2019 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season explained

Color:	002654
Color Text:	FFFFFF
League:	NCAA Division I
Sport:	Soccer
Pixels:	125px
Duration:	August 30, 2019 – November 5, 2019
No Of Teams:	8
Season:	Regular Season
Season Champs:	UCF
Second Place:	SMU
Draft:	2020 MLS SuperDraft
Draft Link:	2020 MLS SuperDraft
Top Pick:	Garrett McLaughlin, 8th overall
Picked By:	Houston Dynamo
Finals:	Tournament
Finals Link:	2019 American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament
Finals Champ:	SMU
Finals Runner-Up:	UCF
Finals Mvp:	Eddie Munjoma
Seasonslistnames:	AAC men's soccer
Prevseason Link:	2018 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season
Prevseason Year:	2018
Nextseason Link:	2020 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season
Nextseason Year:	2020

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 on 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.

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

See 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	NCAA Titles
style=	Cincinnati		Wright State	20				2	0	0
style=	UConn			23				17	2	1
style=	Memphis		Memphis (asst.)	6				0	0	0
style=	SMU		SMU (asst.)	5				3	0	0
style=	South Florida			3				4	0	0
style=	Temple	Brian Rowland	Maryland (asst.)	2				0	0	0
style=	Tulsa		Tulsa (asst.)	23				10	0	0
style=	UCF			3				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]
style= width=75	Cincinnati	—	—	—	—
style= width=75	Memphis	—	—	—	—
style= width=75	SMU	RV	22	RV	—
style= width=75	South Florida	—	—	—	—
style= width=75	Temple	—	—	—	—
style= width=75	Tulsa	—	—	—	—
style= width=75	UCF	15	18	13	17
style= width=75	UConn	RV	26	—	—

Preseason All-Conference teams

Honor	Recipient
valign=middle	Preseason Offensive Player of the Year	Cal Jennings, UCF
valign=middle	Preseason Defensive Player of the Year	Robin Lapert, UConn
valign=middle	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

See 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

See 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]

NCAA Tournament

See main article: 2019 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament.

Seed	School	1st Round	2nd Round	3rd Round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Championship
8	SMU	bgcolor=#ddd		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)	bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd
9	UCF	bgcolor=#ddd		W 2–1 (2OT) vs. Missouri State – (Orlando, FL)	L 1–2 (OT) vs. #8 SMU – (Dallas, TX)	bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd
None	South Florida	L 1–4 vs. Louisville– (Louisville, KY)	bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd		bgcolor=#ddd
	W–L–T (%):						Total:

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
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

See main article: 2019 NCAA Men's Soccer All-Americans.

Player		School	Honor
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
			Soccer America First-Team All-American
			TopDrawer Soccer First-Team All-American
			United Soccer Coaches First-Team All-American
Yannis Leerman	MF	UCF	TopDrawer Soccer Second-Team All-American
Garrett McLaughlin	FW	SMU	Senior CLASS Award Senior All-American
Eddie Munjoma	DF	SMU	United Soccer Coaches First-Team All-American
Yoni Sorokin	MF	UCF	TopDrawer Soccer Second-Team All-American
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

American vs other conferences

Regular Season^[29]

Conference	Record
	1–0–0
	4–3–0
	4–1–0
	9–0–0
	2–7–0
	1–0–0
	0–3–1
	1–0–0
	1–0–0
	4–1–1
	2–3–0
	0–3–1
	2–0–0
	1–2–0
	2–1–0
	0–1–0
	0–0–0
	1–0–0
	1–2–0
	3–0–1
	2–1–0
	1–0–0
	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

See 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		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		Jonathan Dean	DF	UCF	^[34]

Homegrown contracts

See 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.

External links

• American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer

Notes and References

1. Web site: UVA men's soccer advances to College Cup beating SMU in overtime 3-2. Hnatiuk. Aileen. December 7, 2019. WVIR. en-US. February 11, 2020.
2. Web site: SMU Defeats UCF 2-1 in NCAA Men's Soccer Third Round. November 30, 2019. theamerican.org. en. February 11, 2020.
3. Web site: Louisville Cardinals vs. South Florida Bulls - College Soccer Match Summary - November 21, 2019 - ESPN. ESPN.com. en. 2020-02-10.
4. Web site: Oregon State Men's Soccer: Beavers Beat SMU 2-1 to Advance to Second Round. Severs. John. 2018-11-16. Building The Dam. 2019-01-13.
5. Web site: OSU men's soccer: Beavers face Gaels in second round. Brooks. Hatch. Corvallis Gazette Times. en. 2019-01-13.
6. Web site: NEW: URI Soccer Falls to UConn 4-3 in Overtime in NCAA Tournament. ChrisS. GoLocalProv. en. 2019-01-13.
7. Web site: 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. en. 2019-01-13.
8. Web site: NCAA soccer: DI men's 2018 tournament bracket released; Wake Forest is No. 1 seed. 2018-11-12. NCAA.com. en. 2019-01-13.
9. Web site: UCF Knights vs. Lipscomb Bisons - Football Match Stats - November 18, 2018 - ESPN. ESPN.com. en. 2019-01-13.
10. Web site: UCF, UConn Garner Men's Soccer Regular Season Awards. theamerican.org. en. 2019-01-13.
11. Web site: UCF's Cal Jennings, Louis Perez Tabbed United Soccer Coaches All-Americans. theamerican.org. en. 2019-01-13.
12. Web site: Former Orem High soccer player Emil Cuello drafted by LA Galaxy. Morton. Aaron. January 11, 2019. Deseret News. en. February 10, 2020.
13. Web site: NCAA Men's Soccer Championship Brackets. National Collegiate Athletic Association. ncaa.org. July 17, 2017.
14. Web site: UCF Unanimously Tops Men's Soccer Preseason Poll. August 20, 2019. theamerican.org. en. September 21, 2019.
15. Web site: United Soccer Coaches Top 25 NCAA DI Men — National Pre-Season Poll — August 6, 2019. August 6, 2019. United Soccer Coaches. https://web.archive.org/web/20190811185134/https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-di-men/. August 11, 2019. dead. August 12, 2019.
16. Web site: College Soccer News 2019 Preseason National Poll. August 17, 2019. CollegeSoccerNews.com. September 21, 2018. August 13, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190813175131/https://www.collegesoccernews.com/index.php/polls/csn-preseason-top-30-poll/1331-college-soccer-news-2019-preseason-national-poll. dead.
17. Web site: Soccer America Preseason Men's College Top 25. August 28, 2019. Soccer America. September 21, 2019.
18. Web site: College Soccer National Ranking: Men's DI Top 25. August 28, 2019. Advanced Sports Media, LLC. September 21, 2019.
19. Web site: American Athletic Conference Championships - 2018-19 Schedule . theamerican.org . September 9, 2018 . August 2, 2018.
20. Web site: American Athletic Conference Announces 2019 Men's Soccer Awards. theamerican.org. en. 2019-12-06.
21. Web site: College Soccer Player Rankings - National - Men's National Top 100 - 2019. December 17, 2019. Top Drawer Soccer. December 30, 2019.
22. Web site: Awards: NCAA Division I Men's All-America Team. December 12, 2019. Soccer America. limited. December 29, 2019.
23. Web site: NCAA Division I Men's All-America Team Announced. December 12, 2019. United Soccer Coaches. December 21, 2019.
24. Web site: Charlotte's Elliot Panicco Wins 2019 Senior CLASS Award® for Men's Soccer Senior CLASS Award. www.seniorclassaward.com. 2019-12-29.
25. Web site: College Soccer News 2019 All-America Teams - CollegeSoccerNews.com. collegesoccernews.com. 2019-12-29. 2019-12-29. https://web.archive.org/web/20191229163345/https://collegesoccernews.com/index.php/awards/all-america-teams/1405-college-soccer-news-2019-all-america-teams. dead.
26. Web site: 2019 Academic All-America® NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Teams Announced. academicallamerica.com. en. 2019-12-31.
27. Web site: 2019 College Soccer News All-Freshman Teams - CollegeSoccerNews.com. collegesoccernews.com. 2019-12-29. 2019-12-29. https://web.archive.org/web/20191229163354/https://collegesoccernews.com/index.php/awards/all-freshman-teams/1408-college-soccer-news-2019-all-freshman-teams. dead.
28. Web site: College Soccer Player Rankings - Freshman - Men's Freshmen Top 100 - 2019. TopDrawerSoccer.com. en. 2019-12-29.
29. Web site: Erbes . Megan . American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Report October 23, 2018 . theamerican.org . October 25, 2018 . October 23, 2018.
30. Web site: Houston Dynamo Select FW Garrett McLaughlin & MF Luka Prpa at 2020 MLS SuperDraft. 2020-01-09. OurSports Central. en. 2020-02-10.
31. Web site: FC Dallas selects two in the first round of the 2020 MLS Draft. Epperley. Drew. 2020-01-09. Big D Soccer. en. 2020-02-10.
32. Web site: Real Salt Lake adds pair, including UConn winger Dayonn Harris, via 2020 SuperDraft. www.ksl.com. en. 2020-02-10.
33. Web site: D.C. United Select Goalkeeper Simon Lefebvre with 21st Overall Pick in 2020 MLS SuperDraft. January 9, 2020. February 10, 2020.
34. Web site: Jonathan Dean Drafted by Orlando City. UCF Athletics. en. 2020-02-10.
35. Web site: MLS Draft 2013: Homegrown player initiative rises as draft declines. Sporting News. 2019-09-03. 2013-03-12. https://web.archive.org/web/20130312005637/http://aol.sportingnews.com/soccer/story/2013-01-16/mls-draft-2013-fc-dallas-new-england-revolution-la-galaxy-schellas-hyndman-gyasi. dead.
36. Web site: MLS 2012 Roster Rules . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120220005943/http://www.mlssoccer.com/2012-mls-roster-rules . 2012-02-20 .
37. Web site: Sigal . Jonathan . FC Dallas sign Eddie Munjoma as Homegrown after All-American career at SMU . MLSSoccer.com . February 10, 2020 . January 13, 2020.