Huskies thrive away from home
October 28, 2005
There's no place like home. Not for the men's soccer team.
They're better off on the road.
"I'm looking forward to get out of here and get a couple wins," said senior goalkeeper Chris Eylander on leaving Seattle this weekend.
It's a good thing then that the Huskies (9-4-1 overall, 3-3-1 Pac-10) will travel to Southern California to play two critical matches against San Diego State (Friday) and No. 17 UCLA (Sunday). Washington went winless (loss to UCLA, draw vs. SDSU) when it battled these teams at home earlier this month.
Having more success on the road than at home is rare, no matter what the sport. But Washington has proven that winning away from Seattle is not the challenge it's supposed to be.
The Dawgs boast a 6-2 mark away from Seattle and just a 3-2-1 record at Husky Soccer Field.
"The fact that we play well on the road will be a boost," said coach Dean Wurzberger.
But as good as the UW is on the road, these opponents are even better at home.
Neither the Aztecs (8-1-4, 1-1-3) nor the Bruins (8-3-2, 3-1-1) have dropped a match on their own pitch this season, posting 6-0-1 and 5-0-1 records, respectively.
In fact, UCLA hasn't even allowed a goal at home.
Something will have to give this weekend, in what are pivotal matches.
"They're huge," said sophomore forward Ely Allen.
The Huskies are fourth in the Pac-10, but can quickly improve their position, as UCLA and an idle Cal are above them in the standings.
Wurzberger knows that with victories, the rest will take care of itself.
"We know every game we win moves us a step closer to secure a post-season bid," he said.
No better time to hit the road.
Comments
Post a comment
You are not currently logged in. You must log in using your Facebook account to post a comment. It's fast, easy, and we don't store any of your personal information, except your first and last name when you post a comment.
Why?
Our old comment system was abused to leave racist, sexist, fradulent, or simply useless comments. We're hoping this verification step will improve the quality of our comments.
I don't have a Facebook account. I'd like to verify my identity using my MySpace/Google/Yahoo!/OpenID/SSN/주민등록번호/MasterCard.
Let us know. We're open to suggestions. Over the next few weeks, we'll be testing other authentication methods.
The FBI/CIA/TSA/CoS/Emmert is out to get me! I need to stay anonymous!
We're working on a way to allow this. If you have any ideas, email us.
I think this website is ugly.
It's going to be a work in progress all summer, so it may look and act differently from week to week. If you want to influence this process, email us. We read every email, and respond to most of them.