2019 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season

The 2019 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season was the 7th season of men's varsity soccer in the conference. The season began on August 30, 2019 and concluded in November 5, 2019. The regular season culminated with the 2019 American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament, which was held from November 9 to November 16.

2019 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Soccer
Duration	August 30, 2019 – November 5, 2019
Number of teams	8
2020 MLS SuperDraft
Top draft pick	Garrett McLaughlin, 8th overall
Picked by	Houston Dynamo
Regular Season
Season champions	UCF
Runners-up	SMU
Season MVP	Cal Jennings
Tournament
Champions	SMU
Runners-up	UCF
Finals MVP	Eddie Munjoma

2019 American Athletic Conference men's soccer standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 10 UCF +	6	–	0	–	1			15	–	3	–	2
No. 7 SMU ‡	5	–	1	–	1			18	–	2	–	1
South Florida +	4	–	3	–	0			10	–	7	–	1
Memphis	4	–	3	–	0			10	–	7	–	0
Temple	3	–	2	–	2			8	–	8	–	2
UConn	2	–	5	–	0			5	–	12	–	1
Cincinnati	1	–	5	–	1			5	–	11	–	1
Tulsa	0	–	6	–	1			4	–	9	–	2
‡ – 2019 American Tournament champion + – Invited to the 2019 NCAA Tournament As of 17 December 2019; Rankings from United Soccer Coaches

The defending regular season and tournament champions, UCF and SMU, respectively, successfully defended their title. Both UCF, SMU, as well as South Florida were selected by the NCAA Selection Committee to the 2019 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament. SMU reached the quarterfinals before losing to eventual national runners-up, Virginia.[1] UCF lost to SMU in the Sweet Sixteen,[2] and South Florida lost to Louisville in the first round.[3]

Background

Previous season

Main article: 2018 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season

The 2018 regular season was won by UCF, who finished conference play with a 5–1–1 record, and won on tiebreakers against SMU. SMU won the 2018 American Tournament, defeating UCF 5–4 in penalty kicks following a 1–1 draw in regulation and overtime. SMU earned the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, while UCF and Connecticut received at-large berths into the tournament. In the NCAA Tournament, SMU lost in the first round to Oregon State.[4][5] Connecticut beat rivals, Rhode Island,[6] in the first round, before losing to Indiana in the second round.[7] UCF was one of the 16 seeded teams (seeded 14th),[8] allowing them to earn a bye into the second round. There, they lost in overtime to Lipscomb.[9]

Following the season, Cal Jennings won the Offensive MVP award for the conference. Jacob Hauser-Ramsey of Connecticut won the Defensive MVP. Fellow UCF players, Louis Perez, Yannik Oettl, and Scott Calabrese won the AAC Midfielder, Goalkeeper, and Coach of the Year awards, respectively.[10] Perez and Jennings were also named All-Americans by United Soccer Coaches.[11]

Emil Cuello was the first AAC player to be drafted in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft, when he was selected by the LA Galaxy with the 19th overall pick in the first round of the draft.[12]

Head coaches

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Years at school	Overall record	Record at school	American record	NCAA Tournaments[13]	NCAA College Cups[13]	NCAA Titles[13]
Cincinnati	Hylton Dayes	Wright State	20	232–243–63 (.490)	134–158–43 (.464)	8–33–4 (.222)	2	0	0
UConn	Ray Reid	Southern Connecticut	23	446–130–75 (.743)	300–113–60 (.698)	29–13–11 (.651)	17	2	1
Memphis	Richard Mulrooney	Memphis (asst.)	6	32–39–15 (.459)	32–39–15 (.459)	13–24–8 (.378)	0	0	0
SMU	Kevin Hudson	SMU (asst.)	5	48–19–9 (.691)	48–19–9 (.691)	19–6–4 (.724)	3	0	0
South Florida	Bob Butehorn	Florida Gulf Coast	3	142–108–33 (.560)	13–14–6 (.485)	7–4–4 (.600)	4	0	0
Temple	Brian Rowland	Maryland (asst.)	2	5–10–4 (.368)	5–10–4 (.368)	2–4–1 (.357)	0	0	0
Tulsa	Tom McIntosh	Tulsa (asst.)	23	250–173–50 (.581)	250–173–50 (.581)	17–16–4 (.514)	10	0	0
UCF	Scott Calabrese	FIU	3	106–76–25 (.572)	21–9–5 (.671)	9–3–2 (.714)	4	0	0

Preseason

Preseason poll

The preseason poll was released on August 20, 2019. UCF was picked to win the regular season.[14]

	Team Ranking	First Place Votes	Raw Points
1.	UCF	7	49
2.	SMU	1	42
3.	UConn	0	36
4.	South Florida	0	31
5.	Temple	0	24
6.	Memphis	0	18
7.	Tulsa	0	16
8.	Cincinnati	0	8

Preseason national rankings

The preseason national rankings were announced in August 2019. United Soccer Coaches, Soccer America, and TopDrawerSoccer.com do a Top-25 preseason poll. CollegeSoccerNews.com do a Top-30 preseason poll.

	United Soccer[15]	CSN[16]	Soccer America[17]	TopDrawer Soccer[18]
Cincinnati	—	—	—	—
Memphis	—	—	—	—
SMU	RV	22	RV	—
South Florida	—	—	—	—
Temple	—	—	—	—
Tulsa	—	—	—	—
UCF	15	18	13	17
UConn	RV	26	—	—

Preseason All-Conference teams

Honor	Recipient
Preseason Offensive Player of the Year	Cal Jennings, UCF
Preseason Defensive Player of the Year	Robin Lapert, UConn
Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year	Yannik Oettl, UCF

Preseason All-AAC Team

2019 AAC Men's Soccer PreSeason All-AAC Teams
First Team
Cal Jennings – UCF Yannik Oettl – UCF Louis Perez – UCF Yoni Sorokin – UCF Dayonn Harris – UConn Robin Lapert – UConn Felix Metzler – UConn Ben Roberts – Memphis Adrian Billhardt – South Florida Avionne Flanagan – South Florida Talen Maples – SMU Lukas Fernandes – Temple Chase Bromstedt – Tulsa

Regular season

Players of the Week

Week	Offensive			Defensive			Goalkeeper		Rookie
	Player	Position	Team	Player	Position	Team	Player	Team	Player	Position	Team
Sep. 2	Gianluca Arcangeli	FW	UCF	Ben Roberts	DF	Memphis	Bryson Reed	Tulsa	Jovan Prado	MF	Memphis
Sep. 9	Cal Jennings	FW	UCF	Talen Maples	DF	SMU	Yannik Oettl	UCF	Kyle Healy	MF	Cincinnati
Sep. 16	Sam Ashton	FW	Memphis	Javain Brown	DF	South Florida	Harrison Devenish-Meares	South Florida	Victor Claudel	FW	South Florida
Sep. 23	Garrett McLaughlin	FW	SMU	Andres Hernandez	DF	UCF	Shane Lanson	SMU	Gino Vivi	MF	UCF
Sep. 30	Gabriel Costa	MF	SMU	Javain Brown	DF	South Florida	Harrison Devenish-Meares	South Florida	Jonas Schmalbach	MF	UCF
Oct. 7	Gabriel Costa	MF	SMU	Ben Roberts	DF	Memphis	Noah Lawrence	Cincinnati	Michael Blanke	FW	Memphis
Oct. 14	Harris Partain	MF	Tulsa	Robin Lapert	DF	UConn	Gianluca Catalano	UConn	Gino Vivi	MF	UCF
Oct. 21	Artur De Luca	FW	Memphis	Jackson Morse	DF	Memphis	Simon Lefebvre	Temple	Peter Chang	MF	Memphis
Oct. 28	Garrett McLaughlin	FW	SMU	Pierre Cayet	DF	Temple	Yannik Oettl	UCF	Mickael Borger	DF	Temple
Nov. 6	Adrian Billhardt	FW	South Florida	Javain Brown	DF	South Florida	Grant Makela	SMU	Gianluca Arcangeli	MF	UCF

Rankings

United Soccer

		Improvement in ranking
		Drop in ranking
RV		Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25
NV		No votes received

Main article: List of NCAA Division I men's soccer teams ranked in the 2019 Top 25 coaches poll

	Pre	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Final
Cincinnati	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Memphis	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	NV	NV
SMU	RV	RV	22	8	8	4	3	3	12	12	11	5	7
South Florida	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Temple	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Tulsa	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
UCF	15	15	16	13	12	11	9	11	8	6	6	8	10
UConn	RV	23	RV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Top Drawer Soccer

		Improvement in ranking
		Drop in ranking
RV		Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25
NV		No votes received

	Pre	Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Wk 15	Wk 16	Final
Cincinnati	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Memphis	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	RV	RV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
SMU	RV	RV	RV	16	9	4	2	3	4	12	11	11	11	3	3	3	5	5
South Florida	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Temple	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Tulsa	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
UCF	17	17	11	19	17	14	9	4	3	6	4	4	3	8	8	10	10	10
UConn	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Postseason

AAC Tournament

Main article: 2019 American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament

The 2019 Tournament will be held at the home ground of the regular season winner.[19]

	First round November 9					Semifinals November 13					Final November 16
						1	UCF	5
	4	Memphis	1			5	Temple	0
	5	Temple	2								1	UCF	0
											2	SMU	1
						2	SMU (2OT)	2
	3	South Florida	1			3	South Florida	1
	6	UConn	0

NCAA Tournament

Main article: 2019 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament

Seed	School	1st Round	2nd Round	3rd Round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Championship
8	SMU	BYE	W 1–0 (2OT) vs. Coastal Carolina – (Dallas, TX)	W 2–1 (OT) vs. #9 UCF – (Dallas, TX)	L 2–3 (OT) vs. #1 Virginia – (Charlottesville, VA)
9	UCF	BYE	W 2–1 (2OT) vs. Missouri State – (Orlando, FL)	L 1–2 (OT) vs. #8 SMU – (Dallas, TX)
None	South Florida	L 1–4 vs. Louisville– (Louisville, KY)
	W–L–T (%):	0–1–0 (.000)	2–0–0 (1.000)	1–1–0 (.500)	0–1–0 (.000)	0–0–0 (–)	0–0–0 (–) Total: 3–3–0 (.500)

Postseason awards and honors

Conference honors

2019 AAC Men's Soccer Individual Awards[20]
Award	Recipient(s)
Offensive Player of the Year	Cal Jennings – UCF
Midfielders of the Year	Yoni Sorokin – UCF Gabriel Costa – SMU
Defensive Player of the Year	Eddie Munjoma – SMU
Goalkeeper of the Year	Yannik Oettl – UCF
Rookie of the Year	Gino Vivi – UCF
Coach of the Year	Scott Calabrese – UCF

2019 AAC Men's Soccer All-Conference Teams[20]
First Team	Second Team	Rookie Team
Yannik Oettl, UCF Cal Jennings, UCF Garrett McLaughlin, SMU Harris Partain, Tulsa Yoni Sorokin, UCF Dayonn Harris, UConn Gabriel Costa, SMU Yanis Leerman, UCF Javain Brown, South Florida Avionne Flanagan, South Florida Eddie Munjoma, South Florida Sam Ashton, Memphis	Simon Lefebvre, Temple Louis Perez, UCF Donovan Segree, Cincinnati Robin Lapert, UConn Felix Metzler, UConn Ben Roberts, Memphis Gurman Sangha, Memphis Adrian Billhardt, South Florida Knut Ahlander, SMU Lukas Fernandes, Temple Pierre Cayet, Temple Mitchell Cashion, Tulsa	Glademir Mendoza, UCF Gino Vivi, UCF Mo Williams, Cincinnati Ben Awashie, UConn Moussa Wade, UConn Peter Chang, Memphis Ford Hunt, Memphis Javain Brown, South Florida Sal Mazzaferro, South Florida Henrik Bredeli, SMU Sean Karani, Temple

denotes unanimous selection

National honors

Main article: 2019 NCAA Men's Soccer All-Americans

Player	Pos.	School	Honor	Ref.
Gabriel Costa	MF	SMU	TopDrawer Soccer Second-Team All-American	[21]
			Soccer America Third-Team All-American	[22]
			United Soccer Coaches Third-Team All-American	[23]
Dayonn Harris	FW	UConn	Senior CLASS Award Senior All-American	[24]
Cal Jennings	FW	UCF	College Soccer News First-Team All-American	[25]
			CoSIDA Second-Team All-American	[26]
			Senior CLASS Award Senior All-American	[24]
			Soccer America First-Team All-American	[22]
			TopDrawer Soccer First-Team All-American	[21]
			United Soccer Coaches First-Team All-American	[23]
Yannis Leerman	MF	UCF	TopDrawer Soccer Second-Team All-American	[21]
Garrett McLaughlin	FW	SMU	Senior CLASS Award Senior All-American	[24]
Eddie Munjoma	DF	SMU	United Soccer Coaches First-Team All-American	[23]
Yoni Sorokin	MF	UCF	TopDrawer Soccer Second-Team All-American	[21]
Gino Vivi	FW	UCF	College Soccer News First-Team Freshman All-American	[27]
			TopDrawer Soccer Third-Team Freshman All-American	[28]
Ben Wendell	MF	Cincinnati	CoSIDA Third-Team All-American	[26]

American vs other conferences

Regular Season[29] Conference Record America East 1–0–0 ACC 4–3–0 Atlantic 10 4–1–0 Atlantic Sun 9–0–0 Big East 2–7–0 Big South 1–0–0 Big Ten 0–3–1 Big West 1–0–0 Colonial 1–0–0 Conference USA 4–1–1 Horizon 2–3–0 Ivy 0–3–1 MAAC 2–0–0 Mid-American 1–2–0 Missouri Valley 2–1–0 NEC 0–1–0 Pac-12 0–0–0 Patriot 1–0–0 SoCon 1–2–0 Summit 3–0–1 Sun Belt 2–1–0 West Coast 1–0–0 WAC 3–0–0 Total Non-Conference Record 45–28–4

Post Season Power Conferences Record ACC 0–2–0 American 1–1–0 Power Conferences Total 1–3–0 Other DI Conferences Record Missouri Valley 1–0–0 Sun Belt 1–0–0 Other DI Total 2–0–0 Total Postseason Record 3–3–0

MLS SuperDraft

Main article: 2020 MLS SuperDraft

Total picks by school

Team	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Total
Cincinnati	0	0	0	0	0
Connecticut	1	0	0	0	1
Memphis	0	0	0	0	0
SMU	1	0	0	0	1
South Florida	0	0	0	0	0
Temple	1	0	0	0	1
Tulsa	0	0	0	0	0
UCF	1	1	0	0	2

List of selections

Round	Pick #	MLS team	Player	Position	College	Ref.
1	8	Houston Dynamo	Garrett McLaughlin	FW	SMU	[30]
1	17	FC Dallas	Cal Jennings	FW	UCF	[31]
1	20	Real Salt Lake	Dayonn Harris	MF	UConn	[32]
1	21	D.C. United	Simon Lefebvre	GK	Temple	[33]
2	39	Orlando City	Jonathan Dean	DF	UCF	[34]

Homegrown contracts

Main article: Homegrown Player Rule (Major League Soccer)

The Homegrown Player Rule is a Major League Soccer program that allows MLS teams to sign local players from their own development academies directly to MLS first team rosters. Before the creation of the rule in 2008,[35] every player entering Major League Soccer had to be assigned through one of the existing MLS player allocation processes, such as the MLS SuperDraft.

To place a player on its homegrown player list, making him eligible to sign as a homegrown player, players must have resided in that club's home territory and participated in the club's youth development system for at least one year.[36] Players can play college soccer and still be eligible to sign a homegrown contract.

Original MLS team	Player	Position	College	Ref.
FC Dallas	Eddie Munjoma	DF	SMU	[37]

References

1. Hnatiuk, Aileen (December 7, 2019). "UVA men's soccer advances to College Cup beating SMU in overtime 3-2". WVIR. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
2. "SMU Defeats UCF 2-1 in NCAA Men's Soccer Third Round". theamerican.org. November 30, 2019. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
3. "Louisville Cardinals vs. South Florida Bulls - College Soccer Match Summary - November 21, 2019 - ESPN". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
4. Severs, John (2018-11-16). "Oregon State Men's Soccer: Beavers Beat SMU 2-1 to Advance to Second Round". Building The Dam. Retrieved 2019-01-13.
5. [e-mail], BROOKS HATCH. "OSU men's soccer: Beavers face Gaels in second round". Corvallis Gazette Times. Retrieved 2019-01-13.
6. ChrisS. "NEW: URI Soccer Falls to UConn 4-3 in Overtime in NCAA Tournament". GoLocalProv. Retrieved 2019-01-13.
7. "IU men's soccer puts nation on alert with win over UConn: 'You don't want to be in our way right now.'". Indianapolis Star. Retrieved 2019-01-13.
8. "NCAA soccer: DI men's 2018 tournament bracket released; Wake Forest is No. 1 seed". NCAA.com. 2018-11-12. Retrieved 2019-01-13.
9. "UCF Knights vs. Lipscomb Bisons - Football Match Stats - November 18, 2018 - ESPN". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2019-01-13.
10. "UCF, UConn Garner Men's Soccer Regular Season Awards". theamerican.org. Retrieved 2019-01-13.
11. "UCF's Cal Jennings, Louis Perez Tabbed United Soccer Coaches All-Americans". theamerican.org. Retrieved 2019-01-13.
12. Morton, Aaron (January 11, 2019). "Former Orem High soccer player Emil Cuello drafted by LA Galaxy". Deseret News. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
13. "NCAA Men's Soccer Championship Brackets" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. ncaa.org. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
14. "UCF Unanimously Tops Men's Soccer Preseason Poll". theamerican.org. August 20, 2019. Retrieved September 21, 2019.
15. "United Soccer Coaches Top 25 NCAA DI Men — National Pre-Season Poll — August 6, 2019". United Soccer Coaches. August 6, 2019. Archived from the original on August 11, 2019. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
16. "College Soccer News 2019 Preseason National Poll". CollegeSoccerNews.com. August 17, 2019. Retrieved September 21, 2018.
17. "Soccer America Preseason Men's College Top 25". Soccer America. August 28, 2019. Retrieved September 21, 2019.
18. "College Soccer National Ranking: Men's DI Top 25". Advanced Sports Media, LLC. August 28, 2019. Retrieved September 21, 2019.
19. "American Athletic Conference Championships - 2018-19 Schedule". theamerican.org. August 2, 2018. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
20. "American Athletic Conference Announces 2019 Men's Soccer Awards". theamerican.org. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
21. "College Soccer Player Rankings - National - Men's National Top 100 - 2019". Top Drawer Soccer. December 17, 2019. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
22. "Awards: NCAA Division I Men's All-America Team". Soccer America. December 12, 2019. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
23. "NCAA Division I Men's All-America Team Announced". United Soccer Coaches. December 12, 2019. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
24. "Charlotte's Elliot Panicco Wins 2019 Senior CLASS Award® for Men's Soccer | Senior CLASS Award". www.seniorclassaward.com. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
25. "College Soccer News 2019 All-America Teams - CollegeSoccerNews.com". collegesoccernews.com. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
26. "2019 Academic All-America® NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Teams Announced". academicallamerica.com. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
27. "2019 College Soccer News All-Freshman Teams - CollegeSoccerNews.com". collegesoccernews.com. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
28. "College Soccer Player Rankings - Freshman - Men's Freshmen Top 100 - 2019". TopDrawerSoccer.com. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
29. Erbes, Megan (October 23, 2018). "American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Report October 23, 2018" (PDF). theamerican.org. Retrieved October 25, 2018.
30. "Houston Dynamo Select FW Garrett McLaughlin & MF Luka Prpa at 2020 MLS SuperDraft". OurSports Central. 2020-01-09. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
31. Epperley, Drew (2020-01-09). "FC Dallas selects two in the first round of the 2020 MLS Draft". Big D Soccer. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
32. "Real Salt Lake adds pair, including UConn winger Dayonn Harris, via 2020 SuperDraft". www.ksl.com. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
33. "D.C. United Select Goalkeeper Simon Lefebvre with 21st Overall Pick in 2020 MLS SuperDraft". January 9, 2020. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
34. "Jonathan Dean Drafted by Orlando City". UCF Athletics. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
35. "MLS Draft 2013: Homegrown player initiative rises as draft declines". Sporting News.
36. "MLS 2012 Roster Rules". Archived from the original on 2012-02-20.
37. Sigal, Jonathan (January 13, 2020). "FC Dallas sign Eddie Munjoma as Homegrown after All-American career at SMU". MLSSoccer.com. Retrieved February 10, 2020.

External links

• American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer