The team celebrate their second title ever

For this team, who had been the best squad in the land for most of the season, compiling a 21-2-3 overall record, 5-1-2 in the conference, showed the college soccer landscape that the squad was up to the pre-season hype. And just like Sunday’s game showed, soccer is a team game, where both the offense and the defense have to play well in order to come out with a win, it’s nice to see that individuals on this team were also awarded with accolades. Senior defender Matt Hedges and junior Enzo Martinez (middi) and Billy Schuler (forward) were named to the College Soccer News All-American team. Martinez had gotten third team last year, and also earned a spot on the All-Tournament. With him Speas, Schuler and senior middi Kirk Urso were also selected.

With the hardware been handed out for Men’s soccer five out of the seven championships are now done for the fall season. Standford is first in the second edition of the Director’s Cup, with a total of 260 points, six points behind them is UNC, thanks to the first place in Men’s Soccer, second place in field hockey and ninth in Women’s Soccer. Even more impressive is that Carolina heads three ACC teams in the Top 5, with Maryland being third (228 points), FSU fourth (217 points), and two more in the Top 10, having Duke sixth and Boston College 9th.

As I continue to re-gather myself as things settle down in my family’s life, let’s check out some news from football, but not the american one, the most popular sport in the world, also called soccer. There are three pieces of news that are worthy to report: a while back North Carolina had to replace their Men’s head coach after a long tenure on the bench, the Women’s head coach, Anson Dorrance, was interviewed by Soccer America, and finally the U.S. Women’s Soccer team had a friendly last night against Japan and it was an ex Lady Heel leading the way for the squad in Cary, N.C. Yes, it’s a lot of news, and all worth it, as North Carolina has always been very famous for this sport and giving the world plenty of great players at the next level.

I know this is not much of a post for what is a great sport at the University of North Carolina, but as I said, I am trying to come back from my person things at home and I wanted to give a shout out to the sport!

Men & Women Soccer

For those of us that love all sports UNC here is some more good news from the Atlantic Coast Conference, who puts both the Men’s and Women’s soccer teams atop of the conference. As I talked about in my post yesterday the Lady Heels have begun well their season, going 2-0 over the past weekend, including a 3 to 0 win over a Top 10 squad in Texas A&M. For the Men’s squad, coached by Elmar Bolowich, are not just top in the ACC, but is ranked top in the nation by Top Drawer Soccer.

On the men’s side North Carolina, which lost only four seniors from last year, got a total of 78 votes (10 more than second place Maryland) and 6 first place votes (MD & BC both got one apiece). In 2009 the Tar Heels finished tied for first in the conference and went all the way to the semis in the NCAA Tournament. While for the women the Lady Heels will be going for their six straight ACC championship, received 113 votes (BC got 111), while getting 5 first place votes (the Eagles got 4). Others receiving first place votes were FSU and UVa with one apiece. Last year we all know what the Lady Heels, won another title under head coach Anson Dorrance.

2010 Women's Soccer Team (Picture from TarHeelBlue.com)

While we are all waiting for North Carolina’s football team to take the field against LSU in less than two weeks, another program began its season at Chapel Hill. The Women’s Soccer squad, who are defending champions and ranked 2nd in the Soccer America poll and first in the NSCAA one, began their season this weekend with two wins. Add to that two seniors, middi Ali Hawkins and defender Rachel Givan, were named to the Soccer America Women’s pre-season All-American squad, which shows once again how head coach Anson Dorrance keeps the talent coming in year in, year out. And to top it all off, senior midfielder Meghan Klingenberg, who scored and had an assist in the first game of the tournament, was named the Progress Energy Performer of the Week.

But let’s talk about the two games for a minute. The first game was against eighth ranked Texas A&M, which by no means is an easy game. Yet, with five returning starters the Lady Heels made it seem pretty easy in front of 2,822 fans in the Aggies’ home stadium. But for coach Dorrance’s club that field brought luck, as his squad won the national championship just a season ago, and it would once again bring him and his team luck, as the Carolina would take down Texas A&M by a final of 3-0. The three tallies all came from UNC middies, including the above mentioned Klingenberg, who had the game winner in this game with just three minutes gone by. It was a nice goal set up by a pair of middies, freshman Meg Morris, who would win a 50-50 ball in the midfield and find senior Ali Hawkins, who would then send it to Klingenberg. A couple of good dribbles, a good shot and the Heels were ahead 1-0, and were ahead to stay.

Even if the shots on goal favored the Aggies 9 to 7 it was the Lady Heels that would score once again in the first half, when on a corner senior defender Rachel Givan placed the ball into the middle of the box where Ali Hawkins headed it inside the right post for a 2-0 lead. The third goal, scored in the second half, was a header, as Klingenberg took control of a 50-50 ball just outside the opposition’s 18 and crossed it perfectly into sophomore midfielder Amber Brooks’ path, who nailed it far past past the outstretched hands of the Aggies’ goalie. While all of UNC gave fits to the Texas A&M keeper their own would be making some sort of record as freshman Anna Sieloff became the first Heel to start her career with a shutout since Jenni Branam in 1999.

For more info on this game you can check out the details on UNC Athletic Page. There you can also see the box score.

In the second game the score was the same (3-0), and the way the Lady Heels won was as well, by dominating the action against Michigan State. Carolina got a balanced scoring effort with sophomore attacker Alyssa Rich scoring the game winner and getting the assist on the next one. Two forward freshmen, Kealia Ohai and Elizabeth Burchenal got their feet wet in this game, with Ohai scoring her first ever goal as a Lady Heel while her counterpart getting her first ever assist as a Carolina player.

Just like in game one of the tournament head coach Anson Dorrance’s club came out strong and got a goal out of it. In less than five minutes the Lady Heels were ahead one nothing thanks to the nice play of junior forward Courtney Jones, who dribbled past her marker and put a cross into the box where Rich one timed it from about 10 feet out to put Lady Heels up to stay. After the break UNC scored once again, this time it was Rich making the cross into the box, where Ohai claimed it, juked two defenders and hit the ball lazer hard into the goal from point blank range. With about a third of the half to go UNC went ahead 3-0 on MSU with a breakaway goal by Bartok, who split the defense off a feed from Burchenal and then beat the goalie on a 1 on 1 situation by hitting the ball past the keeper from 40 feet out.

For more info on this game you can check out the details on UNC Athletic Page. There you can also see the box score.

If you want to check out the team in action you don’t have much to wait as they will be playing Friday and Sunday next weekend in the Carolina Nike Classic at Fetzer Field. On Friday, it will first be 24th ranked Duke versus Missouri at 4 p.m. EST. followed by the night cap featuring the top two teams in the nation, Carolina and Stanford, the game scheduled to start at 6 p.m. For those of you that do not remember, or do not follow soccer too much, this is a re-match of the `09 NCAA championship game which was won by Carolina 1-0 over an unbeaten and untied Stanford. Sunday’s games will be first Stanford and Duke in an 11 a.m. start followed by UNC vs Missouri.

Mia Hamm (GoogleSearch)

But when it comes to Mia Hamm’s career there is no way you can not talk about what she did for the U.S. Women’s team (on and off the field). She was part of that squad for 275 games (from 1987 to 2004) where she had a total of 158 goals. At nineteen, playing in the `98 World Cup, Hamm became the youngest american to win the championship. Just a couple of months before she announced her retirement in March `04, Hamm and former teammate Michelle Akers were the only two women, and the only two Americans, named to the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living soccer players selected by Pele` and commissioned by FIFA for that organization’s 100th anniversary.

Once again, Happy Birthday to Mia Hamm!

I wrote in a small post about defender/middi Zach Loyd being the fifth pick overall in the MLS SuperDraft. Along with Loyd, another Tar Heel, Jordan Graye, was also chosen. Graye, who is a defender, went in the fourth round to DC United, which could make him a home town favorite as the senior for head coach Elmar Bolowich, is a Washington native and played high school soccer at DeMatha Catholic. Graye only missed one game in the last two seasons at North Carolina, and finished his 2009 season with seven points, by scoring two goals and recording three assists. Will be interesting to follow both of these young men, as well as the other Tar Heels in the MLS, this season and see how they do.

As I do with all the Tar Heels, let me wish both Jordan Graye and Zach Loyd all the best as they begin the next chapter of their soccer career.

Zach Loyd

From a small article on MLS.net there is mention of one of the Tar Heels, senior middi/defender Zach Loyd, who this year had 2 goals and 2 assists while starting every game in the 2009 season for head coach Elmar Bolowich. Zach Loyd was also named to first-team Soccer America MVP selection just a couple of day ago. As we all know this season’s team made it to the Final Four, losing to Akron 5-4 (in penalties) in the semi finals. Well, the senior is now going to be doing his great work at the next level, as he has signed a Major League Soccer contract, which will mean you can follow him next year in the pro’s.

As I do with every other Tar Heel let me congratulate and wish all the best to Loyd as he begins the next chapter in his soccer career.

While this is the football and basketball season for most fans, for me, who loves a lot more sports than just those two, it’s soccer (the other football) time. North Carolina women’s team (22-3-1), led by head coach Anson Dorrance, was able to find a way to beat Notre Dame (21-4-1) by the final of 1-0 and advanced to its 23rd championship game against Stanford (25-0). It was thanks to Casey Nogueira, who has been on fire through out the playoff, who found the back of the net with just seven minutes to go before the end of regulation. But this game was definitely not easy for the Lady Heels!

Coach Dorrance has always said that he would like to see a goal for ever ten shots. The Heels, who ended up with 26 shots overall (against 8 for the Irish), had taken 23 before the senior forward was able to hit the ball into the Irish’s goal from about two feet out on a pass from freshman defender Lucy Bronze. I watched the game on ESPNU and to say that the Lady Heels dominated the second 45 minutes of the game is not overstating it at all. Notre Dame did get a couple of shots during the second half, even hitting the cross bar on one of their few shots, but all of that happened on counter attacks and not from set plays or coordinated movement from their team.

This Carolina team, as most have been, is once again a dominating squad. This is the 18th shutout that North Carolina has recorded this season, and they have only allowed 12 goals against. Not a surprise, when you think that their head coach has only lost 36 games in the 31 years at Chapel Hill.

The Heels will be facing another undefeated team in the finals, just like they did last year, when they defeated Notre Dame (again). In order to once again win the Heels need to get more touches to senior middi Tobin Heath, who always makes things happen when she is in control of the ball. As a matter of fact it was a feed by Heath that started the only play that ended with a goal in this game. I am sure that both Nogueira and Heath will be playing in the Women’s Pro Soccer come next season, but for now I am sure both of them would love to finish their career at UNC as champions!

So, make sure to tune in to the duece (ESPN2) at 2:00 p.m. EST as the Heels try to win their 20th national championship!

Engen had a great game vs WF (Picture From: TarHeelBlue.com)

The weekend brought another challenge for head coach Anson Dorrance and his team, as top ranked North Carolina (9-0-1, 2-0 in ACC) faced #7 Wake Forest (8-2, 0-1 in ACC) at Fetzer Field. When it was all said and done the Tar Heels took care of the Demon Deacons by the final score of 4-0. The score alone shows the domination of the Lady Heels, but when you figure that senior striker Nikki Washington is out for the season with a knee injury, while senior middi Tobin Heath and senior keeper Ashlyn Harris training this week with the U.S. National Team, you can see just how much the game was lopsided.

The Heels began their attack soon into the game, as the fist opportunity came with less than 2 minutes gone in the game, when junior striker Jessica McDonald hit a shot at point blank, but somehow the Wake Forest goalkeeper was able to deflect out. But that was just the beginning for the squad, as two minutes later they took the lead to keep. Off of a corner freshman defenseman Amber Brooks headed the ball into the net from the far post. For the rest of the game it was all Carolina all the time, with the Deacs getting basicaly just a few chances to score, their best one coming after half hour of playing. You can check out the play by play below for all the action in this Top 10 match up. {Play by Play is from TarHeelBlue.com}

Carolina will now go on the road for the next two games. Fortunately both Heath and Harris will return to the squad as UNC faces No. 6-ranked Boston College Thursday at 7 p.m. in Chestnut Hill, Mass. Carolina will also meet Virginia Tech (8-2, ACC 2-0) next Sunday at 5 p.m. in Blacksburg, Va.

Men's Soccer Media Guide (Picture From: TarHeelBlue.com)

After five game the Men’s Soccer team is looking good. They are ranked second in the country, have a 4-0-1 record, have outscored their opponents 14 to 3 and do not look like the should be slowling down anytime soon. Their last game was versus archrival #11 Duke, which Elmar Bolowich’s team took care by the final of 2 to 1 thanks goals by sophomore forward/middi Billy Schuler (22nd minute) and junior midfielder Cameron Brown (69th). The win not only gave the Heels their second win in ACC play, but it also gave them their fourth win in a row against the Blue Devils. This is the first time that UNC has begun conference play at 2 and 0 since 1987, and while the goals are great, it sounds that the defense is doing a heck of a job as well, allowing Duke just five shots (four on goal). On the other hand Carolina had 17 shots, while the corners went 5 to 1 for the Heels.

Tonight the Heels will play against East Tennessee State (1-2-2), ending a six game home stand. From the record difference I would not be going out on a limb if I said that this should be a victory for UNC, but on the other hand “this is why they play the game”. But when you have a balanced offense (averaging 2.8 goals/game) and a stingy defense (yielding 0.57 goals/game), you know that somehow you will always have a chance to win the game. UNC and ETSU have played just once, last season, with the Tar Heels coming away with an 8-0 land slide win. Looking at how little offense the Buccaneers have this season again, I would say this game should not be much different.

This is the last time you will get to see the Men’s squad for a while as they will head on a two game trip. First will be versus Virginia and then against Liberty. The team will be back in the friendly confine of Fetzer Field on October 9th, 2009.