Will the ACC continue its grip on the NCAA Men’s Soccer College Cup?
Schools from college soccer’s best conference have won four of the last five national titles and the last three in a row.
UCSB broke the ACC’s string of titles with its win over UCLA in the 2006 national championship game. The Gauchos beat Wake Forest of the ACC in the semifinals in a penalty-kick shootout.
Ironically, that is the last time schools from west of the Rockies played in the College Cup.
At least college soccer fans will be spared an ACC dominated field this year. The final four last year consisted of three ACC schools, Wake Forest, North Carolina and Virginia, and Akron.
Virginia beat Akron in a penalty-kick shootout for the title.
This year, schools representing four conferences are playing in the College Cup this weekend at UCSB’s Harder Stadium: North Carolina (ACC), Akron (Mid-American), Michigan (Big Ten) and Louisville (Big East).
Friday’s semifinal matchups are North Carolina vs. Louisville at 5:30 p.m. (ESPNU) and Akron vs. Michigan at 8 p.m. (ESPN2 and ESPNU). The final is Sunday at 1 p.m. on ESPN2.
SPIRITED SENDOFF: Louisville and Akron are staging send-off parties for their soccer teams today. To promote the party and celebrate its history-making soccer team, Louisville’s athletic Website posted a terrific photo of a celebrating Charlie Campbell.
While this is Louisville’s first College Cup appearance, Campbell is playing in his second. He played for Virginia Tech in the 2007 final four.
Former UCSB player Jonathan Davis also played in two College Cups for different teams. He was on the 2001 North Carolina team that won the national title and played on the 2004 Gauchos team that lost to Indiana on penalty kicks in the final.
COMING TO TOWN: All four teams are arriving Wednesday and they will train Thursday at Westmont College.
CINDERELLA STORY: Michigan’s rise from a club program to the College Cup in 11 years is an uplifting story. But in a football-crazed state like Michigan, the fútbol Wolverines get little play in the newspapers. Their dramatic quarterfinal win at No. 2 Maryland was buried on the back pages of the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News.
The Maize and Blue have three exciting players in freshman Soony Saad, the nation’s No.2 goal scorer with 19 goals, his sophomore brother Hamoody Saad and Justin Meram.
FORGETFUL GAME: Michigan and Akron played on Oct. 19 and the Wolverines had the distinction of becoming the first visitor to score a goal on the top-ranked Zips at Lee Jackson Field. Soony Saad did the honors.
Unfortunately for Michigan, Akron put away seven for a 7-1 win.
Michigan has won nine straight since that horrible loss.
NO SNOW IN THE FORECAST: After enduring freezing temperatures and snowy conditions in their quarterfinal games, Akron and Louisville will welcome playing in dry weather in Santa Barbara. The forecast is for temperatures in the upper 40s on Friday night and 60s for the final on Sunday.
