By David Blye
It isn’t difficult to argue that the University of California at Los Angeles possesses one the top athletic programs in the United States.
Winners of 100 NCAA championships, the Bruins boast a program that has produced the famous 10 men’s basketball titles in 12 years and such sports icons as Jackie Robinson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Troy Aikman.
But quietly going under the radar at the school of champions is the men’s soccer program.
Producers of team USA mainstays Cobi Jones and Brad Friedel and winners of four national championships, the soccer Bruins just missed out on giving the university title number 100 when they fell 2-1 to University of California at Santa Barbara this past December.
Rather than holding the loss against them, Coach Thomas Rongen recognized the ability in the squad, naming goalkeeper Brian Perk and midfielders Tony Beltran and Sal Zizzo to the American squad for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup.
The three (who are joined by fellow student-athletes from Indiana, Harvard, Wake Forest and Southern Methodist) form the largest segment of any one outside organization on the team.
“I think it’s a great experience because I know these two guys really well,” Perk said of playing with Zizzo and Beltran.
“When you’re coming into a U-20 camp, you look to who you have similarities to. It makes it a lot easier to make the transition from college to the national team because you’ve guys that you’ve played with.”
“[UCLA] is a great institution,” Beltran said. “Almost everyone across the world knows about it and respects it. It’s a boost to your morale and your confidence to know that you come from a university with that kind of reputation.
While Team USA hasn’t progressed past the quarter finals at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup since 1989, Beltran, Perk and Zizzo bring their Bruin tradition to the team. They hope that this winning history continues to rub off on their teammates as they proceed into the knockout stage.
“When you come to an environment like this, it’s easy to make the transition,” Beltran said. “We play at the highest level at UCLA as we do [in the FIFA Under-20 World Cup] as well.”
“When you see how well [Zizzo] and [Beltran] are playing, you see can that ‘you play at UCLA’; you’re ready for this level,” Perk added.
While understandably upset with losing their shot at a national championship, the guys see this tournament as a chance for redemption, only this time on the world’s biggest stage.
“I don’t want to let another opportunity like that pass us up,” Zizzo said. “We had a chance of winning the [100th NCAA title] but we fell to UCSB.”
Team USA continues its tournament tonight when it takes on Uruguay at the National Soccer Stadium in Toronto (7:45 pm CBC).
Anchored by the strong play of its UCLA Bruins, the men in red, white, and blue will look to the performance of their teammates at the NCAA tournament and hope to do them one better with a win in the 2007 FIFA Under-20 World Cup.
No comments yet.