2019 Conference USA men's soccer season

The 2019 Conference USA men's soccer season was the 25th season of men's varsity soccer in the conference. The season began on August 25 and concluded on November 12.

2019 Conference USA men's soccer season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Soccer
Duration	August 2019 – November 2019
Number of teams	8
2020 MLS SuperDraft
Top draft pick	Elliot Panicco
Picked by	Nashville SC, 13th overall
Regular Season
Season champions	Marshall
Runners-up	Charlotte
Tournament
Champions	Marshall
Runners-up	Charlotte

2019 Conference USA men's soccer standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 11 Marshall ‡	5	–	1	–	1			16	–	3	–	3
No. 21 Charlotte +	4	–	0	–	3			12	–	4	–	4
No. 23 Kentucky +	4	–	2	–	1			13	–	5	–	3
FIU	4	–	2	–	1			10	–	3	–	5
Florida Atlantic	3	–	4	–	0			7	–	8	–	1
South Carolina	2	–	5	–	0			7	–	9	–	2
UAB	1	–	5	–	1			3	–	12	–	2
Old Dominion	1	–	5	–	1			3	–	11	–	1
‡ – 2019 CUSA Tournament champion + – Invited to the 2019 NCAA Tournament As of 17 December 2019; Rankings from United Soccer Coaches

The defending regular season and tournament champions were Kentucky.

Background

Previous season

Ahead of the 2018 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, FIU was ranked 20th in the United Soccer Coaches preseason poll. As the season progressed, Kentucky emerged as the one of the strongest teams in the nation, being ranked as high as third in the country. Kentucky finished the season with a program best record of 19–2–1. Kentucky would also go on to win the C-USA regular season, win the 2018 Conference USA Men's Soccer Tournament,[1] and reach the Elite Eight of the 2018 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament.[2][3] Additionally, C-USA runners-up, Charlotte earned an at-large bit into the NCAA Tournament.[4] Old Dominion, who had one point been ranked as high as 18th in the nation, were one of the first teams out of the NCAA Tournament bubble.

Head coaching changes

The New Mexico Lobos men's soccer program was relegated from a varsity to a club sport. Head coach Jeremy Fishbein's contract expired with the termination of the New Mexico varsity program.[5]

Long-time UAB Blazers men's soccer head coach, Mike Getman, retired following the conclusion of the 2018 NCAA Division I men's soccer season. Getman was replaced by Virginia Tech assistant coach, Jeff Kinney.[6]

School	Outgoing coach	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming coach	Date of appointment
UAB	Mike Getman	Retired	November 26, 2019	Preseason	Jeff Kinney	December 21, 2018
New Mexico	Jeremy Fishbein	Program terminated	January 1, 2019	Preseason	N/A	N/A

Head coaches

As of 2018 season

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Years at school	Overall record	Record at school	C-USA record	NCAA Tournaments[7]	NCAA College Cups[7]	NCAA Titles[7]
Charlotte	Kevin Langan	Charlotte (asst.)	8	86–34–20 (.686)	86–34–20 (.686)	38–10–10 (.741)	6	0	0
FIU	Kevin Nylen	Orlando City SC (scout)	3	19–12–4 (.600)	19–12–4 (.600)	11–3–2 (.750)	1	0	0
Florida Atlantic	Joey Worthen	South Carolina (asst.)	3	4–27–0 (.129)	4–27–0 (.129)	3–13–0 (.188)	0	0	0
Kentucky	Johan Cedergren	Dartmouth	8	128–72–31 (.621)	76–42–17 (.626)	35–14–8 (.684)	10	0	0
Marshall	Chris Grassie	Charleston (WV)	3	115–39–12 (.729)	16–19–4 (.462)	6–8–2 (.438)	0	0	0
Old Dominion	Alan Dawson	North Carolina (asst.)	23	373–166–51 (.675)	244–136–41 (.628)	28–17–3 (.615)	14	0	0
South Carolina	Mark Berson	The Citadel	41	507–250–73 (.655)	496–245–73 (.654)	53–42–19 (.548)	22	3	0
UAB	Jeff Kinney	Virginia Tech (asst.)	1	0–0–0 (–)	0–0–0 (–)	0–0–0 (–)	0	0	0

Preseason

Preseason poll

The preseason poll was released on August 13, 2019.[8]

	Team Ranking	First Place Votes
1.	Kentucky	5
2.	Charlotte	2
3.	Old Dominion	0
4.	Marshall	1
5.	FIU	0
6.	South Carolina	0
7.	UAB	0
8.	Florida Atlantic	0

Preseason national rankings

The preseason national rankings will be announced in August 2019. United Soccer Coaches, Soccer America, and TopDrawerSoccer.com do a Top-25 preseason poll. CollegeSoccerNews.com and Hero Sports do a Top-30 preseason poll.

	UnitedSoccer[9]	CSN[10]	SoccerAmerica[11]	TopDrawerSoccer[12]
Charlotte	21	23	20	20
FIU	RV	—	—	—
Florida Atlantic	—	—	—	—
Kentucky	8	2	6	6
Marshall	—	—	—	—
Old Dominion	RV	—	—	RV
South Carolina	—	—	—	—
UAB	—	—	—	—

Preseason All-Conference teams

Honor	Recipient
Preseason Co-Offensive Player of the Year	Kalil El-Medkhar, Kentucky
Preseason Co-Offensive Player of the Year	Jason Reyes, Kentucky
Preseason Defensive Player of the Year	Aimé Mabika, Kentucky

Preseason All-CUSA Team

Player	School	Class	Position
Teddy Chaouche	Charlotte	Sr.	MF
Elliot Panicco	Charlotte	R-Sr.	GK
Andrew Booth	FIU	R-Sr.	MF/D
Alonso Coello Camarero	Florida Atlantic	So.	MF
Kalil El-Medkhar	Kentucky	Jr.	MF
Enrique Facusse	Kentucky	Jr.	GK
Aimé Mabika	Kentucky	R-Jr.	D
Jason Reyes	Kentucky	So.	F
Daniel Corona	Old Dominion	So.	F
Sebastien Hauret	Old Dominion	R-Sr.	MF
Luca Mayr	South Carolina	Sr.	MF/F

Regular season

Positions by round

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
FIU	1	1	1	1	2	3	4
Marshall	2	2	3	3	3	2	1
Charlotte	3	3	2	2	1	1	2
Kentucky	4	4	5	4	4	4	3
Old Dominion	5	5	4	5	5	7	8
UAB	6	6	7	6	6	8	7
South Carolina	7	7	6	7	8	5	6
Florida Atlantic	8	8	8	8	7	6	5

	2019 Conference USA Men's Soccer Tournament semifinals
	2019 Conference USA Men's Soccer Tournament quarterfinals
	Eliminated

Source: ConferenceUSA.com

National

		Improvement in ranking
		Drop in ranking
RV		Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25
NV		No votes received

		Pre[13]	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
Charlotte	USC	21	17	12	10	11	9	5	10	17	18	17	17	15	None released				21
	TDS	20	20	21	20	18	15	8	8	8	23	23	21	22	25	19	19	19	19
FIU	USC	RV	RV	RV	22	16	13	15	12	11	13	19	23	RV	None released				RV
	TDS	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	RV	21	23	21	24	17	RV	RV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Florida Atlantic	USC	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	None released				NV
	TDS	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Kentucky	USC	8	9	17	21	23	19	16	20	16	16	16	15	19	None released				23
	TDS	6	6	5	9	20	18	14	15	23	25	18	23	23	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV
Marshall	USC	NV	NV	NV	RV	RV	RV	RV	21	15	20	14	13	11	None released				11
	TDS	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	RV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	RV	15	14	15	15	15
Old Dominion	USC	RV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	None released				NV
	TDS	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
South Carolina	USC	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	None released				NV
	TDS	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
UAB	USC	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	None released				NV
	TDS	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Regional - United Soccer Southeast

The United Soccer Southeast regional rankings contain teams from Conference USA, the Atlantic 10 Conference, Sun Belt Conference, and Missouri Valley Conference.

		Improvement in ranking
		Drop in ranking
RV		Received votes but were not ranked in Top 10
NV		No votes received

	Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12
Charlotte	3	1	1	1	1	1	2	4	3	3	3	2
FIU	4	3	2	2	2	3	1	1	1	4	4	7
Florida Atlantic	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Kentucky	2	4	3	4	3	2	4	3	2	2	2	3
Marshall	8	5	5	3	4	4	3	2	4	1	1	1
Old Dominion	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
South Carolina	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
UAB	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Postseason

Conference USA Tournament

The Conference USA Men's Soccer Tournament was held from November 13–16, 2019 on the campus of Old Dominion University. Marshall won their first ever Conference USA Championship, beating Charlotte in the final.

	Quarterfinals November 13					Semifinals November 15					C-USA Championship November 16
						1	Marshall	1
	4	Kentucky	2			4	Kentucky	0
	5	Florida Atlantic	0								1	Marshall	1
											2	Charlotte	0
						2	Charlotte	1
	3	FIU	3			3	FIU	0
	6	South Carolina	0

NCAA Tournament

Seed	Region	School	1st Round	2nd Round	3rd Round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Championship
11	3	Marshall	BYE	W 2–1 vs. West Virginia – (Huntington, WV)	L 1–4 vs. #6 Washington – (Seattle, WA)
N/A	4	Charlotte	W 3–1 vs. Mercer – (Charlotte, NC)	L 1–2 (OT) vs. #2 Clemson – (Clemson, SC)
N/A	2	Kentucky	W 2–1 (OT) vs. Loyola Chicago – (Lexington, KY)	L 0–3 vs. #5 Indiana – (Bloomington, IN)

Awards and honors

Players of the Week

Week	Offensive			Defensive			Ref.
	Player	Position	Team	Player	Position	Team
Sep. 2	Andrew Booth	FW	FIU	Hagay Jalon	GK	Florida Atlantic	[14]
Sep. 9	Teddy Chaouche	MF	Charlotte	Patrick Hogan	DF	Charlotte	[15]
Sep. 16	Alessandro Campoy	FW	FIU	Delasi Batse	DF	Charlotte	[16]
Sep. 23	Caleb Franke	FW	FIU	Nick O’Callaghan	DF	FIU	[17]
Sep. 30	Ivan Mykhailenko	FW	Florida Atlantic	Daniel Gagliardi	GK	FIU	[18]
Oct. 7	Axel Sigurdarson	MF	Charlotte	Illal Osmanu	DF	Marshall	[19]
Oct. 14	Mohamed Conde	FW	FIU	Elliot Panicco	DF	Charlotte	[20]
Oct. 21	Milo Yosef	FW	Marshall	Paulo Pita	GK	Marshall	[21]
Oct. 28	Daniel Evans	FW	Kentucky	Hagay Jalon	GK	Florida Atlantic	[22]
Nov. 4	Milo Yosef	FW	Marshall	Paulo Pita	GK	Marshall	[23]
Nov. 11	Jamil Roberts	MF	Marshall	Paulo Pita	GK	Marshall	[24]

Conference awards

2019 C-USA Men's Soccer Individual Awards[25]
Award	Recipient(s)
Player of the Year	Aimé Mabika, Kentucky
Offensive Player of the Year	Milo Yosef, Marshall
Co-Defensive Players of the Year	Nick O'Callaghan, FIU Aimé Mabika, Kentucky
Midfielder of the Year	Andrew Booth, FIU
Goalkeeper of the Year	Elliot Panicco, Charlotte
Freshman of the Year	Milo Yosef, Marshall
Co-Golden Glove Award	Elliot Panicco, Charlotte Paulo Pita, Marshall
Golden Boot Award	Alessandro Campoy, FIU
Coach of the Year	Chris Grassie, Marshall

2019 C-USA Men's Soccer All-Conference Teams
First Team	Second Team	Third Team	Rookie Team
GK: Elliot Panicco, Charlotte D: Patrick Hogan, Charlotte D: Nick O'Callaghan, FIU D: Aimé Mabika, Kentucky D: Illal Osmanu, Marshall MF: Teddy Chaouche, Charlotte MF: Andrew Booth, FIU MF: Alonso Coello Camarero, Florida Atlantic MF: Kalil El-Medkhar, Kentucky F: Alessandro Campoy, FIU F: Milo Yosef, Marshall	GK: Enrique Facusse, Kentucky GK: Paulo Pita, Marshall D: Jimmy Filerman, Old Dominion D: Frano Buhovac, South Carolina MF: Alban Rousselet, FIU MF: Alex Alexis, Florida Atlantic MF: Marcel Meinzer, Kentucky MF: Pedro Dolabella, Marshall MF: Deniz Dogan, Old Dominion F: Ivan Mykhailenko, Florida Atlantic F: Daniel Evans, Kentucky F: Jamil Roberts, Marshall	GK: Daniel Gagliardi, FIU D: Luke Johnson, Charlotte D: David Garcia, FIU D: Tom Abrahamsson, Florida Atlantic D: Jan-Erik Leinhos, Marshall D: Chris Reichman, UAB MF: Joe Brito, Charlotte MF: Xavi Olmos Ferris, FIU MF: Sebastien Hauret, Old Dominion MF: Logan Hitzeman, South Carolina MF: Chase Rushing, UAB F: Kameron Lacey, Charlotte F: Brian Banahan, South Carolina	Kameron Lacey, F, Charlotte Axel Sigurdarson, MF, Charlotte AJ Cousins, D, FIU David Garcia, D, FIU Tom Abrahamsson, D, Florida Atlantic John Michael Bandy, D, Kentucky Eythor Bjorgolfsson, MF, Kentucky Max Schneider, MF, Marshall Milo Yosef, F, Marshall Jose Olmos, D, Old Dominion Brian Banahan, F, South Carolina Logan Hitzeman, MF, South Carolina

Regional awards

Award	Recipients
CoSIDA Academic All-District[26]	Hagay Jalon, Florida Atlantic
	Carlos Diaz-Salcedo, Marshall
	Jonas Westmeyer, Marshall
	Luca Mayr, South Carolina
United Soccer All-Southeast First-Team[27]	Elliot Panicco, Charlotte
	Aimé Mabika, Kentucky
	Nick O'Callaghan, FIU
	Illal Osmanu, Marshall
	Andrew Booth, FIU
	Kalil El-Medkhar, Kentucky
	Jamil Roberts, Marshall
	Milo Yosef, Marshall
United Soccer All-Southeast Second-Team[27]	Enrique Facusse, Kentucky
	Patrick Hogan, Charlotte
	Jan-Erik Leinhos, Marshall
	Teddy Chaouche, Charlotte
United Soccer All-Southeast Third-Team[27]	Paulo Pita, Marshall
	Marcel Meinzer, Kentucky
	Alessandro Campoy, FIU

National awards

Award	Recipients
Senior CLASS Award[28]	Elliot Panicco, Charlotte

All-Americans

Consensus All-Americans
None

To earn "consensus" status, a player must win honors based on a point system computed from the four different all-America teams. The point system consists of three points for first team, two points for second team and one point for third team. No honorable mention or fourth team or lower are used in the computation. The top five totals plus ties are first team and the next five plus ties are second team.[29]

College Soccer News[30]	Soccer America[31]	Top Drawer Soccer[32]	United Soccer Coaches[33]
First Team
None	None	None	None
Second Team
None	Milo Yosef – Marshall	None	Milo Yosef – Marshall
Third Team
Elliot Panicco – Charlotte Milo Yosef – Marshall	None	None	None

2020 MLS Draft

The 2020 MLS SuperDraft was held in January 2020. Five players from Conference USA were selected.

Rnd.	Pick	Player	Pos.	Team	School
1	13	Elliot Panicco	GK	Nashville SC	Charlotte
1	24	Paulo Pita	GK	Los Angeles FC	Marshall
2	32	Daniel Gagliardi	GK	Vancouver Whitecaps	FIU
3	57	Nick O'Callaghan	DF	Orlando City	FIU
4	96	Andrew Booth	MF	Minnesota United	FIU

Homegrown players

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,[34] 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.[35] Players can play college soccer and still be eligible to sign a homegrown contract.

No players from Conference USA signed homegrown contracts following the 2019 season ahead of the 2020 MLS season.

References

1. "MSOC: Kentucky Wins 2018 C-USA Championship". conferenceusa.com. Conference USA. November 11, 2018. Retrieved January 29, 2019.
2. Catapano, Joe (November 30, 2018). "Maryland men's soccer advances to first Final Four since 2013 with 1-0 win over Kentucky". The Diamondback. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
3. "Maryland men's soccer beats Kentucky, 1-0, to advance to NCAA final four". The Baltimore Sun. November 30, 2018. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
4. "Hokies reach Sweet 16 in men's soccer". The Roanoke Times. November 18, 2018. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
5. Camacho, Marian; Hayes, Patrick (July 22, 2018). "UNM Regents vote to cut four sports programs". KOB. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
6. "Kinney Named UAB Men's Soccer Head Coach". uabsports.com. December 21, 2018. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
7. "NCAA Men's Soccer Championship Brackets" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. NCAA.org. Retrieved July 17, 2017.
8. "MSOC: Kentucky Sweeps C-USA Preseason Awards". Conference USA. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
9. "United Soccer Coaches Top 25 NCAA DI Men — National Pre-Season Poll — August 6, 2019". United Soccer Coaches. August 6, 2019. Archived from the original on August 11, 2019. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
10. "College Soccer News 2019 Preseason National Poll". collegesoccernews.com. CollegeSoccerNews.com. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
11. "Soccer America Men's College Preseason Top 25". socceramerica.com. Soccer America. August 28, 2019. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
12. "College Soccer National Ranking - Preseason". topdrawersoccer.com. Top Drawer Soccer. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
13. "United Soccer Coaches Top 25 NCAA DI Men — National Pre-Season Poll — August 6, 2019". United Soccer Coaches. August 6, 2019. Archived from the original on August 11, 2019. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
14. "MSOC: Sept. 2 Players of the Week". Conference USA. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
15. "MSOC: Sept. 9 Players of the Week". Conference USA. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
16. "MSOC: Sept. 16 Players of the Week". Conference USA. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
17. "MSOC: Sept. 23 Players of the Week". Conference USA. Retrieved 2019-09-26.
18. "MSOC: Sept. 30 Players of the Week". Conference USA. Retrieved 2019-10-03.
19. "MSOC: Oct. 7 Players of the Week". Conference USA. Retrieved 2019-10-18.
20. "MSOC: Oct. 14 Players of the Week". Conference USA. Retrieved 2019-10-18.
21. "MSOC: Oct. 21 Players of the Week". conferenceusa.com. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
22. "MSOC: Oct. 28 Players of the Week". conferenceusa.com. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
23. "MSOC: Nov. 4 Players of the Week". conferenceusa.com. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
24. "MSOC: Nov. 11 Players of the Week". conferenceusa.com. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
25. "MSOC: All-Conference Awards Announced". conferenceusa.com. November 12, 2019. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
26. "SOC: Eight Named Academic All-District". conferenceusa.com. November 7, 2019. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
27. "MSOC: Fifteen Named All-Southeast Region". conferenceusa.com. December 9, 2019. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
28. "MSOC: Charlotte's Panicco Wins Senior CLASS Award". conferenceusa.com. December 11, 2019. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
29. "2009–10 NCAA Statistics Policies (updated 9/2/2009)". National Collegiate Athletic Association. September 2, 2009. Archived from the original on May 21, 2010. Retrieved February 20, 2014.
30. "College Soccer News 2019 All-America Teams - CollegeSoccerNews.com". collegesoccernews.com. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
31. "Awards: NCAA Division I Men's All-America Team". Soccer America. December 12, 2019. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
32. "College Soccer Player Rankings - National - Men's National Top 100 - 2019". Top Drawer Soccer. December 17, 2019. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
33. "NCAA Division I 2019 Men's Soccer All-America Team announced". SoccerWire. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
34. "MLS Draft 2013: Homegrown player initiative rises as draft declines". Sporting News.
35. "MLS 2012 Roster Rules". Archived from the original on 2012-02-20.