Playing two games in California is quite a way to begin the season for the Terrapin men’s soccer team.
And for Maurice Edu, Chris Seitz and Robbie Rogers, it gets even better: They’re going home.
The No. 3-ranked Terps kick off their season tonight at Cal State Fullerton, and then head about 30 miles north to renew one of college soccer’s premier rivalries when they play at No. 4 UCLA Sunday.
Terp coach Sasho Cirovski said his California-born players will “add a little spice” to the rivalry with UCLA.
The Terps have played the Bruins three of the past four years, including a 2-1 loss in the 2002 College Cup semifinals. In 2003, the Terps exacted some revenge, topping UCLA 1-0 at home in front of the seventh-largest crowd for a non-NCAA tournament contest.
Edu, a sophomore midfielder from Fontana, Calif., is expected to have a breakout season after sitting out with a knee injury much of last year and will start for the Terps tonight.
“It’s always exciting to play in front of your friends and family being that [California] is all the way across the country,” Edu said. “And UCLA, I know basically the whole team. So I’m looking foward to that game a lot.”
Among Edu’s UCLA friends are sophomore defender Marvell Wynne, a member of the 25-player Hermann Trophy Watch List, and junior starting defender Brandon Owens.
Seitz, a freshman and a San Luis Obispo native, Calif., is locked in a battle with senior Craig Salvati for the starting job of goalkeeper. Seitz will be reunited with the Bruins’ freshman midfielder Jason Leopoldo, who he lived with last year while both attended the Los Angeles-area Thousand Oaks High School.
Cirovski said Salvati would likely start tonight in goal.
Rogers is a highly recruited freshman midfielder from Huntington Beach, Calif., but he will not play this weekend because he underwent arthroscopic knee surgery about six weeks ago. Cirovski hopes Rogers will be back by mid-September.
Before the much-anticipated UCLA game, the Terps play an unranked Cal State Fullerton team that is coming off a 6-10-2 season.
“Fullerton really concerns me,” Cirovski said. “Last year, they lost a lot of games by one. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re a top-20 team during the year and a team that makes the NCAA tournament, and yet they’re not a widely known team.”
Tonight’s game is also the season opener for the Titans.
“There’s so many good players out in California so we’re not going to take them lightly at all — and especially since it’s the first game of the year,” senior forward Jason Garey said. “We want to come out and set a good tone for the season.”
Contact reporter Daniel Chiat at chiatdbk@gmail.com.
