NCAA Notebook
10 Reasons to Watch the NCAA Soccer Tournament
Do the names Joshua Yaro, Leo Stolz, and Oumar Ballo mean anything to you? If you're serious about American soccer, they probably should. Here are 10 reasons to follow the Sweet 16 on Sunday.
COLLEGE SOCCER ISN'T everyone’s cup of tea, even among hardcore fans of American soccer. Still, if you’re a fan of the U.S. national team or MLS the fact is that players you’ll be watching in the next few years are currently grinding it out in the NCAA Tournament.
The NCAA Tournament continues Sunday with eight third round matches (almost all of them are available to watch for free online and they’re played between the end of Sunday’s EPL games and the start of the MLS Western Conference final) and the Sweet 16 matchups feature plenty of interesting storylines. Here are 10 of them.
A native of Ghana who spent four years prepping at the Cate School outside Santa Barbara, Calif., Yaro is listed at five-foot-eleven and combines elite athleticism with a heady reading of the game and enough ball skills that some scouts project him as a defensive midfielder at the next level.
“He plays center back for them now and he could play there in our league but I think he projects more as a right back with his pace but the way he sees the field he could even play as a holding midfielder. When he goes forward, you see the ball skills that make you think he could play midfield.” said an MLS scout who has watched Georgetown several times and whose club asks that he not be identified.
Of Yaro’s pace, Georgetown coach Brian Wiese says “no one in college is faster. Not many in MLS are faster. He’s (DeAndre) Yedlin-fast.”
MLS newcomer Orlando City holds the top pick in January’s MLS SuperDraft and it is, sources say, quite smitten with Yaro and recently had most of its technical staff at a Hoyas game to watch him. But whether he is available in the draft hinges on him signing a Generation Adidas contract, which MLS makes all underclassmen sign to be draft-eligible. And while Yaro is interested, he won’t give up a scholarship to Georgetown, where tuition and room-and-board costs about $65,000 a year, without a substantial investment from MLS.
“Playing professionally is something he wants to do and if there’s an offer when the season is over he’ll listen and if it’s a good offer he may leave,” said Wiese. “But it has to have two things. It has to be enough (money) that it makes sense to leave a scholarship from Georgetown and it has to include a path for him to still finish his degree. He’s a dean’s list student and very serious about finishing school.”
According to the MLS Players Association, Philadelphia Union goalkeeper Andre Blake, the top pick in last year’s draft, signed a Generation Adidas deal worth $113,000 in annual compensation. But the limited demand for goalkeepers (outside of Philadelphia, where they seem to collect them like tchotchkes) is such that they don’t command as high a salary out of school. A better comparison might be Blake’s teammate, Andrew Wenger, the top pick of the 2012 draft who left Duke a year early for a deal with guaranteed compensation of $242,000, again per the MLSPA.
Whether MLS is willing to offer Yaro similar money remains to be seen but that’s likely what it’s going to take to get him to sign this winter. In the meantime, Yaro will need to keep the Hoyas defense tight against Syracuse because the Orange have one of the best goalkeepers in the country in Alex Bono and goals will likely be at a premium.
A second-team All-American last year, Ballo’s got the size-athleticism combo MLS teams love in center backs, and he’s shown the past two years that he’s not intimidated playing bigger programs loaded with future pros. A strong showing against a Louisville team will likely elevate his draft status.
And yes, like The Wire’s Omar Little, this Oumar grew up in the city of Baltimore. No word on if he whistles.
But they’re turning a negative into a positive, making the Tar Heels both a dynamic scoring machine and a serious threat to make the College Cup, which this year just so happens to be in Cary, N.C., just a few miles up the road from Chapel Hill.
Craven, who had a hat trick in UNC’s 6-0 demolishing of James Madison in the first round, is among the national leaders with 14 goals, while Lovejoy’s eight assists (along with three goals) lead the team. Both were All-ACC performers. Engel (seven goals, five assists) was the hero in the second round, scoring a brace in a 2-1 win over Charlotte.
As a result, the Tar Heels are the second-highest scoring team in the country and will bring that attack to Clemson Sunday in a rematch of a game UNC won 3-2 in overtime earlier this year.
UCLA (Leo Stolz, Larry Ndjock, Felix Vobejda), Louisville (Joachim Ball, Tim Kubel) Creighton, (Fabian Herbers, Vincent Keller, Timo Pitter), Providence (Daniel Neustadter), and Syracuse (Julian Buescher) all have German nationals starting, with many in starring roles.
Stolz was one of three finalist for the Hermann Trophy last year and scored a brace for the Bruins in its win over San Diego in the second round. Kubel was the ACC’s freshman of the year and second team all-conference, while Herbers was named the Big East’s offensive player of the year and Pitter its top midfielder.
Most came through the youth system of German professional clubs and either weren’t offered pro contracts or turned them down, as was the case with Stolz. It helps that the Germans tend to be older than their classmates—Ball is a 24-year-old senior, Stolz a 23-year-old senior, and Buescher and Kubel are 21-year-old freshman—as it gives them extra physical and emotional maturity to go with their time in professional academies.
“It’s not that these guys aren’t good,” said one rival coach who asked not to be identified, “but if you gave most (American) players two-to-three extra years to develop before they came to college, they’d be better, too.”
Virginia junior Scott Thomsen, a left-footed flank player, had a pair of assists in the Cavaliers 3-0 win over UNC Wilmington while senior center back Brandon Adler helped Providence shut out Dartmouth.
The Red Bulls have had one of the better academies in MLS for several years but its first-team roster has had little to show for it as the club has emphasized higher-level international players. But several league sources told ASN that with Thierry Henry’s expected retirement, Red Bull is expected to change its philosophy and be more budget conscious and put a greater emphasis on its academy products next year.
Whether that means it will make hard pushes for the likes of Allen and Thomsen remains to be seen but there is certainly plenty of talent for them to choose from among former players in the college ranks.
1. But will he leave?
According to multiple sources within MLS and college soccer that American Soccer Now has contacted, the best defender in college soccer this year is Georgetown sophomore Joshua Yaro. He will lead the Hoyas against Syracuse Sunday in Washington, D.C. in a match-up of former Big East rivals who met at this stage of the tournament two years ago with Georgetown prevailing on penalty kicks.
A native of Ghana who spent four years prepping at the Cate School outside Santa Barbara, Calif., Yaro is listed at five-foot-eleven and combines elite athleticism with a heady reading of the game and enough ball skills that some scouts project him as a defensive midfielder at the next level.
“He plays center back for them now and he could play there in our league but I think he projects more as a right back with his pace but the way he sees the field he could even play as a holding midfielder. When he goes forward, you see the ball skills that make you think he could play midfield.” said an MLS scout who has watched Georgetown several times and whose club asks that he not be identified.
Of Yaro’s pace, Georgetown coach Brian Wiese says “no one in college is faster. Not many in MLS are faster. He’s (DeAndre) Yedlin-fast.”
MLS newcomer Orlando City holds the top pick in January’s MLS SuperDraft and it is, sources say, quite smitten with Yaro and recently had most of its technical staff at a Hoyas game to watch him. But whether he is available in the draft hinges on him signing a Generation Adidas contract, which MLS makes all underclassmen sign to be draft-eligible. And while Yaro is interested, he won’t give up a scholarship to Georgetown, where tuition and room-and-board costs about $65,000 a year, without a substantial investment from MLS.
“Playing professionally is something he wants to do and if there’s an offer when the season is over he’ll listen and if it’s a good offer he may leave,” said Wiese. “But it has to have two things. It has to be enough (money) that it makes sense to leave a scholarship from Georgetown and it has to include a path for him to still finish his degree. He’s a dean’s list student and very serious about finishing school.”
According to the MLS Players Association, Philadelphia Union goalkeeper Andre Blake, the top pick in last year’s draft, signed a Generation Adidas deal worth $113,000 in annual compensation. But the limited demand for goalkeepers (outside of Philadelphia, where they seem to collect them like tchotchkes) is such that they don’t command as high a salary out of school. A better comparison might be Blake’s teammate, Andrew Wenger, the top pick of the 2012 draft who left Duke a year early for a deal with guaranteed compensation of $242,000, again per the MLSPA.
Whether MLS is willing to offer Yaro similar money remains to be seen but that’s likely what it’s going to take to get him to sign this winter. In the meantime, Yaro will need to keep the Hoyas defense tight against Syracuse because the Orange have one of the best goalkeepers in the country in Alex Bono and goals will likely be at a premium.
2. Right to dreamin’
Yaro is a product of the Right to Dream Academy, a program in Ghana designed to use soccer to help players get an education outside the country and he’s not the only Right to Dream alum making an impact for an NCAA Tournament team. UCLA freshman forward Abu Danladi is also a Right to Dreamer who came to the Santa Barbara area for prep school. While Yaro attended Cate, just south of Santa Barbara, Danladi attended Dunn, just to the north, and the two played together at Santa Barbara Soccer Club. Last spring Danladi was named the national high school player of the year and came to UCLA with great expectations...only to have his college career stalled by injuries. However, when he’s played he’s made an impact—four goals and two assists in eight games—none bigger than last weekend when he assisted on the Bruins’ game-winning goal in the seventh minute of overtime against San Diego. Few expect Danladi to stick around Westwood for four years and if he continues to flash the form that made him the top high school player a year ago, he might be one-and-done.3. Oumar coming
Every year there’s an unlikely team that makes a run in the NCAA Tournament and this year Cinderella plays fetch as the Retrievers from UMBC—that’s Maryland-Baltimore County—are in the Sweet 16 against Louisville. UMBC is doing it with defense, having shutout perennial powers Wake Forest and Maryland. The leader of its backline is senior center back Oumar Ballo, who most likely is coming to an MLS team near you in the spring.
A second-team All-American last year, Ballo’s got the size-athleticism combo MLS teams love in center backs, and he’s shown the past two years that he’s not intimidated playing bigger programs loaded with future pros. A strong showing against a Louisville team will likely elevate his draft status.
And yes, like The Wire’s Omar Little, this Oumar grew up in the city of Baltimore. No word on if he whistles.
4. Making the best of it
When they started college, none of North Carolina’s trio of starting attackers—Rob Lovejoy, Andrew Craven and Tyler Engel—planned to still be playing college soccer in 2014. All three are fifth-year seniors, still in school only because injuries earlier in their careers caused them to miss a season.
But they’re turning a negative into a positive, making the Tar Heels both a dynamic scoring machine and a serious threat to make the College Cup, which this year just so happens to be in Cary, N.C., just a few miles up the road from Chapel Hill.
Craven, who had a hat trick in UNC’s 6-0 demolishing of James Madison in the first round, is among the national leaders with 14 goals, while Lovejoy’s eight assists (along with three goals) lead the team. Both were All-ACC performers. Engel (seven goals, five assists) was the hero in the second round, scoring a brace in a 2-1 win over Charlotte.
As a result, the Tar Heels are the second-highest scoring team in the country and will bring that attack to Clemson Sunday in a rematch of a game UNC won 3-2 in overtime earlier this year.
5. ACC Domination
The Atlantic Coast Conference has long enjoyed a reputation as the top conference in college soccer and this NCAA Tournament has reinforced that as six of the Sweet 16 teams come from the conference: North Carolina, Clemson, Syracuse, Louisville, Virginia, and reigning national champions Notre Dame. (The Big East isn’t too shabby, either, with four teams (Georgetown, Creighton, Providence, and Xavier) while the Pac-12 has three (UCLA, Washington, and Cal.) ACC teams have won seven of the past 13 national titles and 18 dating back to 1984. Since 1982 there have only been five seasons without an ACC team in the Final Four and none since 2000. Since 2001, 23 ACC teams have made the Final Four and three times, including last year, three of the four teams were from the ACC. Besides the UNC-Clemson, Syracuse-Georgetown, and UMBC-Louisville match-ups, Notre Dame hosts Virginia in what has become one of the best rivalries in college soccer. This is the fifth time the teams have met the past two years and each team has won once and tied the other two, though Virginia eliminated Notre Dame on penalty kicks after one of the ties, which was in last season’s ACC Tournament. Notre Dame is the top-seed in the NCAA Tournament but was, a source told ASN, cursing its luck at having drawn a Cavaliers team that has matched up with them so well.6. Trying to get over the hump
Over the past decade Cal-Berkeley has become a consistent supplier of players to MLS with the likes of Stefan Frei, A.J. Soares, and Steven Birnbaum having solid MLS careers. Cal also has a coach in Kevin Grimes who has been linked to MLS openings and is considered to be one of the most pro-ready coaches in college soccer. But the boys from Berkeley are probably the best team, in terms of producing future talent, to have never made a trip to the College Cup. And if that’s going to change it will need to upset UCLA in Westwood on Sunday to advance to the quarterfinals. The good news for Cal is that it swept the Bruins in the regular season, winning 3-2 in overtime at home and 1-0 in Los Angeles. The Golden Bears have a fair share of players the MLS types are watching. Senior Seth Casiple is a crafty midfielder who orchestrates the nation’s highest-scoring attack (2.5 goals per game), setting up classmates Connor Hallisley (eight goals and 11 assists, the latter of which is among the national leaders), and Stefano Bonomo (11 goals, five assists). All three were first-team All-Pac-12 and will likely be invited to the MLS Combine. But the players the MLS scouts might be watching closely are a pair of underclassmen defenders, six-foot-three sophomore Trevor Haberkorn, a member of the U.S. U-20 national team pool, and six-foot-two Josh Morton, one of the top freshmen in the country and a product of the San Jose Earthquakes academy. MLS scouts say it’s a matter of when, not if, they play at the next level.7. Achtung, baby!
Much has been made of the U.S. national team's recent infusion of German-Americans who have spent little, if any, time stateside but are eligible to play for the U.S. because of an American parent. But recently there has also been an infusion of German talent in the college ranks and much of it is on display in the Sweet 16.
UCLA (Leo Stolz, Larry Ndjock, Felix Vobejda), Louisville (Joachim Ball, Tim Kubel) Creighton, (Fabian Herbers, Vincent Keller, Timo Pitter), Providence (Daniel Neustadter), and Syracuse (Julian Buescher) all have German nationals starting, with many in starring roles.
Stolz was one of three finalist for the Hermann Trophy last year and scored a brace for the Bruins in its win over San Diego in the second round. Kubel was the ACC’s freshman of the year and second team all-conference, while Herbers was named the Big East’s offensive player of the year and Pitter its top midfielder.
Most came through the youth system of German professional clubs and either weren’t offered pro contracts or turned them down, as was the case with Stolz. It helps that the Germans tend to be older than their classmates—Ball is a 24-year-old senior, Stolz a 23-year-old senior, and Buescher and Kubel are 21-year-old freshman—as it gives them extra physical and emotional maturity to go with their time in professional academies.
“It’s not that these guys aren’t good,” said one rival coach who asked not to be identified, “but if you gave most (American) players two-to-three extra years to develop before they came to college, they’d be better, too.”
8. The same, but different
Providence is not a program with a long history of playing this far into the tournament. Its 3-0 second-round win over Dartmouth marked the first time the Friars had hosted a game, and its game with UC Irvine on Sunday marks the first time the club has made the Sweet 16. A key to Providence’s emergence has been a pair of attackers from the New England Revolution academy who share the same last name but are not related. Fabio Machado, a senior withdrawn striker, and Dominik Machado, a sophomore midfielder, were both All-Big East selections this fall. Fabio leads the team with seven assists to go with five goals while Dominik has four goals and two assists after scoring a brace against Dartmouth.9. Homegrown cooking
The Machados, Engel, and Horton are part of a slew of products of MLS academies who are significant contributors to the teams playing Sunday. Every team in the Sweet 16 has at least one player who starts or is a key reserve who is a graduate of an MLS academy and with the exception of three teams—Portland, Vancouver, and Montreal—every MLS team from this season, even Chivas USA, has players from its academy who are in the Sweet 16. Among the more prominent players are Michigan State’s all-Big Ten junior midfielder Jay Chapman (Toronto FC); North Carolina senior defender Boyd Okwuono, an All-ACC player from FC Dallas; and Xavier senior goalkeeper Eric Osswald, an All-Big East goalkeeper from Columbus’ academy. “If Toronto doesn’t sign Chapman after this season they’re nuts,” said a rival Big Ten coach. No MLS team has been more prominently involved in the Sweet 16 teams’ success than the New York Red Bulls. In its 2-1 comeback win over Old Dominion in the second round, Georgetown got its tying goal from junior forward Brandon Allen and the winning goal with seven seconds left in overtime from freshman Arun Basuljevic.
Virginia junior Scott Thomsen, a left-footed flank player, had a pair of assists in the Cavaliers 3-0 win over UNC Wilmington while senior center back Brandon Adler helped Providence shut out Dartmouth.
The Red Bulls have had one of the better academies in MLS for several years but its first-team roster has had little to show for it as the club has emphasized higher-level international players. But several league sources told ASN that with Thierry Henry’s expected retirement, Red Bull is expected to change its philosophy and be more budget conscious and put a greater emphasis on its academy products next year.
Whether that means it will make hard pushes for the likes of Allen and Thomsen remains to be seen but there is certainly plenty of talent for them to choose from among former players in the college ranks.
