Cal State Fullerton Men’s Soccer Team Has Narrow View of San Diego

It’s not that the soccer field seems smaller this week for Cal State Fullerton. It is smaller.

Yes, the walls are closing in on the Titan men’s soccer team, but it isn’t the pressure of the NCAA tournament that is getting to them. It’s just that they play at San Diego in a second-round game at 1 p.m. this afternoon, and the Toreros’ field is a little shorter and a little narrower than most.

So Fullerton Coach Al Mistri marked his team’s practice field 65 yards by 120 yards this week, and the Titans went to work.

“It’s a very small field, and that clearly does not favor us,” he said. “The kind of ball they play, it favors the compactness of the field.”

But given that, and given that the Titans lost, 2-1, in overtime at home to the Toreros earlier this season, Fullerton players still have this funny feeling about today’s game.

“Now that we’re past the first round, the pressure is not on us,” forward Eddie Soto said. “It’s more on USD because they were in the final last year.

“Fullerton is just a no-name team.

“I’m sure people at our school didn’t expect us to get past the first round.”

Mistri, who runs his program on a shoestring budget of about $7,500, agreed.

“No doubt,” he said. “We are not expected to do this at our school any more than any other team you barely give assistance to.

“All we’re expected to do is not make waves, do the best we can and be somewhat competitive. Don’t embarrass ourselves in our region.”

The Titans are able to offer the equivalent of only 3.1 scholarships--about 30% of the NCAA maximum.

Still, here they are, fresh off a 4-0 upset over Fresno State last Sunday in the first round.

San Diego knocked off UCLA in overtime, 4-2.

Today, Fullerton will try to keep San Diego scoreless early to avoid playing catch-up and turn opportunities into knockouts.

In the first Fullerton-San Diego game this season, the Titans blew four opportunities to take the lead.

“This is a very important game for us,” Mistri said. “I think winning this would really put the icing on the cake on a formidable season. But obviously, we want to go as far as we can--there’s no reason to stop the party now.”

Titan notes

The winner of today’s game advances to the NCAA quarterfinals next weekend against San Francisco, which defeated St. Louis, 2-1, Saturday night. . . . San Diego is expecting a crowd of about 4,000 this afternoon.