NCAA Men's Soccer Tournament: Semifinals

Akron vs. North Carolina
WakeMed Stadium; Cary, N.C.; Attendance: 8,862

Akron 0, North Carolina 0 (5-4 PK)

Akron head coach Caleb Porter:

Opening statement…
"I'm pleased we're in the championship game. I'm a little disappointed we didn't score a goal in the run of play in regulation. I thought we could have done a little bit better in the final third in creating chances and being a little more aggressive. I thought we had a few nice sequences. I thought we had a lot of possession. At the end of the day, we move on.

"We defended very well. We've defended well all year. That's our 18th shutout; we've given up seven goals all season long. A lot of people have focused on our attack as being our strength. A championship team is typically a team that not only attacks, but the common thread is there is always the ability to defend well, and we did that today. We defended individually and collectively very well.

"Credit North Carolina. Going down a man to hang on like they did is a credit to their heart and the type of team that they are. They've had a great season and they're a tremendous team."

On the tempo of the game…
"It was much more of a soccer game than we've seen in a while and we knew it was going to be that way. The tempo was a little slower than I thought it would be. I'm not sure why that was. We had a lot of possession. We got on the ball, they dropped in and we had a tough time breaking it down. We had a lot of rhythm, but didn't generate enough. Their defense held us in and we moved on.

"I thought overall it was a pretty slow game. I would have liked to see us push the tempo a little bit more. When you sit guys behind the ball, it's difficult. They shut down the center channel very well and we had a tough time generating much. Part of it was when they went down a man they knew they had to defend and play on the counter-attack. They had a couple of chances there that were scary, but other than that it was pretty much us on the ball trying to score a goal and we didn't."

On sophomore Teal Bunbury’s performance…
“He was close several times and he was a handful like he normally is. In the second half we wanted to look to keep them behind him early. And in the first five minutes we sent two balls in behind and he was in a foot race with (UNC's) Zach Loyd, who did a tremendous job putting out fires. I thought he held it together for them in the back and he shut down a couple very fast players in Darlington Nagbe and Bunbury. He was smart and read the game and sealed them off."

"You can’t always rely on goals, sometimes they dry up and the nice thing is that our team defended well and found a way to win.”

On playing in the final four with three other ACC schools…
 “This team doesn’t feel inferior and yet we respect the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) which has some tremendous teams. This team has believed all year long that they are as good as anyone. We were a little bit tentative at first tonight. We were sloppy in the build up, maybe a little rust here and there and not enough aggressiveness going to the goal but sooner or later I think we built confidence and that showed in the way we played.“

Akron Player Quotes:

Blair Gavin (Jr., MF)
On kicking the fifth penalty kick for the win…
“I just didn’t want to let my team down. I believed in myself and that I was going to make the kick and there was no way I was going to disappoint my team.“

On the celebration afterwards…
“There was just a lot of emotion. It was a hard fought game. I credit North Carolina. Going down a man they showed a lot of fire and a lot of guts to stick in there and fight with us. So after that final kick a lot of emotion came out I was proud of everyone on our team.“

On the students at the game…
“I thought the students were great tonight. They were loud, vocal and supportive. I thought that helped our team and kept pushing us to do better and play well.”

David Meves (Fr., GK)
On his mindset going in to penalty kicks…
“I was pretty relaxed that most of the pressure would be on the shooter to finish and that all I had to do was stop one or have them miss one and I knew our team could finish their five kicks.“


North Carolina Head Coach Elmar Bolowich

Opening Statement...
"It was obviously the close game that we expected. And you saw that even in the first game [Virginia vs. Wake Forest] that right now the teams in this College Cup are extremely well balanced and there is a lot of neutralizing going on too. You may think that a low scoring game may be somewhat labeled as a boring game, but I didn't think that was the case at all.

"When you look at the finer things in there, there was a lot of neutralizing going on where strong defense neutralized attacks. We had very disciplined play, very committed play, and enormous structure and organization on both sides. It was a matter of who would take advantage of their opportunities. I felt like towards the end of the second overtime even a man down we had the best chance of the entire game to score a goal, but it didn't come out and Akron was a little bit more opportunistic on the PK's.

On playing a man down...
"I wasn't so concerned about that because in the past we've looked better with a man down than with 11 on the field sometimes. It was a matter of keeping our organization, and the players understanding as to how we need to press. I felt okay. I was not that worried even being a man down. We have done it in practice on numerous occasions, and the guys were comfortable doing it in practice as well. It's not unfamiliar territory."

Whether North Carolina was trying to force the game into a shootout...
"I felt like with a counter attack, with Akron maybe getting a little bit desperate and throwing players forward to decide the game with a man advantage, would give us a counter attacking opportunity. We had a couple of those, and it's just that the final execution was lacking on that to break the ice and get through on them. But no, we were not looking to delay in any way, shape or form to get into a shootout."

Wake Forest Player Quotes:

Senior Goalkeeper Brooks Haggerty

On the penalty kick that he missed...
"It was a great PK. I couldn't really do anything about it. I got my hands to it but it went into the corner and all the credit to him."

On the team's emotions...
"Coming off of last year with the loss in the finals, the team was so pumped up for this game. We worked as hard as we could today and I give the team [Akron] all the credit. We busted it to get to the penalty kicks. We went a man down and the defense was awesome. Going into the PK's, we haven't won one here since I've been here and I thought this would be the year. I was so confident in my team and it was just unfortunate that we lost."