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
NSCAA poll	#RV
TopDrawerSoccer.com	#22
2021 record	11–7–2 (4–4–0 ACC)
Head coach	Carlos Somoano (11th year)
Assistant coach	Grant Porter (11th year)
Assistant coach	Will Clayton (4th year)
Home stadium	Dorrance Field

2021 ACC men's soccer standings
	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 Coastal 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

Main article: 2020 North Carolina Tar Heels men's soccer team

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 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.

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
Andres Cardenas FW	USA	Doral, FL	Inter Miami CF U18
Quinn Closson GK	USA	Fairfield, CT	NYCFC Academy
Andrew Czech MF	USA	Elmhurst, IL	Sockers FC
Matthew Edwards DF	USA	Atlanta, GA	Atlanta United
Luc Granitur FW	USA	Vero Beach, FL	SIMA
Tega Ikoba FW	USA	Huntsville, AL	Portland Timbers Academy
Daniel Kutsch MF	USA	Birmingham, AL	Alabama FC
Zack Naughton MF	USA	Goldsboro, NC	Wilmington Hammerheads FC
Lucas Ross FW	USA	Verona, NJ	PDA Academy	N/A
Matthew Senanou DF	USA	Plainfield, IL	Sockers FC
Gui Vivaldini MF	USA	Chattanooga, TN	The McCallie School

Squad

Roster

As of January 27, 2022

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

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

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

Schedule

Source:

Date Time, TV	Rank#	Opponent#	Result	Record	Site (Attendance) City, State
Exhibition
August 15* 8:30 p.m.	#4	#1 Marshall	T 1–1	–	Dorrance Field Chapel Hill, NC
August 20* 7:00 p.m.	#4	Liberty	L 0–1	–	Liberty Soccer Stadium Lynchburg, VA
Regular season
August 26* 7:30 p.m., ACCNX	#4	Bucknell	W 7–0	1–0–0	Dorrance Field (1,227) Chapel Hill, NC
August 29* 7:30 p.m., ACCNX	#4	VCU	T 1–1 2OT	1–0–1	Dorrance Field (1,776) Chapel Hill, NC
September 3* 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	#6	Georgia Southern	W 3–0	2–0–1	Dorrance Field (498) Chapel Hill, NC
September 6* 7:00 p.m., ESPN+	#6	at Davidson	W 3–0	3–0–1	Alumni Soccer Stadium (2,163) Davidson, NC
September 10 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	#4	at #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	#16	Campbell	W 1–0	4–1–1	Dorrance Field (538) Chapel Hill, NC
September 19 7:00 p.m., ACCN	#16	#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		#15 Loyola Marymount	W 2–0	8–5–1	Dorrance Field (471) Chapel Hill, NC
October 24 7:00 p.m., ACCRSN		at #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		#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) #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) #18	at (2) #9 Clemson Quarterfinals	L 1–2	11–6–1	Riggs Field (2,351) Clemson, SC
NCAA Tournament
November 18 6:00 p.m., ACCNX	#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+	#23	(16) #6 New Hampshire Second Round	L 1–4	11–7–2	Wildcat Stadium (3,264) Durham, NH
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from NSCAA. All times are in Eastern.

Awards and honors

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

2022 MLS Super Draft

Main article: 2022 MLS SuperDraft

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

Source:

Rankings

Main article: 2021 NCAA Division I men's soccer rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Final
United Soccer	4	6	4	16	RV	RV	RV	-	-	RV	18	23	{{{poll1_12}}}	{{{poll1_13}}}	{{{poll1_14}}}	{{{poll1_15}}}	{{{poll1_16}}}	{{{poll1_17}}}	{{{poll1_18}}}	{{{poll1_19}}}	{{{poll1_20}}}	Not released
TopDrawer Soccer	4	5	2	4	11	11	17	-	-	23	20	20	22	22	22	22	22	{{{poll2_17}}}	{{{poll2_18}}}	{{{poll2_19}}}	{{{poll2_20}}}
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