From the Bench... Oct. 8, 2003– Fullerton, Calif.
Coach Al Mistri:
"We anticipate a tremendously difficult battle Saturday afternoon
at UC Riverside. They are a much improved team and are coming off a tremendous
result, a 4-1 win over UNLV. I believe they have only one home loss (to
LMU). How we respond to adversity with people coming off the bench will
be the key for us.
"Regarding Saturday's 2-0 loss at Cal Poly, it was a trip that started
badly before we even left. We already were without Yaron Shlomi because
of a red card in the last match. We found out that Sean Gallinger couldn't
go -- he got a hip flexor while studying -- truly -- so we had to scramble
to get an 18th player. It changed our lineup and when we got down within
a few minutes on an own goal, it changed their game entirely. Our team
was down and Cal Poly is a very physical team which plays a style conducive
to their field, and we are not good enough with the people we were playing
to come back from a 2-0 deficit against that style. We tried, and hit
the post twice.
"We lost Marco Rodriguez to a knee injury. He is barely walking and
is doubtful this week. We started Scott Fuller, so it's obvious we are
not going to redshirt him. Hector Orellana is playing with two pulled
hamstrings and only today started practicing for this week. We are minus
six guys at practice.
"In our West region, there are only two teams definitely worthy of
playoff consideration right now -- UCLA and Washington. After that it's
a big mess. Our tie at San Diego and our win over Portland are big, but
we've got to start taking care of business."
