The NCAA College Cup semifinals kick off tonight with Louisville taking on North Carolina (8:30pm, ESPNU) and Akron facing Michigan (11pm, ESPN2) in Santa Barbara, California.
Louisville enters the semifinals as the top seed, but will take on an experienced Tar Heels squad playing in their third straight national semifinal. In the evening match, Akron will look to move a step closer toward an elusive national title by beating the red-hot Wolverines, a team the Zips defeated 7-1 during the regular season.
SBI will be providing live commentary throughout the night so please feel free to follow along with the action here. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Live Commentary is after the jump):
It depends on when he got his green card, assuming he already has his green card.
From that point the citizenship process takes five years.
Nagbe has lived in the USA since he was 11. Not sure of the laws for citizenship, but that should mean that it wouldn’t be too long of a process right?
Well, there was one bit of disappointing news in the match commentary:
Comment From FrankFrank:
Is Nagbe USMNT eligible?
Ives:
Nope, he is not a U.S. citizen.
Do we know if
1) He has a green card?
2) He’s in the process of becoming a US citizen? How far along?
3) He wants to play for the USMNT? Liberia?
Until last night I would 100% agree. But did you watch Akron? Holy smoke! Best college soccer I’ve seen.
Completely unrealistic, but how cool would it be if MLS let Caleb Porter take this Akron team as the next expansion club. Like I said, absolutely 0% this happens for plenty of good reasons, but how cool would it be to watch this team develop together?
This akron team is great to watch…good quality.
You should watch Akron
That last goal was quality.
UNC Enzo Martinez better make it to the MLS
and Louisville were really dirty no offence they spoilt the game
Well, the dirty players won. I hope whoever they play in the finals absolutely blows them out, hopefully Akron. Don’t want to play the “what if” game, but can’t help but wonder how much different the game would’ve been with Billy Schuler and Cameron Brown.
Regardless of how the game was played, congrats to the Cardinals and good luck in the finals.
No disrespect to the referee, but it seems like after that scuffle he may have lost a little bit of control of the match in terms of tackles and stuff. Even being a UNC fan, I can see how Ababio could have potentially gotten a red for his involvement, but the three or four Louisville players attempting to tackle Farfan on his dribbling drive easily deserved a yellow or two. The last two tackles weren’t even for any purpose but to stop the break and bring Farfan down. Reminds me of the stomp on the back of Urso in the first half. Just my opinion, but not respecting the way Louisville is playing the game right now.
Louisville is playing really dirty.
I agree, it’s tough to watch. For all the athleticism there is a real lack of vision and patience out there. I’ve discussed this with some friends that are former D1 and D2 college guys and they agree that the emphasis is mainly on power and what quality you enter with is pretty much what you’ll leave with at most programs. Not saying coaches should be creating little Messis in the short time they have them but I notice a real lack of tactical understanding. Players not getting width, lack of positional awareness, etc. It’s all 2 passes and boot it long tonight, unfortunately.
Just think of it as division 3 or 4 ball. Your not gonna get an argument from me, because its not great soccer, but it has history. For folks like myself that played through college, its a respect thing, 3 a day training while maintaining 15 plus credits isnt easy. It can be hard to watch on tv though.
Watching the Louisville game …
I know people may have a problem with it, but I’m just gonna put it out there: As athletic and skilled as these players are, college soccer is really hard to watch for me. So many mistakes — terrible passes and silly turnovers all over the place.
I mean, I’ve played against college players and know how good they are, but no matter what game I’m watching, it’s always the same. Would be curious to hear an explanation.
will – it is playing on my espn3…maybe check again?
does anyone know of a live stream for this first semi. Espn360 isn’t showing it and I am not near a TV…