Home Away From Home Doesn’t Help UCLA Soccer : Bruins: Defending NCAA champions were nomads while their field was refurbished. The result was three early losses.

Last year, UCLA’s soccer team won the national championship. But when the Bruins started this season, they didn’t even have a field to call their own.

Forced to play their first eight games on the road--even their one home game--the Bruins struggled.

A year ago, they lost only once in 20 games.

This year, with more than a month left in the regular season, they are 8-3 and eighth-ranked.

The third loss came Friday night at the University of San Francisco. The 19th-ranked Dons (12-2) won, 1-0, on a first-half goal by Angelo Sablo.

And in their opener, against Santa Barbara’s Westmont College--an NAIA school--UCLA barely won, 3-2.

So is Coach Sigi Schmid worried? Not so anyone could tell.

Schmid, who has coached the Bruins for 12 years, said that the early season disruption had been tough on his team.

The Bruins were unable to play or practice on their own campus field, which was being refurbished.

They spent most of September on the road after the Westmont opener at El Camino College in Torrance, where they will play several other night games.

“Every time your team is on the road, it’s going to be tough to win,” Schmid said. “We have the toughest schedule in the country. Everybody we have played at this point of the season has been ranked in the top 20, with the exception of Hartford, who then got in the top 20 after they played us.”

Mike Woitalla, a senior editor for Soccer America, disagrees with Schmid’s contention that UCLA has the toughest schedule.

“Because they didn’t schedule Santa Clara, the schedule looked a bit weaker than what might be expected from the national champions,” he said.

Once back on their own field, though, the Bruins reverted to form, beating Cal State Los Angeles on Sept. 29, 3-0, then beating San Diego on Sunday, 2-0.

Despite those shutouts, UCLA might not be as strong as last year’s team. The graduation of Billy Thompson and Ray Fernandez, and the unexpected loss of Chris Henderson, hit the Bruins hard.

Henderson--his younger brother, Sean, remains on the team--left with a year of eligibility remaining to join the national team. His departure left affected the offense.

“We really didn’t have any time to work on anything in the spring and we didn’t want to change things right away,” Schmid said of the loss of Chris Henderson.

Last year’s team used five midfielders, but Schmid said that was only possible because it had Chris Henderson and Cobi Jones attacking from both sides of the field.

Now, only Jones remains, and to compensate for the loss of Henderson, the Bruins have changed to a 4-4-2 alignment.

Despite the early season defeats, Schmid says the Bruins are on the right track. And losing a game or two early might not be all bad, he added.

“After the 1985 season (the first national championship season for UCLA), we went undefeated in the regular season in 1986,” he said. “In retrospect, I wish we would have lost one or maybe two during the season.”

He said that a team’s flaws usually are not taken seriously by players when they are winning.

“But losing a game or two, they focus a little harder.”

Players said the two early losses have not affected their outlook.

“Every team is pumped up to play (the national champions) and we expect it,” sophomore midfielder Joe-Max Moore said. “Every college game is a battle.”

Added defenseman Mike Lapper: “Every team is going to come out at us, and we just have to pick it up a notch.”

Jones, however, suggests that the Bruins have not played quite as well as expected.

“We’re UCLA,” he said. “We should be dominating.”

Whether or not UCLA is playing up to expectations, there is some agreement that the team can repeat as national champion.

“They lost two games that were very difficult, one to Washington on artificial turf,” Woitalla said. “But I would say UCLA will still be a part of the final four.”

Coach Leonardo Cuellar of Cal State Los Angeles agreed.

“The Bruins always get better and better as the season goes on,” he said. “They will be there for the championship.”