| FIU vs. #13 UCF Thursday, August 26, 6 p.m. LIVE STATS | WATCH |
ORLANDO, Fla. – The No. 13 UCF men's soccer team is set to open its 2021 season against FIU on Thursday night at 6 p.m. at the UCF Soccer Complex
The Knights are looking to build off a 2020-21 season that saw them reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. After a 1-3 start, the Black and Gold ripped off six straight victories to finish the campaign as regular season champions. They topped that by earning their first tournament title, beating SMU in PKs in the semifinals and then blanking Tulsa in the championship match.
UCF returns 19 players from last year's squad. While they bring back a wealth of experience, they have some holes to fill as they're missing four starters from last season. The goalkeeper will change for the first time in four years as Matt Douglass, Bernardo Brandao and Tyler Lavigne are all vying for the goalkeeping throne.
One strength of the team will be their back line as everyone from last year's squad is back. Before the last match of the season, UCF went 10 games where they gave up 0.48 goals per game en route to a 8-1-1 record in that stretch.
This year's Knights team won their two exhibitions, beating Stetson 7-2 and FAU 3-0. Against Stetson, Gino Vivi punched two into the back of the net. Mauricio Villalobos Vega scored shortly after Vivi's first goal. In the 25th minute, Nick Taylor cashed in from out front. Followed up by Gianluca Arcangeli, who scored in the 44th minute giving them a 5-1 lead before the half. Asher J'n Pierre scored in the 66th minute making it 6-1. Jonas Schmalbach tacked on the seventh goal in the 106th minute.
Against FAU, Lucca Dourado scored the Knights first goal in the 47th minute. Villalobos found the back of the net in the 65th minute, pushing the lead to 2-0. With 1:40 left in the game, Lucas Mauro scored on a free kick making it 3-0.
FIU went 4-4-1 last season but the year before they went 10-3-5 and narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament. They have a new head coach this year in Kyle Russell as he joins FIU after spending 10 years at Coastal Carolina as an associate head coach. The Panthers won all three of their exhibition matches by a combined score of 15-2, beating Atlantis University, Nova Southeastern, and Stetson.
UCF trails the all-time series against the Panthers 13-28-4 but won their last matchup in 2018, 3-1 and are 5-3-1 in last nine matchups.
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