This post was updated Oct. 21 at 12:18 a.m.
The referee returned from the VAR review and pointed toward the Bruins’ 18-yard box.
For a second, it appeared an 89th-minute challenge had successfully yielded a penalty kick – and perhaps the best chance on goal of the night – for the Wildcats.
But the hand signal closely resembling the one for a penalty instead indicated a goal kick – and effectively the end of the game.
Having evaded a last-ditch effort to get on the scoreboard, No. 19 UCLA men’s soccer (7-2-5, 3-2-3 Big Ten) ended Monday’s affair in Evanston deadlocked 0-0 with Northwestern (5-5-3, 2-3-2).
“When he walked over, he said – I mean, he didn’t call it on the field – but he said he didn’t believe it was a penalty,” said head coach Ryan Jorden. “We looked at the video. There was no chance. My conversation with him is like, ‘Look, if he’s deliberately trying to con you,’ … it’s just one of those things where players shouldn’t be able to get away with just trying to dive and cheat the official.”
The Wildcats opened the game with an early attempt on goal after a clearing header from senior defender Tre Wright erroneously arced back into the Bruins’ six-yard box toward Ethan Nakolo’s outstretched foot in the 10th minute. The Northwestern forward took a touch before firing a close-range shot at sophomore goalkeeper Ryan Tiltack, who kicked out his right foot to deflect the ball safely to his teammate for the clear.
“Getting set and quick feet across the goal is definitely something we work on quite a lot with (assistant) coach Kary (Whitney),” Tiltack said. “On that play, I saw the ball come in behind. … He (Nakolo) was able to take a touch and pass one of our defenders, and at that point, just make yourself as big as possible and make the goal as small as possible.”
Monday marked the Toronto local’s third clean sheet of the season. Tiltack has played every game this season except for a three-game streak from Sept. 18 to Sept. 28.
Supporting him in limiting the Wildcats to zero goals off 16 shots taken was the Bruin backline, anchored once more by junior Shakir Nixon and Wright, who both played all 90 minutes.
Northwestern seemingly took advantage of UCLA’s high defensive press, bombarding the backline with through balls.
“When we’re playing against groups that only focus on hitting balls behind, for us it’s having a huge emphasis on our second balls and winning those second balls,” Nixon said. “On the flip side of that, it’s also finding times to settle down the chaos of the game. You’re playing against teams that just want to create chaos. The way to really put out the fire is to have the calm and the control in order to keep the ball and create off of that.”
After a string of miscues on attempted clears and field-switching passes in the first half, the Westwood squad found its rhythm in preventing the Wildcats from executing in the red zone.
“You enter a game feeling like somebody’s going to play in a certain manner tactically, and you can show up, and it can be completely different to what you expect,” Jorden said. “We worked to make the adjustment to both our attack and our defense as quickly as we could, but that moment came in the process of trying to organize ourselves versus how they were setting up to address us.”
UCLA similarly struggled to connect on services into Northwestern territory, taking just one shot on goal all night, courtesy of junior midfielder Albert Ruiz in the 53rd minute.
Senior midfielder Philip Naef’s shot wide of the net in the 39th minute appeared to be one of the Bruins’ better opportunities that night. Naef and Nixon helmed UCLA’s efforts to feed players in the box, which ultimately proved to be in vain. The former subbed off in the 83rd minute after being given a yellow card on a tackle before he could connect for a goal.
“They’re very direct offensively and defensively. They were just trying to limit anything that they could from us in our wide channels, and that’s where players like me and Phil operate,” Nixon said. “They were limiting everything we could play wide, and so that was – that made the game very hard for us, to be protected in the final turn.”
The Wildcats continued their offensive attack through the final whistle. It was off a long throw-in, effectively a corner kick, that a clearance from the box prompted coach Russell Payne to use his second and final challenge of the night.
It was not initially clear whether the review was aimed at awarding a corner kick or looking at grounds for a penalty. The latter ended up being the case. After a short VAR review, the referee ruled there was no excessive contact on the play, and the Bruins’ record of stymying the Wildcats on set pieces – off which they have scored 10 of their 21 goals this season – held.
“We went through all the set pieces that they had in previous games and adjusted and set our line accordingly,” Tiltack said. “The boys did a good job, a much better job tonight rather than Friday, of executing that.”
The scoreless outing came just three days after a 4-3 barnburner in Madison, when then-No. 18 Wisconsin upset then-No. 10 UCLA.
“By my estimation, this is the hardest road trip in the conference,” Jorden said. “Us and Washington are the only teams that have to go play doubles on the road this way.”
The Big Ten boasts six top 20 teams, and as the conference tournament nears, the race to be among the six teams earning a bid is heating up. But before the Bruins get another chance to claim three Big Ten points, they will face nonconference opponent University of San Diego on Sunday.
After an extended weekend of Midwest travel, UCLA will conclude the rest of its regular season at Wallis Annenberg Stadium, beginning this weekend.
“My hope is that we get a big crowd coming out on Sunday,” Jorden said. “Crowd support matters.”
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