‘Stay together.’ After historic regular season, UK soccer readies for postseason run.
In the immediate aftermath of Kentucky’s final regular-season game — a comprehensive 3-0 home win on Friday night over Florida Atlantic — UK men’s soccer head coach Johan Cedergren struck an upbeat tone when referencing the past, and an eager one when projecting the future.
The Wildcats had just completed one of the best regular seasons in program history, going 11-1-4 (W-L-D) overall and a perfect 8-0-0 in non-conference play, the first time in school history that the UK men’s team has won each non-conference match it has played in a season.
The 16-game regular-season slate also featured the best start to a season in program history, as the Wildcats were undefeated through their first 14 matches.
“I think that shows that we can play with anyone, and we’re not afraid of anyone,” Cedergren said of his team’s regular-season showing. “We’ve talked all season about how good of a group we have, just one loss in 16 games kind of shows the quality that we have.”
But it was UK’s performances in Conference USA play, resulting in a 3-1-4 conference record that left the Wildcats nine points adrift of regular-season champion Florida International, that give Cedergren and his team motivation for the start of postseason play this week.
Kentucky, ranked No. 15 nationally in the latest United Soccer Coaches poll, is currently in good position to host a match in the NCAA Tournament for what would be the seventh time since Cedergren’s first season as head coach in 2012. Last season’s NCAA Tournament was held entirely in North Carolina.
But before the NCAA Tournament, it’s time for this week’s C-USA Tournament in Charlotte, N.C., and UK’s potential path to a conference tournament title is littered with revenge opportunities.
UK’s C-USA Tournament campaign begins Wednesday afternoon as UK, the No. 4 seed in the tournament, faces No. 5 seed Coastal Carolina. The Wildcats and Chanticleers played each other in a season-opening match on Aug. 26, a 0-0 draw at Coastal.
No. 1 seed FIU awaits the winner on Friday afternoon. UK also drew FIU 0-0 on Oct. 10 in Lexington.
The C-USA Tournament championship match on Sunday afternoon would potentially see Kentucky play one of 6-seed FAU, 3-seed Charlotte or 2-seed Marshall.
UK also drew against Marshall, the defending national champions, 0-0 on the road in Huntington, W.Va., on Sept. 25. Kentucky’s lone loss this season came in overtime at Charlotte on Oct. 30, in a match that Kentucky led with less than five minutes remaining in regulation.
“I think we all feel collectively that we could have done better in conference, so now we get a chance at redemption . . . we feel like we should have won every game (in conference),” Cedergren said. “It’s really, really rewarding to sit here after 16 games with only one loss, looking pretty decent for the NCAA Tournament and being excited and not being afraid of anyone in the conference.”
Kentucky’s calling card throughout the regular season has been strong defensive performances and scoring by committee. UK has recorded 10 shutouts, all by grad student goalkeeper Jan Hoffelner, a native of Germany who previously played at Iowa Western Community College, Presbyterian College and St. John’s.
Hoffelner has been aided by a veteran backline that includes the presence of three upperclassmen defenders: Grad student Lucca Rodrigues, senior Robert Screen and junior Luis Grassow.
The Wildcats as a unit are vastly experienced this season: 13 players went through Senior Night ceremonies after the FAU win.
Offensively, 12 different Wildcats have scored a goal this season, with grad student Luke Andrews, formerly of Saint Mary’s, leading the way with four.
Andrews is one of four UK players to appear in all 16 matches this season, along with Screen, freshman midfielder Martin Soereide and fifth-year midfielder Bailey Rouse, who is one of the captains on the team.
“Every team I think wishes that they had a 10-plus goal forward. ... I’d be more concerned if we didn’t create chances, but we probably had three or four really good chances from the forwards that they maybe didn’t put away today,” Cedergren said of the 3-0 win over FAU. “I’m just going to keep working on them and with them to see if we can do a little better, week by week by week, to see how long we can extend the season now with postseason coming up.”
As has been the case all season, comparisons will continue to be made between this UK squad and the 2018 team, which previously owned the record for most games unbeaten to begin a season.
That 2018 team finished the regular season with an overall record of 15-1-1 and won both the C-USA regular season and tournament titles.
The Wildcats also had their deepest postseason run ever in 2018, advancing to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.
In August, Cedergren told the Herald-Leader that he felt this year’s team was the best he’s had at Kentucky, but also that above all else, the priority was to be playing well and to be healthy entering the NCAA Tournament.
This was also the case in 2018, but Cedergren said UK was just so deep and talented in 2018 that squad rotation didn’t sacrifice on-field quality in the C-USA Tournament.
The Wildcats will plan a similar approach this week in Charlotte, resting players with minor injuries and not doing “something silly” in the words of Cedergren.
But the goal is still to bring hardware back to Lexington, and to continue momentum toward what Cedergren hopes is a postseason that exceeds the standard set in 2018.
“Stay together. One to 26. It’s not one through 11. It’s not the first five. It’s one through 26,” Cedergren said of UK’s mindset. “We’ve all done this the whole year together. So let’s stay together for as long as we can.”
Wednesday
No. 15 Kentucky vs. Coastal Carolina
What: First round of C-USA Men’s Soccer Tournament
Where: Transamerica Field, Charlotte N.C.
When: 4:30 p.m.
Online: ESPN Plus
