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NCAA Men’s College Cup Semifinals: Match night commentary

CollegeSoccer

The four best men's teams in NCAA soccer will square off tonight for a chance to play in Sunday's College Cup Final.

Tonight's semifinals in Cary, North Carolina will be played in frigid and wintry conditions, but that shouldn't stop some of the nation's most talented players from showing their stuff.

The University of Virginia takes on Wake Forest in today's first semifinal (5pm, ESPN2), while undefeated Akron meets North Carolina in the nightcap (7:30pm, ESPNU).

I will be providing commentary on both matches throughout the night so please feel free to follow along here. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action (Commentary is after the jump):

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FINAL– Akron wins on penalties, 5-4. Akron will now face Virginia in the College Cup Final on Sunday at 1pm on ESPN2.

That's all for me. Please feel free to share your thoughts on tonight's matches in the comments section below.

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PENALTY KICKS– GAVIN SCORES FOR AKRON. AKRON WINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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PENALTY KICKS– URSO for UNC SCORES

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PENALTY KICKS– CALDWELL for AKRON SCORES

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PENALTY KICKS– McKinney for UNC SCORES

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PENALTY KICKS– Sarkodie for Akron SCORES

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PENALTY KICKS– Graye for UNC MISSES HIGH!!!!

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PENALTY KICKS– Zemanski for Akron SCORES

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PENALTY KICKS– Loyd for UNC. SCORES down the middle.

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PENALTY KICKS– Valentin for Akron. SCORES

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PENALTY KICKS– We are about to start. Michael Farfan for UNC. SCORED!!

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END OF OVERTIME– Akron 0, North Carolina 0. Akron didn't show much in overtime but the Tar Heels created some very dangerous chances. Both goalkeepers have come up with big saves tonight.

On to penalty kicks!

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109th Minute– SAVE MEVES!!!! He stones Enzo Martinez. Not before Akron cleared another UNC shot off the line. Carolina wants the win.

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108th Minute– SAVE MEVES!!! Michael Farfan's curling shot forces a great save.

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105th Minute– Five minutes left. Can Akron find a way to keep its perfect record intact?

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103rd Minute– SAVE HAGGARTY!!! UNC clears out the subsequent corner and starts a counterattack. The clock keeps ticking.

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101st Minute– Akron earns a dangerous free kick. UNC clears it away.

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END OF OVERTIME FIRST HALF– Akron's body language doesn't look great right now. If this goes to PKs my money is on North Carolina.

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END OF OVERTIME FIRST HALF– Still scoreless and Akron is playing without standout midfielder Anthony Ampaipitakwong. He was key to their first half success, but is apparently nursing an injury. His absence isn't an excuse for an Akron attack that still boasts Bunbury, Nagbe, Gavin and Sarkodie. They're just not coming up with good ideas to break down the Tar Heels defensive wall.

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100th Minute– UNC is defending well, and Akron just doesn't show any sense of urgency.

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98th Minute– You haven't missed much. Akron knocks it around, but can't crack UNC's defense.

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91st Minute– We'll have a golden goal overtime, followed by penalty kicks (though I may need a nap as boring as this game as gotten).

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END OF REGULATION– Akron 0, North Carolina 0. UNC is holding on despite being a man down. The Zips have had more possession, but haven't done much with that possession.

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88th Minute– Nagbe goes down on a 50/50 challenge from Loyd. Clean challenge there.

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85th Minute– Gavin with a shot from 18 but he blasts it into the stands.

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83rd Minute– I thought this game would be more exciting, but this game is now making the first game look like a shootout thriller.

Bunbury goes to ground again. Early favorite for the Alejandro Moreno Award for Diver of the Tournament.

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80th Minute– Akron just not looking sharp right now despite the man advantage. Carolina is defending well.

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77th Minute– Haggarty races off his line again to beat Bunbury to a dangerous pass.

UNC is holding on right now.

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75th minute- SAVE HAGGARTY!!! Bunbury gets in on goal on a great Gavin pass, but Haggarty runs out and blocks the shot. Nice save.

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71st Minute– Akron is up a man and has no excuse for not creating some dangerous chances now.

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70th Minute– UNC's King gets a second yellow for a push from behind. He's gone and Akron has a long but potentially dangerous free kick. It hits the wall.

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68th Minute– We're back. Will Akron regain the first-half rhythm?

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67th Minute– It's Timeout time. Getting used to it yet?

If you are following the commentary, please let me know in the comments section.

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67th Minute– A dangerous UNC counter is thwarted by an offside call. Akron's defense is young, but has moved well and held its line well.

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65th Minute– Gotta love when the field mic is near an angry player. Akron corner kick.

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62nd Minute– URSO GOES WIDE!! Carolina is playing much better now. Akron's not playing as well as in the first half.

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60th Minute– Carolina with a DANGEROUS ball across the penalty area, but nobody is there to latch onto it. Tar Heels starting to show a bit more confidence in attack.

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58th Minute– Dixon with a swing and a miss on a shot attempt. Nice pass from Enzo Martinez though.

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56th Minute– A yellow card, just when you were wondering if these refs had cards.

Jordan Graye tried to pull off a spin dribble, but managed to turn the ball over after it. You know every MLS coach in attendance just groaned.

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56th Minute– Nice play by Dustin McCarty to track down Bunbury and get the ball away from him. Yes, that's Dax McCarty's brother.

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55th Minute– We aren't going to get to see it, but an Akron-Wake Forest Final would have been fun to watch.

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53rd Minute– UNC with more possession this half. Akron has taken the foot off the gas for now.

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49th Minute– UNC's Zach Loyd is a quality player. He's playing centerback tonight and doing well, but his future in MLS will be as a defensive midfielder.

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48th Minute– Cameron Brown is fouled and wins the award for the Cristiano Ronaldo injury embellishment award.

UNC can't do anything with the free kick. Not much direction in the Tar Heels attack.

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47th Minute– Odd play by Haggarty, almost a bad mistake. Never seen a goalkeeper dummy a ball rolling toward his own goal.

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46th Minute– The second half is underway.

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HALFTIME– Akron 0, UNC 0. The Zips controlled possession, but weren't really that dangerous. The Tar Heels have stayed disciplined defensively, but need to start getting the ball to Schuler, Dixon and Farfan more. Their attack has been invisible.

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45th Minute– Anyone wondering if Akron wouldn't be able to handle the step up in class in competition now knows that the Zips can play at this level and play well.

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42nd Minute– UNC is doing well to keep Akron from maintaining possession for long stretches. The Zips look dangerous when they can get it to the final third, but they're not spending enough time up there as the UNC tandem of Urso and McCarty is helping keep the possession game close. Akron is still winning it, but not dominating it.

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37th Minute– One of the knocks on Farfan is that he disappears from games too much. We're seeing that tonight.

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35th Minute– BUNBURY WIDE!! He runs at the UNC defense and sends a blast just wide of goal. He's an impressive-looking player. Can't see him not going pro.

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32nd Minute– Darlington Nagbe has looked very sharp for Akron, and while Bunbury is a good bet to go pro, I'm hearing that Nagbe will play one more season before going pro.

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30th Minute– Meves with a better looking play to make a save.

WOW, Ben Speas with a nice left-footed shot that just misses wide for Akron.

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28th Minute– UNC earns a corner after a nice sequence forces Akron's keeper to come off his line to make a save. Mevis, Akron's keeper nearly gets caught out on the subsequent corner.

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25th Minute– We're back, and Bunbury tries to dive. He needs to stay on his feet. He's too strong to be going down that easily. MLS ref Alex Prus isn't having that.

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23rd Minute– We've got a timeout.

UNC goalkeeper Brooks Haggarty is a top-notch goalkeeper and he will have to have a big game today if UNC is going to hand Akron its first loss.

Still waiting for Teal Bunbury to make an impact.

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22nd Minute– SAVE HAGGARTY!!! Nice Akron free kick is stopped by a diving save. Akron's corner is dealt with on the next play.

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21st Minute– Akron with a DANGEROUS free kick opportunity.

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17th Minute– This game should be a more wide-open encounter than the first semifinal.

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15th Minute– The Tar Heels are doing a good job of disrupting Akron's posession game. The result is a match without much rhythm early on.

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11th Minute– Alex Dixon earns UNC a corner kick.

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9th Minute– North Carolina has yet to really get going offensively. They're trying to match up with an Akron attack that is just so dangerous.

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7th Minute– Some nice ball movement from Akron. No shots on goal yet.

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3rd Minute– In order to avoid spelling his name wrong, I'm going to call Akron's Anthony Ampaipitakwong by the nickname Amp. Deal? Done.

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3rd Minute– This game should be a more wide-open encounter than the first semifinal.

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2nd Minute– Bunbury with his first shot, sends it wide, but you see how Akron gets numbers into the attack.

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1st Minute– And we're off.

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PRE-GAME– So who will you be watching for in the second match? Akron striker Teal Bunbury will be the marquee player. He's highly-coveted and a safe bet to sign with MLS. He's a Top Three pick in the draft if he comes out, and could even go first overall.

UNC's top player is playmaker Michael Farfan, who is a talented junior who hasn't quite gotten the buzz as a draft prospect that some other ACC midfielders have gotten. Tonight will go a long way toward determining if he has a chance at being in the 2010 MLS Draft.

While Bunbury gets the headlines for Akron, Blair Gavin, is one to watch. UNC's Billy Schuler is also one to watch.

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PRE-GAME– The overtime in the first game has pushed back the schedule for the doubleheader so stay tuned. 

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PRE-GAME– On to Game Two. It's undefeated Akron against North Carolina. The Zips will be the favorites, though UNC will have somewhat of a home-field advantage. It may not matter though because Akron's attack is so dangerous. 

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FINAL– For those who didn't follow the Under-20 World Cup, and are wondering about our fascination with Ownby. He became a bit of a sympathetic figure after being so terrible in the first U.S. Under-20 World Cup match, but came back and scored an improbable goal in the next match. Tonight, he showed why he's such a dangerous college player (and he'd be starting for UVA if not for the groin injury he had been nursing).

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FINAL– Could that be the end of the road for Opara and Bone? The two Wake stars could go 1-2 in the draft, but this loss might make them consider staying in school (I wouldn't bet on it though).

Opara will be thinking about that Ownby goal. He raced back to try and catch Ownby, who had already gotten a step on the other Wake CB, but the pass was too perfect and Ownby's chip was equally perfect.

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FINAL– A shame that Wake Forest falls considering the Demon Deacons were the better team in regulation, but the missed chances came back to haunt them. UVA took two great chances out of just a few, while Wake missed basically every chance it got.

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FINAL– How perfect a pass was that from Villanueva, right into Ownby's path, and the U.S. Under-20 national teamer finishes it off. Virginia is in the NCAA Final.

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FINAL– You thought I was kidding when I said Ownby was a legend, right? The kid is something else. WOW. Villanueva with the beautiful long pass and Ownby races onto it and chips the keeper for the golden goal.

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95th- GOAL VIRGINIA!!!! And it's Brian Ownby with the FINISH. WOW. Unbelievable. WOW. OWNBY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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91st Minute– Will Wake Forest finally test Virginia's goalkeeper? The Demon Deacons have yet to put a serious shot on goal (the goal came on an own goal).

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END OF REGULATION– Wake Forest 1, Virginia 1. Wake Forest has really dominated this match, but has not been able to finish chances. We will be heading to overtime, and if there are no goals there, we will have a PK shootout. These teams finished in a PK shootout the last time they met, with Virginia winning the ACC semis on penalties.

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89th Minute– LUBAHN SHOT WIDE!!!! What a look, another nice passing sequence from Wake.

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88th Minute– SAVE FITZGERALD!! ANd it was OWNBY with the chance on his first touch. He's a legend.

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87th Minute– Brian Ownby is in the match for Virginia. Yes, THAT Brian Ownby (regular SBI readers will know what I mean).

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85th Minute– Tchani with a decent look but he skies his shot.

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84th Minute– Opara has looked very sharp tonight. Some of his long passes have been errant, but he's won everything in the air and has shown scary acceleration to step up and break up plays.

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83rd Minute– Tchani's free kick is right at the keeper.

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82nd Minute– Villanueva draws a free kick in a dangerous spot, just above the arc.

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80th Minute– Some good back-and-forth action. Can't see these teams keeping this pace up much longer.

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77th Minute– Shouts for a penalty by Wake, but no call there. Da Luz looks to have been crashed into by Monaco, but no call.

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75th Minute– What a bad call by the ref. He has let them play all night, but not on a simple 50-50 challenge.

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72nd Minute– Going back to Wake's goal, Bone sent in a hard cross toward the front of goal and it looked to have deflected off Restrepo and into the net.

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71st Minute– Wow, Villanueva nearly has a chance for an equalizer but shanks it.

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70th Minute- GOAL WAKE FOREST!!!!! And it's Corben Bone with a beautiful dance along the endline before slipping a shot from an impossible angle that hits a UVA player and goes in. We are TIED!!!

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69th Minute– Wake's sub draws a foul right after coming in. Here comes Wake.

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67th Minute– Kato Kaelin is Wake Forest's head coach. Who knew? (Kidding).

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67th Minute– OFF THE CROSSBAR!! Da Luz with a nice curling left-footed shot that skimmed the top of the crossbar. Another nice passing sequence.

TIMEOUT (Admit it, you're starting to like the Timeout idea. Okay, maybe not.)

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65th Minute– Don't be surprised to see Opara get forward more as we get closer to the end of the match. He'll slide forward to try and give Wake numbers.

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63rd Minute– We're almost two-third through this match and Wake has yet to really test Restrepo with a good shot on goal. You can move the ball around with nice passing, but if you can't shoot it on frame, you won't win.

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61st Minute– Once again, Wake Forest strings some nice passes together only to lose possession on a lazy final pass.

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60th Minute– Schilawski with ANOTHER open look in front of goal from 18, but he skies it over. UVA's set-piece defending has been shaky.

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57th Minute– Schilawski shanks an open look from the top of the box.

How will Wake respond? Will Virginia pile on the pressure, or bunker in?

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56th Minute– Virginia scores against the run of play, but credit to Villanueva and Tchani to create that. Wake needs to keep pressing. Chances will come.

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55th Minute- GOAL VIRGINIA!!!! Tony Tchani with the finish but it was Villanueva with the beautiful moves in the box, has his shot saved, and Tchani pounces on the rebound. UVA 1, Wake Forest 0.

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53rd Minute– Wake deals with the corner, Lubahn hits a nice turn to find some space on the counter, but Wake can't keep the ball.

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52nd Minute– UVA with a corner kick.

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50th Minute– Wake puts a ball into the box, but nobody gets to it, Norman hits a long shot but it's not even close.

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47th Minute– We're back and Virginia comes out moving the ball better.

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HALFTIME– Da Luz and Schilawski were very active in the first half. Bone struggled to find space early, but eventually found room to operate later in the half. Wake's fullbacks haven't been effective, but if they were, this game would not be scoreless.

Virginia needs to stop pumping balls up to Bates. Tchani and Villanueva need to move the ball around in midfield and look for the cracks in Wake's defense. Sending long passes at Ike Opara isn't a strategy that will work.

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HALFTIME– Wake Forest 0, Virginia 0. Wake controlled much of the first half, while UVA's defense gave up more chances than you would expect, but they never did break, and that shutout streak is still going. 

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45th Minute– Heading for a scoreless first half.

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44th Minute– Da Luz isn't hurting his draft stock tonight. He's moving up the SBI MLS Draft Big Board as we speak.

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43rd Minute– Nice work by Opara to intercept a dangerous cross into the area.

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40th Minute– Jay Vidovich's decision to put Da Luz on the left flank and Bone in the middle has paid off. Da Luz has had a lot of the ball on the left while Bone has been able to float all over the field.

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36th Minute– What will UVA do going forward? Does it stick with this 4-5-1 even though Wake is dominating, or do the Cavs add another attacker and force Wake to defend more?

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35th Minute– Hard shot from UVA is saved. First decent chance from UVA in a long time.

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34th Minute– SAVE RESTREPO!! Not the hardest shot from Bone, but the sequence was beautiful for Wake.

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32nd Minute– Wake on the break again, but a UVA block thwarts the challenge.

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31st Minute– It's going to be tough for Bone to get going in the middle of the field considering the numbers UVA has there, but that attention being paid to him is creating space on the wings for Da Luz and Norman.

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29th Minute– Anyone else getting a young Patrick Viera vibe from watching Tchani?

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23rd Minute– We're back. Wake has had the better of the play, while UVA's offense has been non-existent.

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23rd Minute– If you are following along with the commentary, please let me know in the comments section.

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23rd Minute– We have a timeout (Yes, they have those in college soccer. Don't ask.).

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22nd Minute– SIDE-NETTING! Schilawski finishes off a beautiful passing sequence with a tight-angled shot that hits the side-netting. Wake is finding a good rhythm.

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20th Minute– UVA dodges a bullet after giving up a soft corner kick.

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19th Minute– Not loving this UVA 4-5-1. Bates as a sole striker doesn't look likely to produce many chances, though Tchani and Villanueva can come forward for their own chances.

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18th Minute– Tchani took a shot to the face. He's been impressive early on. UVA can't afford to lose him.

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16th Minute– Austin Da Luz is showing a good motor on the left flank today. Interesting to see him on the left and Corben Bone playing in his more natural central midfield position. Bone has played mainly on the left, with Da Luz in a central role this season.

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15th Minute– Wake Forest has taken the momentum in this match. They're starting to move the ball with confidence.

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12th Minute– CROSSBAR. Freshman Andy Lubahn with a chip that hits the frame. Great chance there. UVA's defense was beaten, which is pretty rare.

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10th Minute– It's tough to not be impressed with the amount of ground Tchani covers with his long frame.

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8th Minute– Virginia's ability to close down defensively makes it just so tough for opponents to string passes together. Even Wake, with all its talent, can't deal with the pressure early on.

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6th Minute– Still waiting for Tony Tchani and Corben Bone to make their marks today.

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4th Minute– MLS scouts are in abundance in Cary tonight. They should be. This match has at least a half dozen players who will be drafted in January.

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3rd Minute– A rough start as both teams struggle to find a rhythm. The cold weather may not be helping.

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1st Minute– Virginia-Wake Forest is underway.

Comments

  1. Well first, I’ll comment on the UNC-Akron game, as I went to UNC, and it held more interest for me. The game itself was hamstrung by the sending off of the UNC player. It forced them to play back and look for quick counters…that gets boring to watch after a while. Having said that, I was immensely disappointed that UNC couldn’t finish it’s chances down the stretch. Akron’s keeper came up BIG. Late in the game as well, there was a save on a free kick that UNC’s keeper distributed perfectly. UNC had a one on one with the Akron defender, only to see it squandered by a horribly played pass to the center that went behind our striker, forcing him to have to nearly stop to get it, and allowed Akron’s defense to catch up.

    One last thing, there was a lesson for the young players out there. DON’T GO HIGH ON PK’S!! A LOW, hard drive to the corner will almost NEVER be saved by the keeper unless he guesses correctly and has the extension to get to it. A high PK is begging to be sent over the crossbar…all it takes is leaning back just a little too far. Why, why, why do guys still do this??

    Reply
  2. agreed. those guys were running on fumes. I was actually really surprised by Sarkodie. for how much work he put in, he never seemed to slow down.

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  3. and you know what else grinds my gears? bears on unicycles!!!!!! IT MAKES NO DAMN SENSE… I can ride a unicycle so much better than a bear, so why the hell would anyone watch a damn bear do such a crappy job of it

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  4. Why do you think there is no talk of MLS teams going after Vidovich? The style of play that he is able to instill in his teams is amazing for the college level. Wake’s off-the-ball movement is just head and shoulders above everyone. Yet his name never seems to get thrown during MLS coach hunts.

    I love my tarheels, but I feel like I’m watching the rest of the ACC shift to more pro-style possession-oriented teams while we still play “kick it out in front of the fast guy”. We did it when we had corey ashe, we do it now, and I’m sure we’re going to do it as long as Elmar is coaching.

    Reply
  5. Zips have serious team speed, could they beat NYRB?

    (SBI-Have they put a shot on goal? I’d say no. Not even close. Wake would have a better chance, but still no.)

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  6. Jacobo…. next time, simply turn the tv off and don’t watch any more ( a nice feature tv’s have for when you don’t like a particular program) though you may not like the quality of the game, there are some of us that enjoy the game for what it is… college soccer… not for what some may wish it was. Please… go watch MU and leave the college game alone!!

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  7. Akron is MUCH better than Carolina. They are controlling the game.

    (SBI-Control doesn’t always win, at least that’s what Wake Forest told me.)

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  8. Don’t feed the troll ives.

    (SBI-Jacopo’s an SBI regular, which is why I’m discussing it. If it were a drive-by troll, I would have ignored him.)

    Reply
  9. Firstly, I am not crying … I couldn’t give a rat piss less about college soccer, and I went to a decent soccer power … I am simply pointing out that the OVERALL level of college soccer … if these semi-finals are any example … is pretty tragic. If this is the “best of the best” that is a sad statement.

    And if you learned to read carefully my point was not that there was no talent in college soccer but rather that the talent that is intermittently dispersed throughout college soccer would be better served spending their 16-20 years playing in the professional game. A few will do so in Europe and gain accordingly but the whole point in having a domestic league is so that a greater number of young talented players can play professionally and not waste their time in the college game. The MLS needs to do more than ‘rescue’ a handful of college age kids each year thru GA who then often do not get to play. They need a reserve league and the ability to spend more for larger squads and get more kids with the talent into the professional game.

    And for the record I watch just as much soccer as you do Ives and tonight’s game was pathetic from a team/tactical standpoint. The passing and possession was wretched. If I was kicking my TV it was because the only worse soccer I have seen on TV is the WPS.

    (And the Man Utd reserve games come thru quite nicely via my subscription to MUTV Online.)

    (SBI-Jacopo, nobody’s disagreeing with you (I’ve written enough times that MLS teams need to hurry up and establish real academies). I just don’t see the point of you coming on here with so much anger. Relax man, you’ll live longer. Blaming the college game for the state of player development in the USA is like blaming supermarkets for poor people not having food to eat. Your venom is a bit misguided. The college game has plenty of flaws, but it serves a purpose, and fills a void, and there are plenty of players who have benefited from it.

    And Jacopo, I can read just fine, the problem is your point was buried in all your mock outrage. If you had a point, which you apparently did, it got lost in your angry translation.

    And while the Wake-UVA game wasn’t beautiful, it wasn’t nearly as awful as you’re saying it was. You can choose to disagree.)

    Reply

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