First Round Of 2007 NCAA Men’s Soccer Tourney In The Books…

As with any single elimination tournament upsets will happen, the 2007 NCAA soccer tourney is no different. I was lucky enough to catch the Cal – UC Davis first round match since my parents live 20 minutes from Berkeley. In that match, Cal was able to pull out the win and preserve their dignity, but upstart UC Davis was working hard to keep the rival Bears from moving on to the second round. I was shocked to see 3,500 other soccer fans in the stands. Bay Area residents, time to start supporting the Cal Soccer program. It was a lot of fun!

Take a look at the bracket as it stands today. Second round matches take place this Wednesday and are hosted by the team with the asterisk next to their name.

So who fell to the mighty underdog?

Harvard for one. Harvard was riding the back of US U-20 team member Andre Akpan. Andre is on my potential Generation Adidas list and this kind of loss could either keep him in school to prove he can win or push him towards a pro contract. Andre’s team lost to Central Connecticut State by a score of 3-2. Akpan did get on the scorers’ sheet, but couldn’t save his team from dropping out of the tourney. Now Akpan gets to decide if he stays in college or goes pro.

Another big name to drop out early is St. Louis. The St. Louis men were taken to penalty kicks by University of Illinois – Chicago team after both teams couldn’t find the back of the next. St. Louis had a good run through the regular season, winning 12 games, but regular season doesn’t count now.

Duke had an unimpressive season posting 7 losses and were no doubt hoping to redeem themselves in the tourney. Louisville put that hope to a halt.

A similarly unimpressive Washington (8-7-4) side emerged from the Pac-10 and showed up local rivals the Portland Pilots.

Oakland University took down Michigan State by a 2-1 score line. Oakland had an above average regular season record (11-6-3) and was able to take down the home team.

UCLA came out of the stronger Pac-10 but their record this season (8-8-3) doesn’t inspire confidence. The Lobos on the other hand had a strong 2007 in the Rocky Mountain region (12-4-2). They were able to defeat the New Mexico Lobos 1-0. However, UCLA was the home team so I don’t know if we can call it a total upset.

The second round kicks off tomorrow, 11-28-07. Maryland takes on local rival Loyola. Creighton and SMU should be a good match. As I said earlier Cal is the underdog traveling to Virginia Tech. South Florida should be able to give Akron a game. UCLA and Santa Clara should be a fun one since UCLA can’t complain about unbearable travel. Will Notre Dame be able to handle upstarts Oakland? Boston College hosts UMass who have already upset one Boston team.

One disappointing thing about this year’s bracket is that it becomes obvious NCAA seeding folks are more worried about travel costs then true match ups. I understand why they are doing this, but I’d like to see some true seeding in the future. UMass against BU and then BC? We can see through that.