Tar Heels to play UCLA in NCAA College Cup

There are no easy roads to the College Cup.

And there aren’t any short roads either.

For the North Carolina men’s soccer team, who will play UCLA on Friday in Hoover, Ala., this College Cup is the end of a journey that started in the spring.

Carlos Somoano took over as head coach on April 25, but junior midfielder Enzo Martinez said that Somoano was making plans even before that.

“From the first minute he got the job and before that when he was trying to get the job, he had prepared for the future very well,” Martinez said. “He had us playing a style that he wanted us playing in the fall.”

The team took to Somoano’s style, one that involves adhering to well-defined roles and knowing the roles of other players on the field. The results, so far, have been undeniable.

Somoano already joins North Carolina women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance as the only two coaches in ACC history to win conference coach of the year in their first season.

“The College Cup speaks for itself,” Martinez said. “It’s not just the fact the we won one game or won three games and made it to the College Cup. We won the ACC.

“We have a good record this year we’ve done a lot of good things.”

Despite the coaching change, the goal of making the College Cup remained.

“It had to be our goal,” Somoano said. “If we didn’t believe we could be here, we wouldn’t be here. I think in order to achieve a national championship, and ACC championship or an ACC regular season, you have to believe that you’re capable of doing it.”

In addition to promoting the belief that his team could make it to the cup, Martinez said that Somoano has served as a motivator all year long.

“The beautiful thing about him is that he’s got ambitions,” Martinez said. “He’s hungry. He wants this as bad as any other coach out there or as bad as any other player.”

Somoano said that this is by design as he expected his team to replicate his focused approach.

“My personality and my focus will transmit to the team and they want that,” Somoano said. “They want that ambition, it’s not hard to convince them. I think certainly as a coach if I were to lose focus, they would lose focus.”

Now in its fourth consecutive College Cup, UNC has a chance at the program’s first national title since 2001, and even after the highest point of the season the Tar Heels’ focus is as sharp as ever.

“Although that is a big accomplishment, that’s not our goal,” Scott Goodwin said. “Our goal is to go all the way … We’re focused on Friday and really trying to not put too much focus on the fact that it’s a College Cup game, it’s just the next game.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com