10/24-26/25 - UC San Diego Men’s Deep Run in NIRSA Regionals
The Tritons traveled to San Luis Obispo for the NIRSA Regional Tournament. After hard-fought games versus Cal Poly SLO, UCLA, and USD in the group stage of NIRSA Regionals, the Tritons found themselves in the Semifinals against UCSB. With a winning goal by Lalo Barbieri to put the Tritons up 1-0 late in the game, UCSD was once again in the Finals of Regionals for the second time in two years.
Tensions were rising as the Tritons were onto the finals. This is our fifth game in three days, legs are hurting, backs aching but mentally we are focused on winning. As we warm up we know this matchup is the toughest one yet, the third time UCLAs make an appearance on our game lineup in the past week. We know going into this that it’s all or nothing and everybody needs to leave everything on the field. Regionals title and slot for Nationals on the line, this is what it comes down to.
As the whistle blows and the game kicks off we attack hard. The strategy going into the first 10 minutes was to be the strongest and hardest person on the field, win every ball and attack with all of your might. We stayed high forcing many balls in over the top hoping that this intense pressure would eventually lead to UCLAs backline folding or making a mistake. They knew how to handle it and kept us to a minimum. Being known for their strength and tactics UCLA came back at us even harder scoring an unfortunate goal within the first part of the half. We know that our minds need to be at ease with the secondary kickoff, one mistake doesn't control the game, we are still gonna battle hard and show them what we can do.
As the half progressed the Tritons continued to possess the ball and play their game, getting overwhelmed by UCLAs intense press towards our backline made it difficult but we kept composure. Minutes later we had a mistake near the half that led to the Bruins counter attack, as their right winger dribbled through our midfield and got into our box a careless mistake caused the attacker to fall, from the bench we all looked around and as we glanced in agony to the referee, we see his hand signal showing towards the penalty spot followed with the dreadful long whistle. This led to a mental breakdown and low morale throughout the team as their striker gracefully slots his penalty kick into the left side of the netting.
The bench tries to cheer everyone up and keep people fighting but being so many minutes into the tournament it’s hard to do when a tragic mistake leads to a large goal difference. Still able to come back, UCSD kept fighting but as the first half came to a close there was some bobbling of the ball in our box and an attacker from LA put it away with a hard volley off the top of his foot into the roof of our goal. The first half of the game comes to a close, going far from what we were hoping.
Coach Cooper gives an inspiring speech at halftime and we realize it definitely is not over yet. There is still a chance for us to come back in this game but we need to start out by possessing, playing hard and putting a chance away. Going into the second half was looking good with the possession play working as we held the ball in our half for a while. We played a really great second half not letting nearly any chances through our backline and playing solid up top. Unfortunately, we couldn’t convert any shots into goals so as the final whistle was blown our spirits dropped as we lost in the Final game of Regionals 3-0. Coming back mentally and playing really well in the second half was good but not quite enough to get us past our mistakes in the first half. It was a hard fought battle all throughout the tournament but LA was the one team we couldn’t quite get past, overall the Tritons had a great showing coming in second place against some of the best teams in Southern California. They will be back stronger and harder than ever next time.
