In Reply to: Men's soccer result - spoiler alert posted by barrya on September 29, 2026 at 03:00:52
..physical game. 43 total fouls called - more than a foul every 120 seconds! For reference, the record number in a game is 50. That happened twice and both those games went to double overtime. This didn't.
The game threatened to boil over a few times with the referee almost losing control. Quite how the Penn State striker managed to escape a yellow is beyond me. Each team finished with 3 YCs but Bruins had one for time wasting and one for a shirt pull. Still incredulous that Penn State only ended with 3.
I haven't watched the highlights to see if all the physical play was included, but some of it must be. Has to be. Five video reviews tells you the referee struggled.
As for the actual soccer, UCLA was the much better team. The Penn St. Goalkeeper flapped at a cross 1:30 in and the Bruins were off and running. A penalty and a nice team goal and we were 3-0 at half and cruising. Then Penn State scored after their striker hit our defender in the head while battling for the ball and the defender went down (nice finish, mind!). Then a disasterous backpass from Shakir Nixon made it tighter than it should have been. A late penalty for us sealed it.
Finishing continues to be an issue, as does a penchant for allowing the other team back into games (happened at Indiana as well).