2013 College Cup – The Final Four – Tale Of The Tape

"The more things change, the more they remain the same." When french journalist Jean-Baptiste Alkphonse Kerr coined that phrase back in 1839 he clearly didn't have college soccer in mind. However when you look at what took place in the 2013 regular season and compare it to what has transpired in the 2013 NCAA Tournament on the road to the College Cup in Philadelphia there are some similarities.

Regular season play was different this year with the teams on the west coast clearly making their presence known on the national scene as reflected in the fact that three of the top four seeds in the NCAA Tournament (UCLA, Washington, and California) were awarded to teams on the left coast. In addition throughout the season there was a great deal of balance in conference play across the country The balance in conference play was likely impacted by the large number of conference realignments that went into effect this year. Conference realignments are driven by a lot of different factors but the fact that schools join conferences that include programs with similar goals and values tends to create balance and competitiveness from top to bottom within conferences.

Based on what happened during the regular season it appeared that the west coast would be well represented in the Final Four. It also appeard that the balance that was displayed throughout the regular season would have resulted in a lot of upsets or at the very least a lot of matches requiring overtime and penalty kick shootouts to determine who advanced in NCAA Tourney play. The strong showing of west coast teams during regular season play didn't translate into representation at the College Cup and despite the balance that existed in regular season play there were not a lot of upsets in the NCAA Tourney and only a few matches required penalty kicks to determine who advanced. One reflection of the balance that existed is the fact that during regular season play Notre Dame and Connecticut each had six ties, Maryland, Wake Forest and North Carolina had five each, and Washington and UCLA each had four.

The four team College Cup field consists of #5 seeded Maryland, #3 seeded Notre Dame, and #8 seeded Virginia from the Atlantic Coast Conference and #7 seeded New Mexico from Conference USA. Number one seeded UCLA fell in the Sweet Sixteen, #2 seeded Washington and #4 seeded California fell in the Elite Eight. Nonetheless it was a great season for the west coast and an indication of continued success in he future. Likewise the conference realingments created a lot of new and interesting match-ups and rivalries that will continue in the future. But as Jean-Baptiste eluded despite the changes to the college soccer landscape that took place during the regular season a lot of things remained the same along the road to the College Cup.

2013 College Cup – The Final Four – Tale Of The Tape

The Final Four	Maryland	Virginia	Notre Dame	New Mexico
The Participants
Overall Record	16-3-5	13-5-5	15-1-6	14-5-2
Conference	ACC	ACC	ACC	CUSA
Conference Record Regular Season Finish	7-1-3 Tie 1st	4-3-4 5th	7-1-3 Tie 1st	7-1-1 1st
Record Away From Home Record At Neutral Site	4-1-4 5-0-0	3-2-2 0-1-1	6-0-1 1-0-2	6-1-1 0-1-0
Coach	Sasho Cirovski	George Gelnovatch	Bobby Clark	Jeremy Fishbein
Years At Helm	21	18	13	12
NCAA Seed	5	8	3	7
CSN Ranking – End Of Regular Season	3	13	4	23
Goals Scored	50	44	43	35
Goals Allowed	28	23	17	18
Number Shutouts	8	10	9	10
Unbeaten Streak	10	3	8	3
Last Loss	Wake Forest (3-4)	Maryland (0-1)	Virginia (0-2)	Tulsa (0-3)
Power Rating (RPI)	4	9	3	11
Strength	Multi-Dimensional Attack	Movement/Combinations	Organization/Quickness	Defense/Tenacity
How They Beat You	Pressure	Determination	Fundamentals	Unified Team
Top Scorer	Patrick Mullins (16g, 8a)	Eric Bird (7g, 5a)	Harrison Shipp (12g, 8a)	James Rogers (7g, 6a)
Key Distributor	Tsubasa Endoh	Jordan Allen	Patrick Hodan	Michael Calderon
Key Defender	Mikey Ambrose	Scott Thomsen	G. Van De Casteele	Kyle Venter
Goalkeeper	Zack Steffen Freshman 1.11 GAA	Calle Brown RS Junior 0.77 GAA	Patrick Wall Senior 0.73 GAA	Michael Lisch Senior 0.79 GAA
Don't Underestimate	Dan Metzger	Ryan Zinkhan	Nick Besler	Ben McKendry
Freshman To Watch	Michael Sauers – MF Zack Steffen – Goal	Jordan Allen – MF	N/A	Christopher Wehan – MF Niko Hansen – Forward
Where They Have The Edge	Up-Top	Midfield	Up-Top	Backline
Wildcard	Schillo Tshuma (6g, 1a)	Darius Madison (6g, 3a)	Vince Cicciarelli (6g, 2a)	Oneil Fisher (1g, 2a)
Last Trip To College Cup	2012	2009	None	2005
The Road Traveled	Providence 3-1 (home) UC Irvine 1-0 (home) California 2-1 (away)	St. John's 2-0 (home) Marquette 3-1 (home) Connecticut 2-1 (home)	Wisconsin 4-0 (home) Wake Forest 4-2 (home) Michigan State 2-1 (home)	George Mason 1-0 (home) Penn State 2-0 (home) Washington 1-0 (away)