KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Midfielder
Scot Thompson juggles a ball on the steps of
Men’s Gym. His quickness and passion have helped the team
earn a No. 1 rank.
By Chris Umpierre
Daily Bruin Staff
It was a sight Scot Thompson won’t soon forget.
Indiana had just defeated the UCLA men’s soccer team 3-2
in a quadruple overtime NCAA semifinal, ending not only the
Bruins’ 1999 season, but the collegiate careers of 10
players, several of who just lost it.
The players fell to the ground in disgust after the game and
began to cry as their last shot for a national title fell to the
wayside.
“I felt so sorry for (Steve) Shak, Sasha (Victorine) and
all the seniors because they were just bawling on the field,”
said Thompson, who as a freshman had scored the game-tying goal to
push the game into overtime.
“It was hard to watch.”
Thompson has used the memory of that difficult defeat to inspire
himself in the off-season and he has carried that into the regular
season. Behind the sophomore defender’s leadership and play,
the Bruins are
3-0 and after four weeks of play are ranked No. 1 in the
nation.
The speedy and athletic Thompson already has two goals in the
young season, including a goal against archrival Indiana.
Spearheaded by Thompson’s goal, the Bruins beat the then-No.
1 Hoosiers 2-1 in Bloomington, Ind. on Sept. 2.
While Thompson admits Indiana is not close to the team it was
last season, it was still sweet to get some revenge.
“I was going crazy after I scored,” he said.
“I wanted to go in the stands and laugh at all of
them.”
UCLA head coach Todd Saldaña said, “Before the game,
I talked a lot about the players that couldn’t be there to
seek the revenge. We weren’t just playing for ourselves; we
were playing for the 10 players that had to leave with that bad
taste in their mouth.
“I think Scot, in particular, took last year’s
result to heart and wanted to set it straight,” he added.
He took it to heart because he had grown close to the seniors
last season, learning from the likes of current Los Angeles Galaxy
midfielders Victorine and Pete Vagenas, and New York/ New Jersey
Metrostars defender Shak. To see them leave college with a loss was
tough to swallow.
Last year’s UCLA Rookie of the Year, who started eight
games as a freshman, constantly received instruction from the
upperclassmen.
He said, in the end, that he learned from the seniors how to use
his speed with skill. He learned where to find guys and who to play
the ball to.
With the seniors gone, Thompson has taken more of a leadership
role this season.
“He wants to be a team leader this year,” senior
defender Ryan Lee said. “Last year he kind of took the back
seat, he didn’t really want the ball. He’d be in the
game but he didn’t ask for the ball.
“This year he’s demanding the ball,” Lee
added.
Thompson sees the difference as well.
“I’m a lot more focused on what I need to do,”
he said. “I’m not saying I’m the perfect player
now. I’m saying I’m getting better as a player,
I’m making fewer mistakes. I think now as an older player I
have to set the example for the freshman coming in.”
The transformation really began during that fateful Final Four
match.
After being inserted into the game with 14 minutes left and his
Bruins down two goals, Thompson gave a preview of what to expect
from him in the coming years.
Hoping for a spark, Saldaña decided to send Thompson in not
as a defender but as a forward.
“I hadn’t played forward since I was a little
kid,” Thompson said. “So I have no idea what I’m
doing. At first I wasn’t doing the stuff they wanted me to
do. So they had to calm me down and say, “˜Scot, win head
balls and stay close to Sasha.'”
The coaching staff had to calm him down because he had a good
case of the butterflies.
“I was so nervous going into the game,” he said.
“I’ve never been on live television before. It was a
huge stadium (Erickson stadium in Charlotte, N.C.). Lights
everywhere.”
A minute after he entered the game, Shak was able to find the
net after a Bruin corner kick.
Instead of celebrating, Thompson, thinking like a senior,
immediately jumped into the goal to grab the ball in order to get
play restarted as quickly as possible.
“That’s the type of player he is,”
Saldaña said. “He’s a winner. In every game in
practice he’s the guy that’s keeping score. Whether
it’s a one-on-one drill or it’s 11-on-11 full field
he’s the guy whose always paying attention to the
score.”
Then at the 82nd minute mark, Thompson broke free from the
defense and Victorine found him with a perfect crossing ball that
Thompson headed past the Indiana keeper to complete the Bruin
comeback.
“That’s the most important goal of my life so
far,” he said. “But I’d rather not have scored
that goal than not have us win the game. To me the win is the
important thing, not the goal.”
Lee said, “He played solid for us in that game. He did
what he was asked to do. They gave him a specific job and he
performed it perfectly. Scot was a good addition to our team last
year and we expect a lot out of him this year.”
While UCLA didn’t end up winning that day, Thompson
figures the Bruins will get other chances at winning a national
title during his stay in Westwood. And he’ll use the memory
of that tough loss to help get his team back to the Final Four.
“I remember after the game thinking in the back of my mind
that I still have three more years,” Thompson said. “I
knew I had to work my butt off in the next three.”
He has gotten off to a good start.