UVa Men’s Soccer Fall in National Championship Game

The Virginia men’s soccer team fell tonight in the National Championship game to Georgetown 3-3 (7-6) on penalty kicks.

The championship match was an extremely competitive and surprisingly high-scoring affair. This season, Georgetown and Virginia both averaged about .5 goals against, yet both teams surrendered three goals in their final game. Even penalty kicks couldn’t deliver any defense in the regulation first five attempts for both teams, as both squads converted each of their six PK tries. Unfortunately for the Hoos, Tomas Romero saved Axel Gunnarsson’s shot - the seventh for the Hoos and clinched the victory for the Hoyas.

The match got off to a wonderful start for Virginia, as Joe Bell opened the scoring with a ricocheted shot 10 minutes into the half:

The Hoyas responded with a pair of goals in the first half, however - and the Wahoos would have to wait until the 2nd half for Daniel Steedman to equalize things with a beautiful cross-goal finish:

Things in the second half turned more and more physical as the game ran on - a total of 35 foul calls were called and the referee handed out approximately 1,000 yellow cards to UVa players before the end of match. Georgetown looked to have scored the game winning goal when Derek Dodson received the ball behind the UVa backline and converted in the 81st minute. In most soccer games this is commonly referred to “being offsides” and is against the rules - but thanks to the magic on ACCN camera operation, UVa fans at home never got a definitive view or replay to solidify their orange and blue frustration.

Luckily, the Hoos answered with little time remaining when Daryl Dike brilliantly slammed home a late equalizer - sending the game into overtime:

Neither team could find the goal in the two sudden-death victory overtime periods, so the championship was determined by penalty kicks with Georgetown winning those 7-6. Virginia was looking for the program’s eight national title but instead finished an extremely impressive season as runners up. The Wahoos finished the 2019 season with a 21-2-1 record and an ACC championship.

For those keeping track at home: that keeps UVa’s National Championship collection at 27 total and Virginia Tech’s total remains 0.

Congrats to our SoccerHoos on an amazing 2019 season!