Steve Palacios held-down the midfield for Cal Poly, playing a steady role as the team’s only senior this season. By Owen Main

Cal Poly men’s soccer was a goal away from winning their regular season finale and earning a birth into the Big West Conference Tournament. Instead, the season ended in heartbreak on Wednesday as UC Davis netted the golden goal, ending the Mustangs’ season.

The 2014 men’s soccer season began with tumult and ended with questions of what could have been.

What if?

For the Mustangs, this season is chalk-full of “what-ifs.”

What if head coach Paul Holocher hadn’t resigned just a few days before the start of training camp?

What if Koda Wakasa or Ruben Duran had been healthy?

What if center backs Brett Foreman and Nick Carroll had been available for so many important Big West North matchups?

What if they’d been able to maintain the two-goal lead they opened-up at rival UCSB?

Soccer is not always a fair game, though. What-ifs are replaced with what actually happened, and the Mustangs fell a little short. They are a young and talented group (Steve Palacios was the only senior on the team), but they just couldn’t overcome key injuries and inconsistency.

What’s next for the program?

This is a program in transition, but it’s also a program with seven players who would have been returning seniors next season (two were injured this year and will technically be juniors next season). If they have a new coach next season, it will be their third coach in as many years.

Like many Cal Poly fans, I’m interested to see what kind of recruiting happened this season, given that the Mustangs played this entire season with an “interim” coach. I don’t know how effective an interim coach can be with recruiting — and it may not matter too much for next year, given that the team only loses one senior, but the long-term ramifications of a coach leaving the way Paul Holocher did can be potentially devastating.

This year’s team came out of the blocks strong. They scored a ton of goals early-on and got fans’ hopes up for a successful conference season, as they have in year’s past. With Phil Ruskin at the helm, there was hope for some continuity and a strong conference run. But the team finished the year with a whimper — losing their final three matches and netting only four points in six Big West North matches.

Phil Ruskin showed promise this season as the team’s interim head coach. He deserves at least another season at the helm. By Owen Main

Will Ruskin be back?

When he was named interim coach just a few days before practice started this season, Phil Ruskin took on an enormous challenge. Early-on, it looked as though the team really responded to him. The Mustangs came out scoring goals and playing an offensive, possession-oriented style of soccer that has been their hallmark. They beat North Carolina State on the road, tied top-ranked UCLA, and started conference play by tying top-5 ranked UC Irvine.

Cal Poly even started Big West Conference play strong. The tie with Irvine was followed by victories at home against Cal State Fullerton and on the road against eventual South Division champion UC Riverside.

The win in Riverside was costly. Brett Foreman, Cal Poly’s most experienced central defender went down against the Highlanders and didn’t return all season. Freshman Nick Carroll was also not available for the next game — a loss at Cal State Fullerton — and the Mustangs struggled to put things together after that. With tons of depth in attacking positions, Cal Poly was paper-thin in central defense. Carroll missed six consecutive matches before returning for the final game.

In place of Carroll and Foreman, midfileders like Matt LaGrassa and Sean Dhillon filled in admirably. Defender Mamadou Kebe was probably a year away from being truly ready for the big-time. Trenton Matson, who I believe ended up playing some, might have been better-served to maintain his redshirt season. Jack O’Connor played all right at left back as well, but the point is that a lot of players who might not have been on the pitch as much saw a lot of time and several players spent significant time in unfamiliar positions over the past six matches.

During those six games (Big West North divisional play), Cal Poly managed just four points, perpetuating a trend of a Cal Poly men’s soccer season that starts with a ton of excitement and ends with disappointment.

What’s next for Ruskin and the program? Cal Poly will likely initiate a nationwide coaching search, though I don’t know that they’ll do a lot better than Ruskin. For what it’s worth, he has always been positive and never seemed to lack confidence. Despite injuries, his teams didn’t look tactically out-matched and his players this season showed a higher level of maturity on the field this year than in seasons past.

The Big West North is a tough, tough division, and this Cal Poly team just couldn’t overcome all their challenges. With only one senior on this season’s roster, it would be very interesting to watch a Cal Poly team at full-strength with Ruskin at the helm next season. For what it’s worth, Cal Poly (according to their roster) had seven key juniors on this team who are set to return next year, including LaGrassa, Chase Minter, Wade Hamilton, Kody Wakasa, Kip Colvey, and Ruben Duran. As a fan, I would probably prefer to give Ruskin at least one more season without the interim tag to both show what he could do with recruiting and to maintain some level of consistency for next year’s senior class, who has been through a ton.

Maybe people want the program to head in a different direction, but I think, for the sake of continuity and snapping up a young, dynamic coach, Cal Poly men’s soccer would be best served to keep Ruskin around next year.

Cal Poly fans didn’t have a lot to cheer about on Sunday. By Owen Main

On Sunday night, in front of a sellout crowd at Alex G. Spanos Stadium, UCSB scored twice in the first half and held-on with ten men for the last 19-plus minutes to defeat Cal Poly 2-0.

In front of 11,075 fans — mostly students — UCSB dominated the first 30 minutes of the game en route to the victory. Cal Poly, who was without at least three key defensive players, struggled to gain traction both literally (the field was still really wet from the weekend rain and football game) and figuratively (the Gauchos dominated possession early-on).

Still, there were a few opportunities in the second half that the Mustangs just couldn’t put into the back of the net. For the Cal Poly faithful, it was a frustrating end to the match, with the UCSB captain taunting the student section and the crowd filing out of the stadium with their heads down.

The emotion

This game is always full of emotion, but I felt like something was missing this time. Perhaps the senior class from last year — George Malki, Mackenzie Pridham, etc… — made a stronger connection with the fans. Last season, the stadium was full a full hour ahead of the match. This season, students were still filing in during the national anthem. Whatever the reason, it didn’t quite feel the same, despite the sellout.

The shushing

UCSB scored early in this match and gave the crowd the single finger shushing sign. For whatever reason, the crowd seemed to obey for most of the rest of the game.

Any other crowd might have taken the shushing as a reason to get louder, which is why the second UCSB goal was such a dagger. Sure, there were chants, there was a random cell phone light thing, and there were the typical taunts of the opposition’s goalie. But there wasn’t anything sustained or filled with passion, as there has been in previous years.

On a side note, who decided to make the UCSB match a 5:00 pm game on a Sunday afternoon? Whoever does must hate sports and America, but I digress. I guess my point is that I felt like something was missing. Was it just me?

The throwing

I don’t want to get into a huge discussion of tortillas. Tortilla throwing has become something UCSB soccer and, by proxy, the Big West Conference hangs its hat on. It’s a tradition unlike any other and the only time in a match where I’ve ever seen items being thrown onto the field of play allowed — or in this case, downright encouraged.

What I don’t understand is the outrage. One media member from Santa Barbara on the sideline found a piece of something that wasn’t a tortilla that had been thrown on the field.

“They threw this at our goalie,” he told me.

“Yeah, throwing things on the field is pretty lame I said.”

He agreed.

“Tortillas too, right?” I asked.

Whoa whoa whoa.

He tried to tell me tortillas were fine but throwing other things onto the field during the game wasn’t ok. So, here’s my point. Once things are allowed to be thrown onto the field — at the players on either team — during the game, it sets a dangerous precedent. It’s hard to split hairs at that point, especially when UCSB is playing an away game.

Whoever threw the metal thing (looked like maybe a lighter??) onto the field is an idiot who should have been ejected immediately. But so, too, should fans who throw ANYTHING at players while the game is going on — whether it’s a tortilla or not.

The three seconds

Earlier this season, I was picking the brain of a former Cal Poly soccer player about the anatomy of a penalty kick. He told me that after the referee blows his whistle, the penalty taker should always count to three before his run-up to take the kick. I’ve seen two Cal Poly men this season have PK’s saved against them and I don’t know if either has paused prior to the run-up.

Maybe it had nothing to do with it, but contrast it with a penalty kick from the same night in MLS. FC Dallas midfielder Michel is one of the best in the business at penalties. He takes FOREVER in this one (starting at about 1:45 of the video). The official even has to blow his whistle a second time to get him to start his run-up. Not surprisingly, he buries the shot in the back of the net.

The aftermath

Cal Poly is now in fourth place with a trip to rugged UC Davis in front of them. The game is on Wednesday afternoon at 2:00pm, and everything is on the line. To make the conference tournament, they’ll need to win and possibly hope for a UCSB win over Sacramento State. There are a number of scenarios, but winning is the key…

Photos by Owen Main

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The game plan has been the same for a few years. For teams playing against Cal Poly’s possession-style game, there has been one consistent answer. Get physical. I’m not talking Olivia Newton-John physical.

I’m talking hard-nosed tackles, grabbing, pulling, bumping, and generally slowing the game down. See, the Mustangs want to keep the game flowing and the ball moving at all costs, but they better be prepared for what teams are about to throw at them.

Last season, Cal State Fullerton used the second conference game of the season to give blueprint of how to frustrate and beat the Mustangs. Cal Poly ended that game with ten men and ended the season only winning two of their final ten matches.

In this week’s press conference, I asked coach Phil Ruskin about the physical play of other teams against his.

In terms of technical ability, Ruskin isn’t wrong. Cal Poly does move the ball around and there aren’t a lot better passers and technical players like Cal Poly’s Chase Minter, Steve Palacios, and Matt LaGrassa. But, they’re not the biggest guys. Most of Cal Poly’s taller, more physical players like Kaba Alkebulan, Justin Dhillon, and freshman Adam Olsen are attackers.

Matt LaGrassa and the Mustangs midfielders will have to endure a lot during a tough conference schedule. By Owen Main

Just as Cal Poly has the potential to wear-down and frustrate other teams by controlling the ball, other teams also have the ability to play a physical, high-pressure style and maybe even get under Cal Poly’s skin.

UC Irvine comes into Thursday night’s Big West Conference opener with the number two RPI in the country as an unbeaten team. Ruskin feels Cal Poly can compete with them. They are certainly skilled enough, but whether they are strong enough or mentally tough enough remains to be seen.

At some point, one would think that Cal Poly soccer is due to take the next step for the program and legitimately compete for a conference title. Whether that year is this year, with less depth than they expected and an interim head coach remains to be seen. I guess I’ve seen stranger things.

But the main question for me is still about Cal Poly’s depth and ability to deal with physical play. Can a team like Cal Poly with 13-14 rotation players compete at this level? Can they handle physical conference weekends where they might get beat-up?

Thursday night, we’ll begin the journey to find out.

Mustang captain, Matt LaGrassa’s headed goal and subsequent celebration drove the crowd of nearly 7,000 fans at Alex G. Spanos Stadium into a frenzy. By Owen Main

Yes, Cal Poly men’s soccer is a somewhat improbable 5-1-1 this season.  Yes, they’ve scored more than one goal in five of their seven matches. Yes, they are unbeaten in six straight after beating San Francisco 2-1 on Friday night at Alex G. Spanos Stadium.

The key stat of the night — 6,856. That’s how many fans — mostly WOWies — showed up to take-in the game. The WOWies came ready — faces painted, and impressed with chants and songs that they clearly had studied-up on.

On the pitch, San Francisco played as well as the Mustangs for much of the match. Cal Poly got on the board in the 12th minute when freshman, Joseph Bolous tapped a rebound into the corner, sending the WOWies — many of whom were still finding their seats — into a frenzy.

USF outplayed Cal Poly for most of the second half, but the Mustangs scored again. Captain Matt LaGrassa sailed high in the air to head Cal Poly’s second goal home in the 70th minute to put the Mustangs up by two.

The way the second half went, it would have been a miracle if San Francisco didn’t find the net at some point. The Dons finally emerged when Joshua Smith put one home in the 87th minute, but it was too little, too late for the Mustangs’ West Coast Conference opponents.

If Cal Poly freshmen wanted to know whether the soccer environment was all it was cracked-up to be, they found out on Friday. Interim Cal Poly coach Phil Ruskin has talked about wanting to get big crowds for games that aren’t UCSB games. He got one on Friday.

One British USF fan summed up the atmosphere quite nicely.

“Brilliant,” he said. “This is better than some of the professional games back home.”

The Mustangs next face former Big West rival Pacific on Sunday at 1pm at Alex G. Spanos Stadium.

Photos by Owen Main

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Phil Ruskin, who took over for Paul Holocher 12 days before the season began, looks for his first home victory as a head coach this weekend. By Owen Main

Less than a month ago, Phil Ruskin was a second-year assistant coach under Paul Holocher, preparing for the fast-approaching NCAA soccer season. Now, two games into the season, Ruskin is the program’s interim head coach, trying to put his own stamp on a program that has shown flashes of brilliance over the past few seasons.

“I don’ think you’re ever really prepared,” said Ruskin, who was thrust into the head coaching position just 12 days before the first game of the season. “Certainly, when a situation like this occurs, there’s absolutely no preparation, but even still it’s a great opportunity for our staff to learn, it’s a great opportunity to put our mark on the program, and it’s a chance to do something that’s never been done.”

A big win at UCLA early last season gave the Mustangs some early confidence. After a hot conference start, Cal Poly looked poised to be real Big West contenders. Instead, they limped to the finish line, managing only three wins out of 10 Big West regular season matches. In 2013, Cal Poly lost their final three matches of the season by a combined score of 8-2, and bowed-out of the playoffs with a decisive 4-1 loss to Cal State Northridge in the Big West Tournament.

Ruskin is looking at the season as an opportunity to show what he’s made of as the leader of the program.

“I think that’s the only way to look at it,” said Ruskin. “You have to be excited every morning to get up and to bring the energy to the training session, to have the preparation and the planning… . We want to look at our week each week and look at what days we want to do certain things. We want to manage the week for the players.”

At least one player has left the program since Holocher’s departure, and Ruskin has worked hard to keep everyone together as a unit.

“The biggest challenge right now is just making sure the guys are bought-in, and I think that their response this weekend showed us that they are,” said Ruskin. “I think the hardest thing is to come into a season with the idea in mind that you’re preparing one way and then a week before to understand that now, everything’s different. We’ve tried to keep things as consistent as we possibly can, I think the one thing we can ask from them is that they continue to do the same thing as well.”

Junior, Chase Minter, leads the Mustangs so far this season with three goals in the first two games. By Owen Main

Junior, Chase Minter has three goals in the first two games and believes that the controversy the team has gone through has helped develop some amount of chemistry between the players that might not have been there before.

“Our coaching staff and players started worrying more about what was in our control. Doing so made us more complete and a more solidified group,” said Minter. “In the time I’ve been here we’re probably the closest that we’ve ever been. I think we’re kind of born through fire, we’re getting closer through [adversity]. It’s really making us more solidified as a group and we’re working for each other more. I think it’s unfortunate what happened, but we’re definitely moving forward. We’re getting closer as the season goes-on.”

A dangerous and diminutive winger, Minter has been given the green light by Ruskin to play more freely and take advantage of attacking opportunities when they arise.

While the offensive numbers are gaudy, overall results haven’t quite been what anyone in the program wants. Last season, the program scored a program-record 43 goals in 21 games, but also gave up 34 en route to a 10-9-2 overall record.

“We’ve been working throughout the off-season on getting behind the ball, balancing, and so far it’s been looking better this year,” said junior goalie, Wade Hamilton. “We’re definitely still working, but we’re getting the hang of it.”

Last week, Cal Poly showed they can still be potent offensively, scoring six goals in two games in North Carolina. The Mustangs showed they still also have some work to do. They gave up five goals including a 4-3 loss to Davidson in their first game of the year. In that match, they lost an early 2-0 lead.

The 3-1 victory two days later over ACC foe North Carolina State was Ruskin’s first win as head coach and gave the Mustangs some confidence going into their home home opener against Northern Illinois.

“We figured out what we were doing wrong in the first game [vs. Davidson],” said Hamilton. “We had a plan and we stuck to the plan and we capitalized on what we needed to do.”

Cal Poly’s non-conference home schedule includes six games this seaon against Northern Illinois, Massachusetts, Grand Canyon, San Francisco, and Pacific.

Their first two conference games are at home also. Conference contenders UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton will be in town October 2nd and 5th, respectively.

The schedule doesn’t get easier, but Ruskin gives off an aura of confidence and assuredness. While carrying on the possession-oriented, offensive style Holocher has developed, he also seems a little more open to adjust styles of play based on the game.

“We want to continue to play attractive soccer,” said Ruskin. “But I think we’ve asked the players to really read the game in a way where they understand that there are certain moments when we do have to play a bit more direct, at times, because that’s what the game calls for.”

Cal Poly Men’s Soccer at a glance:

Current Record: 1-1

Goals for: 6

Goals against: 5

Leading Scorer: Chase Minter (3)

Tonight’s game: 7:00 PM, Alex G. Spanos Stadium vs. Northern Illinois

Sunday’s game: 12:00 Noon, Alex G. Spanos Stadium vs. Massachusetts

Photos by Owen Main