TU futbol

[USRufnex]

TU's men's soccer got a BIG WIN at 4th-ranked Creighton 3-1 in Omaha.  Todd Goddard was named the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Men's National Player of the Week...
http://tulsahurricane.cstv.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/092607aab.html

They are 5-2 so far this year (losses were to #4 Virginia and #16 Virginia Tech)...... Tom McIntosh's team is back in the Top 25.

#18 in the Soccer America poll...
http://ballhype.com/story/soccer_america_s_weekly_list_men_s_top_25_college/

#23 in the NSCAA/adidas rankings...
http://www.nscaa.com/seniorRes.php?it=480


They're playing another BIG game Friday night against #8 SMU at the Hurricane Soccer & Track Stadium...
http://tulsahurricane.cstv.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/092607aaa.html

***wish I could make it... gotta work late that night...

[cannon_fodder]

Maybe I'll grab the boy and try to go, could be a fun night.

Of course... I'll be wearing blue.

[USRufnex]

http://tulsahurricane.cstv.com/sports/m-soccer/recaps/092807aaa.html

Tulsa and SMU Battle to 2-2 Double-Overtime Tie
Golden Hurricane moves to 5-2-1 on the season

Sept. 28, 2007


Tulsa, Okla. - The 18th-ranked Tulsa men's soccer team and eighth-ranked SMU battled to a 2-2 double-overtime tie on Friday night at the Hurricane Soccer & Track Stadium. The Golden Hurricane moved to 5-2-1, while the Mustangs moved to 4-2-2, and both teams own a 0-0-1 mark in Conference USA.

SMU's Ben Shuleva knocked in his first goal of the season off a pass from Scott Corbin from 12 yards out to put the Mustangs on the board in the 16th minute. Thomas Story countered with his own first goal of the season off a pass from Eric DeFreitas to tie the game 1-1 going into the break.

Shuleva got the game rolling again in the 54th minute with his second goal of the contest and the Mustangs looked to have the win locked up, but Chris Clements knocked in a goal with just 1:21 left on the clock to send the contest into overtime.

TU and SMU battled the extra 20 minutes, but the contest ended in a 2-2 tie.

DeFreitas led the Golden Hurricane attack with four shots, while five other TU players had two shots apiece. TU and SMU each had 17 shots, while TU had a one-shot on goal advantage, 9-8. Dominic Cervi tallied six saves in the contest for 36 this season.

The Golden Hurricane will return to action next Friday against Memphis. Game time is set for 7:05 p.m. at the Hurricane Soccer & Track Stadium.

[cannon_fodder]

Woot, I saw that!  

Its amazing that TU SOCCER can be so good and the FOOTBALL team can't find a kicker worth anything...

[USRufnex]

Regular season finale is tonight at Hurricane Soccer/Track & Field Stadium... TU is now 11-2-2 and ranked 7th in Soccer America, this is TU's highest ranked team and a win over UAB gives TU the regular season title and first seed in the Conf USA tourney...

Last best TU team from 2004 surprised everyone by getting to the NCAA's national quarterfinals unranked before losing to Indiana... Ryan Pore now plays for the Kansas City Wizards...
http://kc.wizards.mlsnet.com/players/bio.jsp?team=t105&player=pore_r&playerId=por174767&statType=current


http://tulsahurricane.cstv.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/110707aaa.html

Nov. 7, 2007

Tulsa, Oklahoma - The University of Tulsa's seventh-ranked men's soccer team will host UAB in the final regular season contest on Friday, Nov. 9 at the Hurricane Soccer and Track Stadium. Game time is set for 7:05 p.m., with a senior presentation prior to the start of the contest.

TU enters the game with an 11-2-2 overall record and a 5-0-2 mark in the league, while the Blazers own a 7-9-1 mark on the season and a 2-5 record in C-USA. Tulsa will be playing for the regular season Conference USA title, but the Golden Hurricane must win the contest to clinch the title and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.

Tulsa has faced five ranked opponents so far this season, including four teams currently ranked among the top-10 teams in the nation - #4 SMU (TDS), #4 Virginia Tech (NSCAA), #7 Creighton (NSCAA) and #8 Virginia (TDS). In the last month, Tulsa defeated then #4 Creighton (3-1), #10 South Carolina (1-0) and tied #8 SMU (2-2 2OT), while posting an 8-0-2 mark in that time. Tulsa has an overall 11-2-2 record, with the two losses coming to then #3 Virginia and then #18 Virginia Tech two months ago.

The Golden Hurricane and UAB have met four times, with TU owning a 2-1-1 advantage in the series, including a 4-3 victory last season.

[TheArtist]

I had heard in the news a while back that TUs soccer team ranked 7th in the nation. GO! TU!

[cannon_fodder]

Took long enough.  They beat several top 10 teams, tied another, and lost to #2 VT but were still being ranked in the 20's.  I was getting hostile.

Last regular season home game is tonight to clinch the C-USA top tourni' seed.  7pm.

[USRufnex]

Saw the game last Friday.
My only previous college soccer viewing experience in person was going to a couple of Loyola of Chicago games... but last spring watched Union boys win a playoff game (3-2 in PKs) against Norman North and saw one of North's players (Russ Coleman) launched a rocket of a shot from over 20 yards out, into the corner of the net... he's now a freshman at #1 Wake Forrest...

TU put together a great first half against UAB.

Dominated the midfield to the point that most of the first half was played on UAB's side of the field. Fearless, agressive. They made the pace of the game faster than what UAB could keep up with... Saw TU string together 3 or 4 passes on several occasions to break down the midfield/defense and create good scoring chances. Should have been 3 or 4 to nil... but halftime score was 2-0.

Second half? Well, I'm not really up to speed on NCAA rules for substitutions, but there seemed to be alot of them. I can't really say TU sat back in the second half, but think they played differently... maybe just trying to keep possession and win the game with a two goal lead---- knowing that UAB's gonna get a rematch at their home field... TU showed off some solid defending in the second half, though...

First round of the CUSA tourney....

http://conferenceusa.cstv.com/championships/07-m-soccer-tourney.html

[USRufnex]

clicked the link and am watching cstv gametracker for TU-UAB..... SMU already got upset by Florida Intl 3-1.... if TU wins, they get South Carolina in the semis...

free registration... very cool.

[USRufnex]

TU plays at home Wed Nov 28th in the second round of the NCAA's (TU got a 1st round bye as the 16th seed)...

17th seed Harvard was upset by Central Conn State 3-2, so TU plays what is in essence the last seed (48 teams in the tourney)...

TU got into the final 8 unseeded in 2004... a few of those players went on to play in MLS...

I think TU was low-balled due to lack of tradition... if TU gets past Central Conn St, they will most likely play top-seeded Boston College........ then, we'll see how much better they got after early season losses to Virginia and Virginia Tech...

[cannon_fodder]

No no shiznet TU was low-balled.  They were ranked 6th in the nation and drew the 12th seed overall.

Remind me tomorrow... TU Basketball today again Jesus State, soccer, then this weekend football.  Man, busy life.  

[USRufnex]

After the disappointing upset loss in the tourney, here's a silver lining...

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20080122_2_B2_spanc85405&allcom=1#commentform

TU senior selected 12th in MLS Draft
By Staff Reports
1/22/2008

University of Tulsa senior goalkeeper Dominic Cervi was selected by the Chicago Fire as the 12th overall pick in the first round of the Major League Soccer SuperDraft.

A senior from Norman, Cervi started 19 games as goalkeeper for Tulsa this season. He recorded 81 saves in 1,710:01 minutes in the net, and allowed just 21 goals for a 1.11 goal-against average.

Cervi tallied six shutouts as a senior and helped TU post a 15-3-2 overall record, and win the Conference USA regular season and tournament titles. Tulsa also advanced to the NCAA Tournament and was ranked as high as sixth nationally.

Cervi was named a Conference USA first team selection and earned C-USA all-tournament team honors as a senior. He was also named to the NSCAA All-Midwest Region second team.

A four-year starter, Cervi played in 56 career games and posted 10 shutouts.

[Conan71]

That's a cool deal for a local guy!

Ruf, how many draftees do they usually take every year for MLS?  Is the draft global or strictly U.S. college and amateurs?

I'd just never really thought about it before and curious how it works.

[USRufnex]

College soccer isn't televised that often, and MLS teams don't have big scouting budgets so...
http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20061129&content_id=79588&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp

The league usually invites around sixty of college soccer's best players to it's hugely important "SuperDraft Combine" and according to all reports, Cervi really impressed the scouts...

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=499902&root=mls&&cc=5901

quote:Chicago (Patrick Nyarko, Dominic Cervi, Peter Lowry, Dwight Barnett, Stephen King, Austin Washington)

The Fire wound up with arguably the draft's best forward (Nyarko), goalkeeper (Cervi) and attacking midfielder (Lowry) and threw in a third-round steal in midfielder King. Nyarko could step in and start, and Cervi provides great insurance in case Matt Pickens leaves for England. King will be a player to watch. Grade: A

The SuperDraft is pretty much a college draft, to my knowledge, but the teams are usually going with domestic players through the draft... here's the league breakdown on the number of domestic players versus foreign players required for their rosters...

http://beta.sports.yahoo.com/mls/news?slug=ap-mls-foreignplayers&prov=ap&type=lgns

quote:Foreigners without nonresident alien status will be limited to 112 of the 392 players in the league, or just under 30 percent.
------------------------------------------------
Besides the Earthquakes, Seattle will join MLS in 2009, with another team possibly in Philadelphia or St. Louis that would bring the league to 16 teams.

Clubs had been limited to four "senior internationals" and three "youth internationals" -- non-Americans under the age of 25. The league is abolishing the distinction between the two and increasing the number to eight on the 28-man rosters -- with the option to trade for more.

The league's board of governors decided to increase their foreign-player limits just before the MLS Cup championship on Nov. 18 in Washington.

Several TU players (and a couple of ORU players) have been drafted over the past few years, either through the SuperDraft or the supplementary draft.  Cervi went to Norman North... Erik Burkholder is from BA... TU Forward Ryan Pore from Ohio was a high draft pick (16th overall) for Kansas City in 2004/05, the year before Tulsa was in the hunt to either get KC to relocate here or for an expansion team...

TU and ORU are the only NCAA Div 1 Men's soccer programs in the state.

Cross your fingers... Cervi's also possible for the Olympics...
http://www.theoffside.com/north-america/opportunity-knocks-for-dominic-cervi-with-the-us-u-23s.html

Opportunity Knocks for Dominic Cervi with the US U-23s
By: Laurie | January 16th, 2008

Goalkeeper Dominic Cervi went into the MLS Combine like the other sixty or so players, hoping to catch the eye of somebody important so he could keep playing beyond the college level.

(For what it's worth, there's a lot there to catch the eye. The University of Tulsa player is 6'5" or 6'6", depending on your source.)

He did more than catch the eye of MLS scouts, though. US U-23 Coach Peter Nowak saw him play and immediately whisked him away, out of the Combine and into the U-23 team camp. (The U-23s are currently training in Florida for the Olympic qualifiers.) No more Combine for Dominic!

BRADENTON, Fla. (Jan. 13, 2008) - Dominic Cervi, a 6'5", 204 pound goalkeeper from Norman, Okla., has been called into training camp with the Under-23 Men's National Team in Bradenton, Fla. Cervi, who played for three years at the University of Tulsa, was participating in Major League Soccer's combine in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., where he was spotted by U-23 head coach Peter Nowak.

The 6'5" goalkeeper will take the place of Jules Valentin, who will be leaving camp after re-opening a wound on his face. Valentin headed the ball during Saturday's scrimmage with the Under-17 Men's National Team, and reopened a gash on his forehead, requiring seven stitches. Valentin did participate in the MLS combine on Sunday afternoon.

One day you're just another prospect, the next the words "Olympic hopeful" are buzzing around your head.

Not a bad weekend's work. Good luck, Dominic!

[USRufnex]

Before going to TU, Cervi's club level team was Norman Celtic--- ah, the irony....

Cervi on trial with Celtic
April 23, 2008

http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2008/04/cervi-on-trial.html

U.S. Under-23 national team goalkeeper and 2008 Chicago Fire draft pick Dominic Cervi is on trial with Scottish powerhouse Celtic. Ron Waxman, Cervi's New York-based agent, confirmed on Wednesday that Cervi has been with Celtic for more than a week as part of an extended trial.

The No. 12 overall pick in January's MLS Draft, Cervi turned down the Fire's offer of a minimum salary contract, valued at about $32,000 a year, but could wind up a big winner if he can secure a contract from Celtic, which is in the market for goalkeepers, especially with the strong likelihood that starter Artur Boruc will leave this summer.

Celtic is the same club that made a strong push for Chivas USA and U.S. national team goalkeeper Brad Guzan only to have Guzan turn them down in favor of Aston Villa. Guzan then had his work permit application denied.

A 21-year-old native of Oklahoma, Cervi played for the U.S. Under-23 national team in Olympic Qualifying last month. He started in two matches for the U.S. team, including the 1-0 loss to Honduras in the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Championship match.