Does anyone know if these games are being televised? Or have a link to a Live Stream? Friday, Dec. 6: No. 7 Stanford vs. No. 2 Clemson | 6 p.m. No. 1 Virginia vs. No. 8 Southern Methodist | 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7 No. 3 Georgetown vs. No. 6 Washington | Noon UC Santa Barbara vs. No. 4 Wake Forest | 5 p.m.
Man, Stanford sure knows how to get it done in PKs, doesn't it? Uncanny. Jeremy Gunn has now been to the College Cup 5 times (one of them at Charlotte) this decade (2010-2019). No other D-I men's coach has been to more than three this decade. Among the coaches to make three College Cups in the "teens" is George Gelnovatch, who will be there this season after UVa beat SMU in OT. Sasho Cirovski, Todd Yeagley, Carlos Somoano, Elmar Bolowich (1 at UNC, 2 at Creighton) and Jared Embick also made three this decade. Yeah, it's an arbitrary 10-year time period, but that's how we tend to break things down in our society. Regardless, it's still impressive.
Embick made it to three College Cups in his first six years as a head coach. I'm pretty sure that's a record.
Close. Harry Keough took over SLU in 1967 and made the Final Four in 7 of his first eight seasons and won 5 national titles. Different era, of course. Embick has definitely established himself as a worthy heir to Porter.
UCSB dominates the first half against Wake, then Wake gets a somewhat lucky goal in the last minute, and takes control in the second half. Wake 1-0.
Wake has sleep-walked through every first half thus far in the tournament. (They also did it against UVA in the ACC semi.) Need to get that figured out by Friday... I stand by that it was a great goal though, although having your right back dribble through the entire team and nutmeg two players isn't necessarily sustainable.
You'd think Stanford's opponents would have a pretty good book on PK tendencies at this point. Maybe England should hire Gunn as a consultant.
It's Stanford's goalkeeping that's winning the SOs, at least this year. Why does anyone kick low and to the left against this Cardinal GK? (Too lazy to look up his name, sorry …)
You are asking someone else to do homework when you are admittedly too lazy to even find Cardinal GK’s name?
Georgetown advances to the final with a 2-0 win over Stanford, a game in which they were dominant for most of it. First time in seven College Cup games under Jeremy Gunn that Stanford has allowed a goal. Hoyas advance to their second final; they fell to Indiana in 2012.
UVa holds on to advance, 2-1. Dike scores two really good first half goals and then held-off Wake, which got a late PK after Chol, who was really good in the second half, was taken down in the box. Virginia-Georgetown in the final.
I am now dry and warm after coming back from Cary. Some thoughts... - Thought Georgetown looked as good as advertised. Stanford really looked bereft of ideas once Georgetown started winning all the first/second long balls that Stanford tried. - That corner with the slip-n-slide was just ridiculous. Borderline unplayable. They tried blowers and squeegees at halftime of the first game and in between the games (strangely, not during halftime of the second game)... it really didn't matter much. - To that end, it wasn't bad for the first game, but the rain came down a bit harder and the temperature dropped for the second game; that plus nervous energy of watching my team play (and lose) made for a rough 2 hours. - All four teams had noticeable fan sections, which was a pleasant surprise given the weather. Not a surprise that Wake brought the biggest crowd given its proximity. I suspect there should be a good crowd on Sunday once the weather clears up. - Proud of my Deacs and congrats to the Hoos. Dike's goals were both outstanding, but thought Wake did a much better job shading a second person on him in the second half and fought really hard til the end. Didn't think UVA looked great (horribly biased, of course, but I would say that Wake maybe played slightly better on the night but didn't finish chances well) except for the defensive solidarity; my sense is they'll need to play a bit more sharply or else Georgetown will run through them on Sunday.
I guess I'll also say (upon further reflection): often times in single elimination tournaments you have a Cinderella making a deep run. While everyone loves that underdog story, it also doesn't necessarily reflect what transpired over the course of the entire season. With apologies to Clemson, I think it's pretty clear that UVA and Georgetown have been the consistently best teams over the course of this entire year, and either will make an entirely deserving champion.
I dunno, the Stanford fans have all left town, and the local team is out. Virginia and Georgetown fans will still be there of course, and maybe a few more local fans of the sport will decide to come, but that effect is usually small.
It's actually not *that* much further to Cary from Charlottesville than from Winston (maybe an extra 90 minutes or so); tack on maybe an extra 30-40 minutes from NoVa/DC. Also, both of those schools have significantly larger student bodies/alumni bases than Wake. I do think there will be sizable local turnout with better weather as well, as the Triangle has a solid soccer-supporting community.
I haven't been able to find the attendance figure for yesterday's semifinal games. Edit - 9862 (found it)
According to the TV announcers, attendance at the final is "over 8000". And it's 3-3 at the end of regulation! Terrific game, highest scoring final since 1980 (USF over Indiana, 4-3 OT). It's an old cliche, but it is really is a shame that one team will have to lose this one.