ranked UCLA), last year but Cal fell on the wrong side of hard-fought decisions. The highlights and disappointments have sparked the senior leaders as they return to the pitch one final time in the Blue and Gold.
Six Newcomers
Cal welcomes six in-state newbies to the pitch this season and though young, the group is expected to have an immediate impact. In the midfield, Lucas Churchill (Sacramento, Calif.) and Francisco Perez (Santa Clarita, Calif.), who add depth with duo Alonzo Del Mundo (Richmond, Calif.) and Tommy Williamson (Villa Park, Calif.) listed as forwards. Defender Christopher Grey (San Jose, Calif.) joins the Bears and brings international experience as a member of the U.S. U-18 Men's National Team and the Jamaica U-20 Men's National Team. In the goal, Chris Gustini (Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.) adds some fresh legs and has two returnees to show him the way.
Soccer Scholars
While many people use the summers to relax and get away from everyday stresses, a pair of Cal men's soccer members kicked things up a notch, academically-speaking, with prestigious summer internships. Senior starter Aravind Sivakumar spent his vacation days interning at the Bay-Area based Twitter headquarters. The computer science major worked on the social media giants Ads Targeting team for 10 weeks that included machine learning and writing code. He also found time to take a selfie with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that can be seen on his Instagram @aravinho. Across the bridge, junior Halil Beqaj participated as a research intern at UC San Francisco. Intrigued by injuries that plagued former Cal teammate Trevor Long, Beqaj focused on femoroacetabular impingement (FAI), a condition that affects the hip. With local professors and physicians to guide him, the molecular and cell biology major participated in radiology imaging, data analysis and was observed a few surgeries. In 2016, nine Bears received All-Academic honors from the Pac-12 highlighting the team's balance of classroom success and athletic competitiveness. Sivakumar, picked up his second first-team honor.
2016 In Review
In 2016, the Bears compiled a 5-10-2 overall (1-8-1 in the Pac-12 Conference) to fall shy of an NCAA bid for the second consecutive season. Despite opening the season 4-2-1 and spending the early season in the top-25 of various national polls, the Bears faced a packed and potent Pac-12 schedule that tested the team. Even with a pair of noteworthy wins over then 25th-ranked UCSB and league-opponent and then 24th-ranked UCLA, the Bears missed out on the playoffs, finishing sixth in the conference. While Cal took eventual national champion Stanford to the wire in both matchups, the Blue and Gold fell short in critical closely-contested games.
Grimes Among Country's Elite
Head coach Kevin Grimes begins his 18th season with the Golden Bears and has cemented himself as one of the nation's best. The 2013 NSCAA (National Soccer Coaches Association of America) All Far West Region Coach of the Year has compiled a record of 178-115-40 record in Berkeley over the course of 16 seasons and trails only Cal Athletics Hall of Famer Bob DiGrazia in total wins (202 from 1952-1980).
Go-Pro Bears!
With starting goalie Jonathan Klinsmann signing to Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club in Berlin, Germany in the late summer, Cal's active professional soccer player count moves to 17, one of the most of any Division I program in the country. Recent graduates Nick Lima and Christian Thierjung have also made their professional debuts in the past year with Lima signing a homegrown contract with the San Jose Earthquakes and TJ, originally drafted 50th overall in the MLS SuperDraft to the Quakes, finding a home with the Tulsa Roughnecks FC. They join the following former Bears in the professional ranks: Stefano Bonomo (New York Red Bulls II, USL), David Bingham (San Jose Earthquakes, MLS), Steve Birnbaum (D.C. United, MLS), Servando Carrasco (Orlando City SC, MLS), Seth Casiple (Reno 1868 FC, USL), Chris Cortez (Phoneix Rising FC, USL), Christian Dean (Vancouver Whitecaps FC, MLS), Stefan Frei (Seattle Sounders FC, MLS), Andrew Jacobson (Vancouver Whitecaps FC, MLS), Hector Jimenez (Columbus Crew, MLS), Eric Kronberg (Montreal Impact, MLS), Alex Mangels (San Francisco Deltas, NASL), Josh Saunders (Orlando City SC, MLS) and Andrew Wiedeman (FC Cincinnati, USL). Six of the 17 pro-Bears were goalies under longtime Cal goalkeeper coach Henry Foulk, who is entering his 18th season with the program as well
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