After a relatively easy opening weekend against the Arizona schools, the Oregon soccer team (4-9-0, 1-1-0) will take on the big girls of the Pacific-10 Conference this weekend in southern California.
After finding their offense last weekend, the Ducks will find out this weekend if they are, in fact, for real. Oregon will take on No. 13 Southern California today and No. 7 UCLA Sunday.
The Ducks will head into this weekend’s games with a revamped offense and a revamped attitude. The Ducks split their first two Pac-10 games against the Arizona schools last weekend, and came within eight minutes of a sweep before Arizona State scored two goals in the waning moments of Friday’s game.
Oregon head coach Bill Steffen dismissed Sunday’s win against Arizona as unimportant. He wants his team to improve every time they take the field.
“I told the kids I think we can get better,” Steffen said. “Our goal is to develop every game, so we’ve got to play better this weekend.”
Steffen has said all season that his team needs to be stronger mentally and thought that they did that against Arizona last Sunday.
“I’m happy to see us play intelligently as well as giving a great physical effort,” Steffen said.
The biggest change for Oregon in last weekend’s games was the offense. Playing without three key members, the offense stepped up and scored three goals — all at the feet of junior forward Chalise Baysa — and the Ducks won their second game in four tries.

“When you don’t score goals for a while, the hardest thing is to score that first goal,” Steffen said. “So when Chalise scored that goal against Arizona State, that was a great goal because we scored two more against Arizona. We’re going to have to build on that and take it into this weekend.”
They will have to build fast because the Ducks are about to face two of the toughest teams in the Pac-10.
USC has one of the best records in the league at 8-1-2. Since a 2-1 loss to No. 23 Florida, the Trojans are 3-0-2 and will carry a five-game unbeaten streak into Friday’s matchup with the unranked Ducks. In USC’s first Pac-10 game last week against UCLA, the Trojans tied the Bruins 1-1.
UCLA’s record is even more formidable than USC’s. The Bruins lost 1-0 to No. 5 Clemson to start the season, then rattled off nine straight victories before tying with the Trojans last weekend. UCLA gave up only two goals during that nine-game stretch, and has given up only four goals on the year.
While USC has stumbled against top-ranked opponents, UCLA has moved up in the national rankings by beating some of the country’s top teams. The Bruins beat No. 23 Florida and No. 24 Marquette by a combined score of 9-1.
“SC and UCLA are really good teams,” Baysa said. “But I think we’ll continue to get better and hopefully we’ll surprise them.”
If the Ducks do sweep this weekend, the only people who won’t be surprised — or satisfied — will be the players themselves.