Cal Men's Soccer Takes on No.7 Clemson in ACC Tournament Semi-Final
Golden Bears are seeking a 3rd straight win over a ranked opponent
The move to the ACC this season meant the chance to earn their way into the NCAA postseason. While purists probably prefer the old Pac-12 home-and-home schedule with all seven opponents as the better way to decide the conference champion, California Men’s Soccer Golden Bears (8-7-2, 2-4-2 in the ACC regular season) have fully taken advantage of this late chance to extend their season. Bears embraced the role of road warriors in taking down North Carolina and Duke. They will now move to the neutral site portion of the ACC conference tournament: Cal faces No.7 Clemson for a spot in Sunday’s ACC title match against the Virginia and Wake Forest winner.
Like Duke in the quarterfinals round, Cal did not face Clemson in the regular season (just too many teams in the 15-team ACC to play everyone). Clemson Tigers (13-2-3, 5-2-1 in the ACC regular season) are the defending NCAA champions and the winners in two of the last three College Cups. Clemson defeated Stanford 1-0 in their last match and their last loss was on September 27th at Notre Dame (their other loss was to Stanford on September 6th).
None of that matters because Cal is playing their best soccer right now. Although Cal faces more shots than ideal, the strong defensive line led by All-ACC Second Team honoree Kevin Carmichael and fellow MLS SuperDraft draftee (both to Nashville SC) Wyatt Meyer form an experienced group ahead of goalkeeper Marco Brougher.
The Cal offense just scores enough led by All-ACC Third Team Nonso Adimabu (who followed head coach Leonard Griffin from USF to Cal, without the one-year stop by Griffin at Grand Canyon) and Arik Duncan. Freshman Alfredo Ortiz has been playing more confidently during the current Cal run.
Clemson is led by their French senior midfielder Joran Gerbert, who was just named the ACC Midfielder of the Year after putting up 22 points and 8 assists. Gerbert is also their designated penalty taker.
Alex Meinhard, also on the All-ACC First Team, led the team with 10 goals.
In a bit of a reloading year for Clemson, three freshmen have been impact players for them, led by ACC Freshman of the Year Ransford Gyan. Lukas Magnason and Wahabu Musah also were named to the ACC All-Freshman team.
While Joseph Andema, named to the NCAA All-Tournament team last year in leading Clemson to the national title, has logged the most time in goal, he was injured in a collision in Clemson’s regular-season finale. Patrick Donovan has been the keeper since, including posting a clean sheet against Stanford last time out. Donovan, a fellow junior like Andema, only got his first collegiate start in the ACC tournament first-round match against Louisville.
All it takes for a potential upset is perhaps just one small mistake from the Tigers keeper.
Can the Cal Bears make North Carolina a Bear Territory for two more matches? If we can take anything away from the last 2+ weeks, do not count the Golden Bears out!
ACC Men’s Soccer Semifinal:
Cal vs. Clemson
Where: WakeMed Soccer Park (Cary, North Carolina)
When: 5 PM PT
TV: ACC Network, Streaming: LINK
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
ROLL ON YOU BEARS!
Clemson was up 2-0, but Cal came back to tie 2-2. Unfortunately Clemson also came back and won 3-2.
Announcer said they tip their hat to #11 Cal; they’d never seen an 11 seed advance to the semis before.
Have not looked at possession percentage but Cal dominated aspects of the game....but Clemson has a wicked counter attack.which ultimately decided the game.