2021 North Carolina Tar Heels men's soccer team

2021 North Carolina Tar Heels men's soccer
NCAA Tournament, Second Round
Conference	Atlantic Coast Conference
U. Soc. Coaches poll	No. RV
TopDrawerSoccer.com	No. 22
2021 record	11–7–2 (4–4–0 ACC)
Head coach	Carlos Somoano (11th season)
Assistant coaches	Grant Porter (11th season) Will Clayton (4th season)
Home stadium	Dorrance Field
Seasons ← 2020  →

2021 ACC men's soccer standings
v t	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
Atlantic
No. 1 Clemson +	5	–	3	–	0			16	–	5	–	2
Louisville +	5	–	3	–	0			10	–	7	–	1
No. 17 Wake Forest +	4	–	3	–	1			13	–	7	–	1
Boston College	2	–	4	–	2			6	–	7	–	2
Syracuse	2	–	5	–	1			8	–	8	–	2
NC State	1	–	5	–	2			7	–	8	–	2
Coastal
No. 12 Duke +	5	–	2	–	1			14	–	5	–	1
No. 6 Pittsburgh +	5	–	2	–	1			13	–	5	–	2
No. 4 Notre Dame ‡	4	–	2	–	2			14	–	5	–	5
North Carolina +	4	–	4	–	0			11	–	7	–	2
No. 19 Virginia Tech +	3	–	4	–	1			11	–	5	–	4
Virginia	2	–	5	–	1			6	–	9	–	3
‡ – ACC Tournament champion + – Also invited to the 2021 NCAA Tournament As of December 14, 2021; Rankings from United Soccer Coaches Source: The ACC

The 2021 North Carolina Tar Heels men's soccer team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 2021 NCAA Division I men's soccer season. It was the 75th season of the university fielding a program. The Tar Heels were led by eleventh year head coach Carlos Somoano and played their home games at Dorrance Field.

The Tar Heels finished the season 11–7–2 overall and 4–4–0 in ACC play to finish in fourth place in the Atlantic Division. As the seventh overall seed in the ACC Tournament, they defeated Syracuse in the First Round, before losing to Clemson in the Quarterfinals. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. As an unseeded team, they defeated Loyola (MD) via penalty shoot-out in the First Round before losing to sixth seeded New Hampshire in the Second Round.

Background[]

The teams' 2020 season was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which curtailed the fall season and caused the NCAA Tournament to be played in Spring 2021. The ACC was one of the only two conferences in men's soccer to play in the fall of 2020. The ACC also held a mini-season during the spring of 2021.

The Tar Heels finished the fall season 3–2–2 and 3–1–2 in ACC play to finish in second place in the South Division. In the ACC Tournament lost to Notre Dame in the Quarterfinals. They finished the spring season 4–2–1 and 4–1–1 in ACC play, to finish in second place in the Coastal Division. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. As the an unseeded team in the tournament, they progressed pass Charlotte in the Second Round via penalties, defeated Stanford in the Third Round, and Wake Forest in the Quarterfinals before losing to Marshall in the Semifinals to end their season.

At the end of the season, three Tar Heels men's soccer players were selected in the 2021 MLS SuperDraft: Matt Constant, Mark Salas and Giovanni Montesdeoca.^[1]

Player movement[]

Departures[]

Departures

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Reason for Departure
Matt Constant	6	DF	6'6"	190	Senior	Dallas, TX	Graduated
Giovanni Montesdeoca	10	FW	5'9"	167	Senior	Dallas, TX	Graduated; Drafted 79th overall in the 2021 MLS SuperDraft by FC Dallas
Sam Jones	18	MF	6'2"	190	Senior	Cardiff, Wales	Graduated
Axel Alejandre	26	DF	5'11"		Freshman	Chicago, IL	Transferred to Louisville
Mark Salas	27	DF	5'10"	150	Senior	Dallas, TX	Graduated; Drafted 76th overall in the 2021 MLS SuperDraft by FC Dallas
Malik Henry	31	FW	5'6"	130	Freshman	Hamilton, Canada	Transferred to Akron
Roman Knox	38	MF	5'10"	150	Junior	Shawnee, KS	Transferred to SMU
Taff Wadda	39	FW	5'9"	150	Senior	Brackell, England	Graduated

Recruiting class[]

Name	Nat.	Hometown	Club	TDS Rating
Nicolas Bellini FW	USA	Lehi, UT	Real Salt Lake	[2]
Andres Cardenas FW	USA	Doral, FL	Inter Miami CF U18	[3]
Quinn Closson GK	USA	Fairfield, CT	NYCFC Academy	[4]
Andrew Czech MF	USA	Elmhurst, IL	Sockers FC	[5]
Matthew Edwards DF	USA	Atlanta, GA	Atlanta United	[6]
Luc Granitur FW	USA	Vero Beach, FL	SIMA	[7]
Tega Ikoba FW	USA	Huntsville, AL	Portland Timbers Academy	[8]
Daniel Kutsch MF	USA	Birmingham, AL	Alabama FC	[9]
Zack Naughton MF	USA	Goldsboro, NC	Wilmington Hammerheads FC	[10]
Lucas Ross FW	USA	Verona, NJ	PDA Academy	N/A[11]
Matthew Senanou DF	USA	Plainfield, IL	Sockers FC	[12]
Gui Vivaldini MF	USA	Chattanooga, TN	The McCallie School	[13]

Squad[]

Roster[]

As of January 27, 2022^[14]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 0 GK  USA Quinn Colsson 1 GK  USA Alex Smir 2 DF  ITA Filippo Zattarin 4 DF  ENG Joe Pickering 5 DF  USA Julian Hinojosa 6 MF  USA Andres Cardenas 7 FW  USA Lucas del Rosario 8 MF  USA Jameson Charles 9 FW  VEN Santiago Herrera 10 FW  USA Tega Ikoba 11 MF  USA Antonio Lopez 12 GK  USA J.P. Philpot 13 FW  USA Key White 14 MF  SWE Victor Olofsson 15 DF  USA Riley Thomas 16 FW  USA Jonathan Jimenez 17 MF  USA Cameron Fisher 18 DF  USA Matthew Senanou 19 MF  USA Jonathan Sinclair 20 MF  USA Ernest Bawa

No. Pos. Nation Player 21 FW  USA Alex Rose 22 MF  USA Milo Garvanian 24 GK   SUI Marco Saborio-Perez 25 FW  USA Akeim Clarke 26 DF  USA Matt Edwards 27 MF  USA Andrew Czech 28 MF  GER Tim Schels 29 MF  USA Yaya Bakayoko 30 GK  USA Jake Schick 31 FW  USA Luc Granitur 32 DF  USA Aldair Sanchez 33 MF  USA Garrett Kessel 34 MF  USA Ahmad Al-Qaq 35 MF  USA Sam Moore 36 MF  BRA Guy Vivaldini 37 MF  USA Jacques Bouvery 39 FW  GER Gerit Wintermeyer 41 MF  USA Chris Sullivan 42 FW  USA Daniel Kutsch

Team management[]

Position	Staff
Athletic Director	Bubba Cunningham
Head Coach	Carlos Somoano
Assistant Coach	Grant Porter
Assistant Coach	Will Clayton
Volunteer Assistant Coach	Michael Harrington

Source:^[14]

Schedule[]

Source:^[15][16]

Date Time, TV	Rank#	Opponent#	Result	Record	Site (Attendance) City, State
Exhibition
August 15* 8:30 p.m.	No. 4	No. 1 Marshall	T 1–1	–	Dorrance Field Chapel Hill, NC
August 20* 7:00 p.m.	No. 4	Liberty	L 0–1	–	Liberty Soccer Stadium Lynchburg, VA
Regular season
August 26* 7:30 p.m., ACCNX	No. 4	Bucknell	W 7–0	1–0–0	Dorrance Field (1,227) Chapel Hill, NC
August 29* 7:30 p.m., ACCNX	No. 4	VCU	T 1–1 2OT	1–0–1	Dorrance Field (1,776) Chapel Hill, NC
September 3* 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 6	Georgia Southern	W 3–0	2–0–1	Dorrance Field (498) Chapel Hill, NC
September 6* 7:00 p.m., ESPN+	No. 6	at Davidson	W 3–0	3–0–1	Alumni Soccer Stadium (2,163) Davidson, NC
September 10 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 4	at No. 15 Pittsburgh	L 0–4	3–1–1 (0–1–0)	Ambrose Urbanic Field (1,115) Pittsburgh, PA
September 14* 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 16	Campbell	W 1–0	4–1–1	Dorrance Field (538) Chapel Hill, NC
September 19 7:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 16	No. 12 Duke Rivalry	L 0–3	4–2–1 (0–2–0)	Dorrance Field (2,310) Chapel Hill, NC
September 25 7:00 p.m., ACCRSN		at Virginia	W 2–0	5–2–1 (1–2–0)	Klöckner Stadium (2,046) Charlottesville, VA
September 29* 7:00 p.m., FloSports		at UNC Wilmington	L 1–2	5–3–1	UNCW Soccer Stadium (1,321) Wilmington, NC
October 3 7:00 p.m., ACCN		NC State	W 4–0	6��3–1 (2–2–0)	Dorrance Field (1,433) Chapel Hill, NC
October 8 7:00 p.m., ACCNX		Wake Forest	L 1–2	6–4–1 (2–3–0)	Dorrance Field (1,283) Chapel Hill, NC
October 12* 7:00 p.m., ACCNX		Wofford	W 1–0	7–4–1	Dorrance Field (466) Chapel Hill, NC
October 15 7:00 p.m., ACCN		at Louisville	L 0–2	7–5–1 (2–4–0)	Lynn Stadium (562) Louisville, KY
October 19* 7:00 p.m., ACCNX		No. 15 Loyola Marymount	W 2–0	8–5–1	Dorrance Field (471) Chapel Hill, NC
October 24 7:00 p.m., ACCRSN		at No. 13 Virginia Tech	W 2–0	9–5–1 (3–4–0)	Thompson Field (1,115) Blacksburg, VA
October 29 4:30 p.m., ESPNU		No. 11 Notre Dame	W 3–1	10–5–1 (4–4–0)	Dorrance Field (1,481) Chapel Hill, NC
ACC Tournament
November 3 8:00 p.m., ACCN	(7) No. 18	(10) Syracuse First Round	W 1–0 2OT	11–5–1	Dorrance Field (544) Chapel Hill, NC
November 7 8:00 p.m., ACCN	(7) No. 18	at (2) No. 9 Clemson Quarterfinals	L 1–2	11–6–1	Riggs Field (2,351) Clemson, SC
NCAA Tournament
November 18 6:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 23	Loyola (MD) First Round	T 0–0 (4–2 PKs)	11–6–2	Dorrance Field (1,347) Chapel Hill, NC
November 21 2:00 p.m., ESPN+	No. 23	(16) No. 6 New Hampshire Second Round	L 1–4	11–7–2	Wildcat Stadium (3,264) Durham, NH
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from United Soccer Coaches. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Eastern.

Awards and honors[]

Recipient	Award	Date	Ref.
Alec Smir	Preseason All-ACC Watchlist	August 18	[17]
Milo Garvanian	ACC Offensive Player of the Week	October 26	[18]
Alec Smir	ACC Defensive Player of the Week
Alec Smir	All-ACC First Team	November 10	[19]
Joe Pickering	All-ACC Third Team
Filippo Zattarin
Ken Bellini	ACC All-Freshman Team
Tega Ikoba

2022 MLS Super Draft[]

Player	Team	Round	Pick #	Position
Alec Smir	FC Dallas	3	62	GK

Source:^[20]

Rankings[]

Ranking movement
Legend: ██ Improvement in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking. ██ Not ranked the previous week. RV=Others receiving votes.

Poll	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	Final
United Soccer[21]	4	6	4	16	RV	RV	RV			RV	18	23	None Released				RV
TopDrawer Soccer [22]	4	5	2	4	11	11	17			23	20	20	22	22	22	22	22

References[]