Season Preview: Virginia Men’s Soccer

The seven-time national champions look to return to the College Cup.

Photo by Matt Riley

In a year marked by Covid cancellations and postponements, massive changes to gameday protocols, and the College Cup being played in the spring as opposed to the Fall, the most significant of the unprecedented moments in the 2020 Virginia men’s soccer season was that the Cavaliers failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 39 years. UVA went 7-8-1 (4-7-1 ACC) including three straight losses to end the season. It was a drastic and sudden down season for a program with seven national titles and which had reached the College Cup final just one year prior. Now, head coach George Gelnovatch and company will look to right the ship as the UVA men’s soccer team begins its 2021 campaign.

Roster

The Cavaliers came in just outside of the top 25 of the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 preseason poll, with Virginia receiving 15 votes for the rankings. A major concern for UVA is roster turnover. The Hoos have lost almost every major contributor from the 2019 team that reached the national championship game. In 2020, the Cavaliers were led by All-American goalkeeper Colin Shutler, Nathaniel Crofts, Irakoze Donasiyano, and Spencer Patton, who have all moved on.

Still, there is a lot of talent on the Virginia roster. UVA will be led by junior defensemen Andreas Ueland, who was a third team All-ACC selection in 2019 and 2020, and Senior forward Cabrel Happi Kamseu, who scored two goals against Wake Forest in the quarterfinals of the 2020 ACC Tournament.

The team is also very young . 21 of the 30 players on the roster are underclassmen and 11 players are true freshmen. Sophomore forward Leo Afonso can be expected to play a major role in the UVA offense this season, as Afonso scored two goals in Virginia’s 2-1 victory over Longwood in an exhibition match on Tuesday afternoon.

With legendary goalie Colin Shutler gone, the Cavaliers will look to a trio of sophomore goalkeepers to replace him. Holden Brown got the start in UVA’s exhibition victory over Longwood, but expect Antonio Rodriguez and Scott Williams to see time in net as well.

Schedule

The Cavaliers’ 2021 schedule features a slate of tough opponents, including six matchups with teams who qualified for last year’s NCAA Tournament.

UVA will play ten of its 16 games at home, including two non-conference games to start the year against Western Michigan on August 26th and High Point on September 2nd. The Hoos will then face off with Maryland in the third installment of the neutral-field series between the two old rivals at Audi Field in Washington D.C. on September 6th. Virginia will also host UNC Greensboro (Sept. 14), VCU (Sept. 28), UNC-Wilmington (Oct. 5), and Denver (Oct. 11), and will travel to play JMU (Sept. 21) to fill out their non-conference schedule.

In ACC play, the Cavaliers will host Syracuse (Sept. 10), North Carolina (Sept. 25), Boston College (Oct. 8), and Pittsburgh (Oct. 22). UVA will be on the road at Virginia Tech (Sept. 17), Notre Dame (Oct. 1), NC State (Oct. 15), and Duke (Oct. 29) to end the regular season.

After a down year, this Virginia squad will be hungry to get back in the winners’ circle and there is plenty of young talent on this roster to make that happen.