2010 NCAA Soccer Tournament (Round 1 Run-Down)

I am going to post predictions for all of the first round games of the NCAA tournament. While I was at Winthrop, we played six of the teams that are in this year’s tournament: College of Charleston, William and Mary, Coastal Carolina, Duke, UNC Greensboro, and South Carolina, and went 6-4 in games with them. I’ll try to reason my picks for these team’s games based on experience seeing their team, their schedule this year, and/or if home field advantage would be applicable.

From my experience in 2008 at my team’s NCAA first round match against William & Mary, even geographic location can cause significant differences in these games. Playing in 0 degree windchill (somewhat normal for a Virginia team) when the temperature hasn’t felt but 20 degrees all year for your team definitely makes a difference in a match.

And with that… here are my predictions.

College of Charleston 2 vs East Tennessee State 0 

Having played at College of Charleston with their stands packed, I can guarantee they will have a large turnout (over 1,000) for the first round match, creating a very hostile environment for Atlantic Sun Conference champs East Tennessee State.

Providence 2 vs St. Peter’s 1 

Monmouth 1 - Dartmouth 0

Santa Clara 2 - Sacramento State 1 

Creighton 2 - New Mexico 0

Princeton 2 - University of Maryland Baltimore County 0

Michigan State 1 - Oakland 0

UNC-Greensboro 1 - Georgetown 0

Wow, if I had the funds and time to travel to any first round match of my choice on Thursday, this would be the match. Georgetown has the upper-hand playing at home, but that didn’t stop UNCG in 2008 when they traveled to Duke. UNCG has advanced to the sweet 16 the past four tournaments they’ve been in. I’d say Georgetown definitely had the stronger schedule this year, with a trip out west and playing in the Big East. The Hoyas were an early out in the Big East tournament, losing to Providence in the quarterfinals, while UNCG has had an opposite lead up to the NCAAs, winning the SoCon regular season and tournament titles. I think UNCG’s history in the first round and end of season momentum takes them to Chapel-Hill for the second round.

UNCG vs NCAA teams this year: W Duke, L UNC, L Creighton, W William & Mary, D College of Charleston.

Georgetown vs NCAA teams this year: W MichSt, L New Mexico, L Denver, D Princeton, L UPenn, W West Virginia, W/L Providence, W UConn, L Notre Dame.

West Virginia 2 - Xavier 0

Tulsa 1 - Bradley 0

Boston College 2 - Brown 1

UC Santa Barbara 2 - Denver 0

Duke 3 - Coastal Carolina 1

After my Winthrop team lost in the first round last year to Duke 3-2, I was hoping that I could somehow find some revenge over the Blue Devils. I went to see my friend who plays for Wake Forest play at Duke in the last regular season game of the year, with Duke wining 2-1. Duke looked extremely sharp. With the ACC Offensive Player of the year Sophomore forward Ryan Finley, and a host of other quality players, Coastal Carolina is going to have to bring a lot more than an upset win in the Big South Conference tournament to compete with #24 Duke. Playing in Durham will be very hostile, as the students will come out in large numbers for this NCAA match. They can be over-the-top rude though… not very classy. 

UCF 2 - South Florida 0

With three of my former Georgia ODP teammates playing for UCF, I’m looking for them to make a deep run in the tournament. Furman transfer Warren Creavalle, along with Cameron Cooksey and Kevan George are three key members of this C-USA team that has proven itself this year so far. Looking ahead at the bracket, if they win this crucial match, no team looks too much for the Knights. I think they could be elite-8 quality. If not this year, then next year when these guys are seniors.

Virginia 3 - Old Dominion 0

Have to give the reigning champs something!

UPenn 2 - Bucknell 0

Can’t wait to follow all the matches on Thursday!

NCAA Tournament Central:

Interactive Bracket PDF Bracket

Soccer, soccer

With a little unease, I read the selections for the 2010 Men’s Soccer Tournament and my entire soccer past hit me hard, right in the face. I want to be there. I belong there.

Without going into too much deep thought and useless banter of how soccer has been my life, how I still can’t go a few days in a row with out picking up the ball and getting a couple hundred juggles in, dreaming about making through-balls in my sleep (not a joke), etc… I still am questioning myself when these thoughts of uneasiness will go away, if ever.

To calm myself, I have to think back when I actually was experiencing all my hardships of injury and constant rehabilitation that caused my spark to transfer in the first place. I definitely wouldn’t have left my sport and my team if I wasn’t actually feeling exhausted and completely worn out. College soccer is a job, no exaggeration there. Twenty-five plus hours a week invested. Almost all of those hours can be the best of your life (besides the two or three devoted to straight fitness and conditioning) if you are healthy and out of the training room. However, this time can feel like fifty plus hours if it is not spent as it is intended to be. On crutches, in a boot, in normal shoes, on the sidelines, not allowed to run, just walk. In an hour early before practice for rehab and treatment and staying late after practice for more treatment. After one or two of these injuries, it’s not a big deal. It’s actually kind of nice, a little break from the go, go, go of training and the season. However, after two or so of these instances, all of the fitness your body achieved has diminished and you must start over. When you work so hard in rehab and get your spirits up to actually play again, but end up pulling your calf in sprints the last five minutes of practice, knowing that the next week is going to be filled with more rehab, more minutes in the ice whirlpool, and ultimately, more minutes off the pitch and on the sidelines, exactly the opposite place you want to be. Not a fun place to be.

I feel like that’s why my coaches responded with such a positive attitude. I know they saw potential in me to be a player, as they started me or put me in games when I was healthy, but they also understand the effects of consistent injury on a college athlete and know that this is definitely not everything life boils down to. In the end, it is only a game. But I do wish I could be back under the lights of NCAA Division 1 soccer playing, or at least videotaping up high in the stands and hanging with my teammates. I know the friendships I made at Winthrop on my team will last a lifetime. When you’re with a group of guys seven days a week, you have a special bond. My time with them is priceless in my mind! On that thought, I really need to go see them and let them know that!

So to answer the previous question, when will these feelings of unease go away? I don’t think they will. But I know that is normal, because I have a passion for the game I was born to play. I don’t believe God gave me talent and allowed me to play for almost twenty years of my life just for me to get a scholarship and play at the highest amateur level in college. I know soccer is something that I will carry with me much further down the road, either it be through coaching the youth and my children, teaching them a sport that has changed my life and will change theirs, or connecting with people across country borders in under-deserved areas of the world; unable to communicate verbally, but completely able to communicate through a ball and two feet. I know soccer is in my life for a reason. And that reason may have been for only two years of division one soccer instead of four! Soccer is life, and always will be!

On that long, boisterous note… I think I am going to post predictions for all of the first round games of the NCAA tournament. 

Arsenal With the Road Win

Arsenal with a solid win today. Stellar.