A night that started with so much hope for the North Carolina men’s soccer team ended in agony and despair.
The Tar Heels (17-4- 1) were defeated by Indiana, 1-0, in the College Cup semifinal on Friday night in Chester, Pa., marking the second consecutive year UNC has fallen a game short of the national championship.
It wasn’t supposed to go this way. The Tar Heels were supposed to hand the Hoosiers (18-0-6) their first loss of the season and set up a revenge match against Stanford, the team that broke UNC’s hearts in last year’s national semifinal.
Stanford held up its end of the bargain, knocking off an impressive Akron squad, 2-0, in the first match held at Talen Energy Stadium earlier that night. However, from the opening minutes it was clear this was not the aggressive UNC team that had scored 53 goals, second best in the nation. The Tar Heels never seemed comfortable against an Indiana squad that conceded just six goals all year.
“We didn’t connect on a goal,” head coach Carlos Somoano said. “The major reason for that is throughout the game we were just a little hesitant. We chose to pause, and they got us to pause.”
As out of sync as the Tar Heels looked, they still had opportunities. Less than four minutes into the game, sophomore midfielder Jeremy Kelly brought the ball up on the right sideline. Kelly looked to the middle and curved the ball in that direction. The trajectory carried it to the back of the post, where senior forward Alan Winn extended his leg just enough to get a touch on the ball.
However, his momentum caused the ball to go back into the penalty box and cleared from danger by an Indiana defender.
Early in the second half, the Hoosiers broke the ice of an 0-0 game. Junior midfielder Trevor Swartz lined up for Indiana’s first and only corner kick and curled the ball right in front of the back post. It was a perfect delivery, and the Tar Heel defenders stood in horror as All-Big 10 junior defender Andrew Gutman tapped the ball into the back of the net.
After the goal, the Hoosiers were content to sit back and hold on to the team’s 18th shutout of the year. Every time a Tar Heel player seemed to find space, he would be drowned by a sea of red.