‘On the right track.’ UK soccer starts season with new look, same national title hopes.
Johan Cedergren still hasn’t relived the final game of the 2021 Kentucky men’s soccer season.
UK’s head coach has set aside time “five or six times” to sit down and watch Kentucky’s Sweet 16 NCAA Tournament match against Clemson, but each time he’s found the footage too hard to view.
The Cats lost on the road to the eventual national champion Tigers, 2-1, with Kentucky equalizing in the 85th minute, but conceding the match-winning goal in the 89th minute.
Now, nine months on from that defeat, Cedergren is able to reflect on the positives and progress made during the 2021 season, and the steps that still need to be taken to get UK men’s soccer to the next level.
“Of course the result is important, but for me the number one thing is the performance,” Cedergren told the Herald-Leader this month during a wide-ranging preseason interview.
“As long as we play up to our standards, I can live with whatever the result is. It wasn’t super exciting to lose to Clemson and giving up a goal in the last couple of minutes, but what I was really proud of was that the team really played well, and they were brave and they were aggressive and they were asking for the ball and they were creating chances.”
The first step for Kentucky toward putting the Clemson result in the past and embarking on continued success came Thursday night at the Wendell and Vickie Bell Soccer Complex in Lexington, as UK defeated Illinois-Chicago, 2-0, in its 2022 season opener in front of more than 1,100 fans behind goals from seniors forward Eythor Bjorgolfsson and midfielder Nick Gutmann.
Kentucky changes men’s soccer conferences
Kentucky’s achievements last season were significant: The Wildcats lost just one game in the regular season, won the final edition of the C-USA men’s soccer tournament (UK’s second ever C-USA Tournament title) and reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the third time in the last four seasons.
Kentucky began the season with a program-best 14-game unbeaten run and won each of its regular season non-conference matches for the first time.
Now in 2022, a new era will begin for the program in a new conference.
With conference realignment marking the end of C-USA men’s soccer, Kentucky has settled into a new home, the Sun Belt.
But this new conference will still feature plenty of familiar faces. Of the nine schools currently in the Sun Belt for men’s soccer, five schools — Marshall, South Carolina, Coastal Carolina, Old Dominion and UK — were also in C-USA.
The new schools that Kentucky (which was ranked No. 8 in the preseason United Soccer Coaches poll) will face in conference play?
West Virginia (a top team nationally that UK beat at home last season), James Madison, Georgia Southern and Georgia State.
Cedergren said conversations with Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart led to several options being on the table for a new conference, and Cedergren could essentially pick the spot he wanted.
“We looked at strengths and weaknesses of the conferences that were available to us and in the end, with the Sun Belt, I thought it was a very clear answer that that’s where we should go,” Cedergren said. “I think if you put Sun Belt up against the ACC or the Big Ten or the Pac-12, I feel really good about (it).”
Changes to Kentucky’s roster, style of play
In addition to a new conference, stylistic changes will come in the way Kentucky plays this season.
Gone are Marcel Meinzer and Bailey Rouse, a pair of vastly experienced midfielders who served as the engine of Kentucky’s midfield last season, as well as trusted leaders.
“There’s six or seven guys that we only need for two or three positions. They’re not Bailey and they’re not Marcel, but a lot of them have had to play behind them and see them, how they train and how they apply themselves,” Cedergren explained. “They’re all eager to take over. I think the first three, four, five games, maybe there will be some mistakes, maybe there will be some things that we haven’t done the last couple of years, but that’s the only way for them to learn.”
Among the versatile candidates to step up in the midfield for Kentucky are juniors Andrew Erickson and Enzo Mauriz, senior Brennan Creek (transfer from Western Michigan), fifth-year Clay Holstad and sophomore Martin Soereide.
Against Illinois-Chicago on Thursday, Erickson played all 90 minutes and Holstad played 75 minutes to lead that group.
Also no longer with the Cats is goalkeeper Jan Hoffelner, who became just the third first-team All-American in UK men’s soccer history last year after recording 12 shutouts.
Senior Isaac Walker — an offseason transfer from Western Michigan — started in goal and made one save during Thursday night’s season opener.
“For me, the number one thing about a goalkeeper is just stop the ball,” Cedergren said this month. “Then, as we again are trying to be a little more expansive, trying to be a little better in the attacking half, well that starts with a good pass from the goalkeeper.”
Familiar players set to lead UK’s attack, defense
While there is change in net and in the midfield, consistency dominates the Kentucky attacking and defensive positions.
Leading the line again for Kentucky in 2022 will be Bjorgolfsson, a senior forward from Norway (15 goals, eight assists in his UK career) and fifth-year forward Danny Evans (18 goals, eight assists in his UK career).
Another experienced offensive presence is Gutmann, a senior midfielder (three goals and five assists in 19 matches in 2021).
During Thursday night’s win, Gutmann was particularly influential, assisting on Bjorgolfsson’s headed goal in the 47th minute and scoring himself in the 88th minute after he was played through on goal.
“I thought Nick, halfway through last fall, he really turned it on and showed what kind of player he is ... he’s definitely ready to be the kind of point person we need him to be,” Cedergren said of Gutmann on Thursday.
“The way we’re playing we have several really good options at wing, but Nick, he’s probably one of the best wingers in the country when he plays like (he did Thursday).”
Kentucky’s defensive unit is also full of experience featuring defenders Lucca Rodrigues (a grad student), Luis Grassow (a senior listed on the MAC Hermann Trophy watch list and named Sun Belt Preseason Defensive Player of the Year) and fifth-year Robert Screen (the only returning UK player to appear in all 21 matches last season, and UK’s leader in assists last season).
Fifth-year player Mason Visconti, who started 17 matches last season and played all 90 minutes Thursday night, is another defensive option who has been there and done that for the Cats.
Grassow and Screen are UK’s captains for the 2022 season, an honor awarded to them after an anonymous vote by teammates and revealed to them by Cedergren just hours before Kentucky’s opening match.
“It’s a big responsibility that, whenever the team is doing things that we don’t need to be doing, that Luis and I steer them back on track ... it’s a challenge that I relish,” Screen said after the win over Illinois-Chicago.
The duo have also taken over a task performed by Meinzer and Rouse last season: Speaking with Cedergren on the pitch, away from the rest of the team, during halftime to dissect the match before entering the locker room to speak with teammates.
“It was a role that I don’t think is that hard to step into because in reality there’s not just two captains, there’s not just two leaders,” Screen said.
While it’s clear that talent is returning for Kentucky this season, it will take time to adjust to a different style of play.
Something that hasn’t changed?
The expectations from Cedergren, who has led UK to five NCAA Tournament wins since 2018.
“I think that we’re on the right track ... I feel like we have a good model here,” Cedergren said of UK’s pursuit toward a first national championship. “The team that ends up winning it is the team that has the best squad and best group. It’s not necessarily the best individual players.”
Kentucky women’s soccer continues perfect start
Thursday night’s Kentucky men’s soccer season opener was part of a doubleheader with the UK women’s soccer team, which played the earlier of the two games.
Goals from Mississippi State transfer Hailey Farrington-Bentil and Jordyn Rhodes gave Kentucky a 2-1 win over Purdue.
UK is now a perfect 3-0-0 this season under new head coach Troy Fabiano, and the win over Purdue was UK’s first non-conference win over a Power Five opponent since 2016.
It also gave UK its first 3-0-0 start to a season since 2018.
“We talked to (the players) as a group about the mindset of managing a game ... that’s the response we want from them,” Fabiano said. “You just didn’t know with so many new bodies, so I give credit to the players, to the staff. They’ve bought in.”
Kentucky hosts Eastern Kentucky at The Bell at 1 p.m. Sunday.
The Wildcats beat the Colonels, 6-0, in Richmond last season.
This story was originally published August 26, 2022 at 7:59 AM.
