On Saturday, November 9th, the UCSD Men’s Club Soccer team took on Cal Poly SLO’s Men’s Club Soccer team at Muir Field in what was set to be a thrilling, gritty, and hard-fought match between the two sides. Cal Poly SLO traveled down to San Diego after being assigned number two seed placement for the NIRSA National Championships two weeks ago. The Tritons were given the three seeds from the West, and they, along with Cal Poly SLO, the University of Oregon, and Brigham Young University, would comprise the teams representing Region VI at this year’s Nationals tournament. This match between the co-champions of the south division Regionals tournament was going to be a useful one as it would act as a final tune-up for both squads before what is considered to be the most important tournament of the year in collegiate club soccer. The idea that the two teams were Nationals-level opposition only heightened the anticipation and promise of the game.

UCSD’s starting lineup was: Aryan Solekar making his debut as goalkeeper; Alejandro Covarrubias, Lucas Sherles, Jaydon Galindo, and Antonio Lopez as the back line; Trevor Elder, Jorge Rodriguez, and Lucas Venetoulias as the three midfielders; and Vismay Manoj, Joseph Asfari, and Jake Honma as the front three.

UCSD quickly established dominance in the first half, showing more aggression early on than their Cal Poly adversaries. The Tritons opted for a more direct approach in the early stages of the match, choosing to send long swooping balls into and behind the Cal Poly defense. This strategy was aimed at putting the Cal Poly defense under pressure, forcing them to be pegged back. From one of the long balls played forward, the ball found the feet of Jake Honma, who ripped a shot from 25 yards out. While beating the goalkeeper, Jake was unlucky not to have scored as his shot rattled the crossbar, but Joseph Afsari found himself alone at the edge of the box and easily put the rebound into an empty net to give the Tritons a 1–0 lead in the first few minutes of the game.

The Tritons continued to apply high pressure and caused plenty of problems for the struggling Cal Poly backline. Pressing as a unit and with great intensity, the Tritons were able to recover the ball near the Cal Poly goal and ended up winning a throw-in only a couple of minutes later.  Alejandro Covarrubias threw the ball into Vismay Manoj, who found himself with only one Cal Poly defender on his back near the edge of the six-yard box. Manoj quickly and skillfully turned his defender and, despite the narrow-angle, blasted a shot to the far post to put the Tritons up 2-0  in under seven minutes. This theme would continue as only two minutes later, Vismay’s press helped the Tritons win the ball back some 30 yards away from the Cal Poly goal. After a couple of quick one-touch passes, the ball found Lucas Venetoulias, who played a through ball onto the running Joseph Afsari. Joey took one touch to settle himself, a second to cut to his inside and beat the onrushing defender, and a third to calmly finish the chance past the SLO goalkeeper for UCSD’s third goal in the opening 10 minutes.

Having comfortably established a 3–0 lead in just over ten minutes, the Tritons decided to sit back a little and allow Cal Poly to see if they could break down their rigid, compact defensive shape. Cal Poly was unable to muster clear-cut chances, even if they had plenty of the ball; swinging the ball across their back line proved ineffective, and it gave the Tritons little to no trouble. The Tritons would have their fair share of the ball too, and in one comprehensive move in which they managed to move the ball from back to front and from side to side, the ball found Henry Rose on the edge of the penalty box. He squared it to Lucas Venetoulias, who fired a strike that deflected into the air. The spin from the deflection proved calamitous for the Cal Poly defense, as it managed to create confusion between the defenders and the goalkeeper, resulting in the ball going into the back of the net to give the Tritons a fourth goal inside the first 20 minutes. The rest of the half played out similarly, with the Tritons maintaining a good shape and proving dangerous on several well-executed counter-attacking and transition scenarios, but the half ended with UCSD up 4–0.

With the game considered practically sealed at halftime, the Tritons were a little lackadaisical and loose coming back into the second half, which ended up costing them as one poor, sloppy buildout ended in a Cal Poly counterattack. Aryan Selokar was unlucky with his save ending up at the feet of one of the SLO forwards, who converted the rebound to give SLO a goal back. With the scoreline at 4–1 however, the Tritons regained their composure and saw the game out to a statement final result. The largely uneventful second half even gave UCSD the chance to give Pedro Teixeira and Pablo Ibarra their first appearances for the team in the final minutes of the game, to round off an incredibly successful Saturday for the Tritons.

The Tritons are certainly going to use this match as a big confidence boost moving forward. Against Nationals-level opposition, they showed their quality and demonstrated how ruthless they can be when their high pressure and intensity are on full display. The Tritons will now try to iron out the kinks in their game ahead of the NIRSA National Championships in Texas. After qualifying for the first time in seven years, the UCSD Men’s Club Soccer team is hungry to leave a lasting impression and to bring back some silverware.