Beneath the Crust: Maryland and Akron through to Final Four of College Cup 2018

NCAA 2018 College Cup

Senior Amar Sejdic sent a great ball forward to Sebastian Elney for the sole goal as Maryland defeated #3 seed Kentucky on the road and stamped their ticket to the 2018 College Cup final in Santa Barbara, California. They will face fellow Big 10 member Indiana in the late semi-final on Friday, December 7th. Indiana is the highest seed remaining at #2 and beat Maryland 2-1 in the sole regular season match at Bloomington, Indiana on October 12th. They also met in the Big 10 Tournament where the match ended tied at 1-1 after regulation before Indiana advanced 4-3 in the shootout.

Freshman Sam Tojaga played a full 90 minutes and picked up an assist of his own as Akron defeated long time nemesis Stanford 3-2 on the road and ended Stanford’s dream of a 4th straight championship. Tojaga’s assist came on the second goal, but it was the third and decisive goal that saw Akron string together 34 passes before the final winner. Akron moves on to face Michigan State, the remaining unseeded team, in the early semi-final on Friday. These two teams faced each other on October 9th in East Lansing with Akron coming away a 2-1 victor.

Both semi-finals and the final, which will be played on Sunday, December 9th, will be on ESPNU. Tune in to watch and see if an RSL Academy veteran will help claim the College Cup for the 4th straight year.

Academy Veterans in Europe

Sebastian Soto moved into double digits when he scored his 10th goal of the season for Hannover 96 U-19 against Osnabrück U-19 on Sunday. This was his second match back in Europe following an international break trip to Florida where he helped the USMNT U-19s capture the Concacaf U-20 Championship for the second time and book a place in next year’s U-19 World Cup in Poland. Soto remains 1 goal behind John Zamora of Wolfsburg U-19 in the U-19 Nord / Nordost golden boot race. Perhaps more importantly, Sebastian is now the goals ahead of Benjamin Hadžić, a fellow 19-year-old signed with Hannover but playing a step above Soto with Hannover 96 II.

Former Real Monarchs Players

Sebastián Velásquez, whose option was not picked up by the Monarchs for 2019, signed with Suwon FC in the Korean 2nd Division for the upcoming 2019 season. Suwon FC finished 7th of 10 teams in 2018 table with a -17 goal differential and look to improve with the midfield play of Velásquez.