How about some love for soccer?

Westwood Wizard — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 18:31:30 -0000

I know we're all geeked over Howland landing Holiday, and are getting ready for football season.

But chances are, you've been missing some talented Bruins making a big name for themselves the past few weeks.

Some of the hottest young players in American soccer are UCLA Bruins.

You might have heard that a few weeks ago the US won the Gold Cup, the regional tournament for North and Central America, and the Caribbean (the CONCACAF federation). Perhaps you saw Benny Feilhabers's amazing volley, which was the winner against Mexico in the final.

Feilhaber played for UCLA in 2003-2004, and impressed the German team Hamburg, who signed him. Also playing that day was defender Jonathan Bornstein, another recent UCLA player (2004-2005), who now plays for Chivas USA in Major League Soccer. Going even further back, the captain of the US team, Carlos Bocanegra, is also a Bruin (1997-1999, he currently plays for Fulham in England) and Frankie Hejduk (1993-1995, plays for Columbus Crew in MLS) was also on the Gold Cup roster.

Unfortunately, Feilhaber, joined by Bornstein and another former Bruin, Marvell Wynne, have not done very well--nor has the US team as a whole--in Venezuela for Copa America, currently on-going. But there's another international tournament where current Bruins are shining. The Under-20s World Cup, going on in Canada, and two UCLA juniors, Sal Zizzo and Tony Beltran, set up goals in the last game for the US, against Poland.

Freddy Adu will get all of the recognition for his goals, but Zizzo absolutely made the first two.

You can see how our Bruins perform--the US plays Colombia in the Copa America, Thursday at 3:30pm (TeleFutura and GolTV). This will likely be the last game for the Americans in Venezuela. More promisingly, the US under-20s play the final group game against Brazil on Friday at 4:30pm (Galavision and ESPNU), and will likely advance to the next round of the tournament.

SB Nation User Blog: Westwood Wizard

How about some love for soccer?