On Friday Sept. 4, several UCLA soccer players waited to use the portable bathroom outside the team’s trailer at Ludwig Field. “Only one bathroom?!” cried a Terrapin soccer fan in mock disbelief. “What gives?!”

A couple players shook their heads. One smiled. The game hadn’t started, but The Crew was already making it’s presence felt as the most loyal — and vocal — supporters of collegiate soccer.

Michael Katz is a staff writer and internet expert for The Diamondback. He can be reached at mkatzdbk@gmail.com

You know you’re in preseason mode when one of the most exciting things to note thus far about the Maryland men’s soccer team — besides their torrid preseason goal-a-game pace — is the new threads (or kits, for the football-literate) coach Sasho Cirovski’s boys sported today on Ludwig Field.

So while Thursday’s match against Villanova wasn’t exactly a delightful display of “the beautiful game,” it still had its share of good aesthetics.

Certainly among them was the game’s lone goal, a 20-yard left-footed volley from senior midfielder Drew Yates that found its way past a diving Chris Bresnahan. (“I don’t know where that came from,” joked Yates, a natural “righty.”)

Yates has played probably more or as many minutes as any of the team’s non-defenders, and if you ask him, he’ll tell you he wants this to be his team. More on that below as I empty out the notebook:

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First off, I hate D.C. traffic. Compound the absurdly slow movement on Connecticut Ave. and Nebraska Ave. with my absent sense of direction (wait, the soccer field is behind the tennis courts — what?), and you have one peeved beat writer missing the men’s soccer team’s first goal of the season, albeit an unofficial one.

Here’s what was worth noting from today’s 1-1 draw at American: (more…)

Just this afternoon, UMTerps.com posted a press release indicating that there’s yet another member of the men’s soccer 2009 signing class: Dominican Republic national team player Gonzalo Frechilla.

Frechilla, 18, had been with the Argentine club Nueva Chicago, but according to the always-accurate Babel Fish translation of the first Web site that broke the news, he “decided to change of course realising a right decision, when obtaining to play soccer is this university.” Or, in actual English, he hadn’t caught on as he’d hoped in the professional ranks in Latin America and soon realized that the reigning national collegiate champion might be able to help him out professionally and academically. (more…)

Maryland goalkeeper Zac MacMath’s European adventure shouldn’t exactly be considered a vacation.

MacMath was recently in Portugal for an international tournament that had its ups and downs. MacMath and his U-18 teammates beat Finland and drew Germany, but he also suffered a minor elbow injury in a 1-0 loss to Portugal.

Next up for MacMath are the Maccabi Games in July, an international competition held in Israel where he’ll represent the U.S. team.

After that, it’s on to Northern Ireland for another national team event.

When that ends, MacMath will finally head back stateside for the start of the Terp soccer preseason. It’ll be quite the journey, but his depleted defense will need all the progress and experience it can get.

As for his fall plans? Well, speculation that he might be named to the U-20 roster for the upcoming U-20 World Cup in September/October now seems unfounded. MacMath was not among 18 players coach Thomas Rongen will take to Cairo in preparation for the event. Expect to see him in Colombia for the 2011 edition, though.

Jonas Shaffer is The Diamondback’s men’s soccer beat writer. He can be reached at shaffer@umdbk.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/jonas_shaffer.