2020 Pittsburgh Panthers men's soccer team

2020 Pittsburgh Panthers men's soccer
ACC Regular Season Champions
NCAA Tournament, Semifinals
Conference	Atlantic Coast Conference
U. Soc. Coaches  poll	No. 3
TopDrawerSoccer.com	No. 3
Record	16–4–0 (9–1–0 ACC)
Head coach	Jay Vidovich (5th season)
Assistant coaches	Michael Behonick (5th season) Rich Costanzo (4th season)
Home stadium	Ambrose Urbanic Field
Seasons ←  2019 2021  →

2020 ACC men's fall soccer standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
North
No. 2 Pittsburgh	4	–	0	–	0			7	–	1	–	0
No. 4 Virginia Tech	3	–	1	–	2			3	–	2	–	2
Notre Dame	3	–	2	–	0			5	–	4	–	0
Virginia	2	–	3	–	1			3	–	4	–	1
Louisville	1	–	4	–	1			1	–	6	–	1
Syracuse	0	–	3	–	2			0	–	3	–	2
South
No. 3 Wake Forest	5	–	1	–	0			7	–	2	–	0
North Carolina	3	–	1	–	2			3	–	2	–	2
No. 1 Clemson‡	3	–	2	–	1			8	–	2	–	1
Duke	2	–	4	–	0			2	–	6	–	0
NC State	0	–	5	–	1			0	–	6	–	1
Boston College†	0	–	0	–	0			0	–	0	–	0
‡ – 2020 ACC Tournament champion As of March 9, 2021 Rankings from United Soccer Coaches Source:The ACC Note: † Due to COVID-19, Boston College suspended the Fall 2020 men's soccer season; begins play in March.

2020 ACC men's spring soccer standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
Atlantic
No. 7 Clemson ‡	4	–	1	–	1			14	–	3	–	3
Louisville	4	–	2	–	0			5	–	8	–	1
No. 6 Wake Forest +	3	–	0	–	2			13	–	3	–	2
NC State	1	–	2	–	3			3	–	8	–	4
Boston College *	1	–	3	–	1			1	–	3	–	1
Syracuse	0	–	3	–	1			2	–	7	–	4
Coastal
No. 3 Pittsburgh +	5	–	1	–	0			16	–	4	–	0
No. 4 North Carolina +	4	–	1	–	1			9	–	5	–	4
Duke	2	–	3	–	1			3	–	10	–	3
Virginia	2	–	4	–	0			7	–	8	–	1
No. 15 Virginia Tech +	2	–	4	–	0			7	–	6	–	4
Notre Dame	1	–	5	–	0			8	–	9	–	0
‡ – 2020 ACC Fall Tournament champion + – Also invited to the 2020 NCAA Tournament As of May 18, 2021 Rankings from United Soccer Coaches Source:The ACC Note: *- Due to COVID-19, Boston College suspended the Fall 2020 men's soccer season; began play in March.

The 2020 Pittsburgh Panthers men's soccer team represents University of Pittsburgh during the 2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer season. The Panthers are led by head coach Jay Vidovich, in his fifth season. They play home games at Ambrose Urbanic Field. This is the team's 67th season playing organized men's college soccer and their 8th playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The teams' 2020 season was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which curtailed the fall season and caused the NCAA Tournament to be played in spring 2021. The ACC was one of the only two conferences in men's soccer to play in the fall of 2020. The ACC also held a mini-season during the spring of 2021.

The Panthers finished the fall season 7–1–0 and 4–0–0 in ACC play to finish in first place in the North Division. In the ACC Tournament they defeated Duke in the Quarterfinals and Notre Dame in the Semifinals before losing to Clemson in the Final. They finished the spring season 6–1–0 and 5–1–0 in ACC play, to finish in first place in the Coastal Division. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament because they lost the automatic bid play-in game to Clemson. As the second seed in the tournament, they defeated Monmouth in the Second Round, UCF in the Third Round, and Washington in the Quarterfinals before losing to Indiana in the Semifinals to end their season.

Previous season

Main article: 2019 Pittsburgh Panthers men's soccer team

The 2019 Pittsburgh men's soccer team finished the season with a 10–8–2 overall record and a 4–3–1 ACC record. Pitt were seeded fourth–overall in the 2019 ACC Men's Soccer Tournament. The Panthers won their first round match up against NC State, but fell to Clemson in the semifinals. The Panthers earned an at-large bid into the 2019 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament, making it their first berth into the NCAA Tournament since 1965. Pitt defeated Lehigh in the first round, before losing to the eventual national champions, Georgetown, in the second round.

Preseason

Preseason rankings

ACC Media Poll

The ACC men's soccer media poll was released on September 8, 2020. Pitt was picked to finish second in the ACC North Division. ^[1]

Coaches' Poll
Predicted finish	Team	Points
1	Virginia	59 (9)
2	Pitt	44 (2)
3	Virginia Tech	35
4	Syracuse	30
5	Louisville	29
6	Notre Dame	28

Player movement

Players leaving

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Reason for departure
Johan Peñaranda	0	GK	5'11"	172	Sophomore	Long Island, NY	Transferred to FIU
Nyk Sessock	2	DF	5'7"	148	Sophomore	Philadelphia, PA	Transferred to Indiana
Chandler Vaughn	3	DF	5'9"	142	Sophomore	Woodbridge, VA	Transferred to St. Louis
Lucas Cyriacus	6	MF	6'0"	172	Freshman	Munich, Germany	Transferred to Manhattan
Braden Kline	7	MF	6'1"	160	Senior	Lancaster, PA	Graduated
Edward Kizza	9	FW	5'9"	170	Junior	Kampala, Uganda	No longer with team [2]
Josh Hesson	12	FW	5'11"	168	Freshman	Wolverhampton, England	Transferred to Delaware
Louis Spicer	17	MF	5'10"	168	Freshman	Cambridge, England	Transferred to Maryland
Tim Townsend	18	MF	5'8"	155	Sophomore	Hummelstown, PA
Alex Peperak	21	MF	5'10"	170	Senior	Connellsville, PA	Graduated
Chad Stout	25	MF	5'9"	163	Sophomore	Lewisberry, PA
Tim Ekpone	28	DF	6'0"	160	Junior	Germantown, MD	Transferred to Syracuse
Arie Ammann	32	GK	6'0"	180	Junior	Round Hill, VA

Players arriving

Name	Nat.	Hometown	Club	TDS Rating
Vinicius Belon DF	BRA	Curitiba, Brazil	SIMA	[3]
Brandon Clagette FW	USA	Atlanta, GA	Atlanta United Academy	[4]
Lucas Matuszewski DF	USA	York, PA	PA Classics Academy	[5]
Luke Peperak FW	USA	Pittsburgh, PA	Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC	[6]
Dominic Reiter DF	USA	Sewickley, PA	Beadling SC	[7]
Soshun Shigaki MF	JPN	Tokyo, Japan	SIMA	[8]
Nathan Stricker MF	USA	Sinking Spring, PA	PA Classics Academy	[9]

Squad

Roster

Updated October 28, 2020 ^[10]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 0 GK   ESP Nico Campuzano 1 GK   USA Alexander Steinbach 2 DF   GER Jasper Löeffelsend 3 DF   FRA Raphaël Crivello 4 DF   USA Bryce Washington 5 DF   ESP Arturo Ordoñez 6 MF   MAR Anass Amrani 7 MF   MEX Luis Lara 8 MF   FRA Valentin Noël 10 FW   FRA Bertin Jacquesson 11 MF   BRA Rodrigo Almeida 12 FW   USA Brandon Clagette 13 FW   USA Alexander Dexter 14 DF   ESP Sito Sena

No. Pos. Nation Player 15 FW   USA Luke Mort 16 DF   USA Lucas Matuszewski 17 MF   ENG Louis Spicer 18 MF   JPN Soshun Shigaki 19 MF   SRB Veljko Petkovic 20 MF   USA Matt Bailey 21 MF   SRB Filip Mirkovic 22 DF   USA Sebastian Serpa 23 DF   BRA Vinicius Belon 24 MF   SUI Jackson Walti 25 FW   USA Luke Peperak 26 DF   USA Dominic Reiter 27 DF   USA Anthony Harding 28 MF   USA Nathan Stricker

Team management

Position	Staff
Athletic Director	Heather Lyke
Head Coach	Jay Vidovich
Assistant Coach	Michael Behonick
Assistant Coach	Rich Costanzo
Volunteer Assistant Coach	Bryce Cregan

Source: ^[10]

Schedule

Source: ^{[11] [12]}

Date Time, TV	Rank#	Opponent#	Result	Record	Site (Attendance) City, State
Fall Exhibition
September 13, 2020* 7:00 p.m.	No. 4	at No. 1  Wake Forest	L  2–3	–	Spry Stadium (0) Winston-Salem, NC
September 19, 2020* 7:00 p.m.	No. 4	at  Louisville	W  5–0	–	Ambrose Urbanic Field (0) Pittsburgh, PA
Fall regular season
September 26, 2020* 7:00 p.m.,  ACCNX	No. 4	at No. 5  Notre Dame	W  3–1	1–0–0	Alumni Stadium (0) South Bend, IN
October 6, 2020 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 2	at  Syracuse	W  3–2  2OT	2–0–0 (1–0–0)	SU Soccer Stadium (1) Syracuse
October 10, 2020 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 2	Virginia Tech	W  4–2	3–0–0 (2–0–0)	Ambrose Urbanic Field (55) Pittsburgh, PA
October 18, 2020 7:30 p.m., ACCN	No. 2	at No. 5  Virginia	W  3–2  OT	4–0–0 (3–0–0)	Klöckner Stadium (132) Charlottesville, VA
October 23, 2020 7:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 1	at  Louisville	W  4–1	5–0–0 (4–0–0)	Lynn Family Stadium Louisville, KY
October 30, 2020 6:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 1	Notre Dame	Canceled [13]	5–0–0 (4–0–0)	Ambrose Urbanic Field Pittsburgh, PA
November 6, 2020 6:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 1	Syracuse	Canceled [13]	5–0–0 (4–0–0)	Ambrose Urbanic Field Pittsburgh, PA
ACC Tournament
November 15, 2020 6:00 p.m., ACCN	(1N) No. 1	vs. (4S)  Duke Quarterfinals	W  2–1	6–0–0	Dail Soccer Field Raleigh, NC
November 18, 2020 8:00 p.m., ACCN	(1N) No. 1	vs. (3N) Notre Dame Semifinals	W  3–1	7–0–0	Dail Soccer Field (100) Raleigh, NC
November 22, 2020 Noon,  ESPNU	(1N) No. 1	vs. (3S) No. 2  Clemson Final	L  1–2	7–1–0	WakeMed Soccer Park (350) Cary, NC
Spring Exhibition
February 13, 2021* 3:00 p.m.		Georgetown	Canceled [14]		Ambrose Urbanic Field Pittsburgh, PA
Spring regular season
February 21, 2021* 3:00 p.m.		Akron	Canceled [15]	–	Ambrose Urbanic Field (–) Pittsburgh, PA
February 27, 2021* 7:00 p.m.		Duquesne City Game	W  1–0	8–1–0	Ambrose Urbanic Field (0) Pittsburgh, PA
March 5, 2021 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 4	at  North Carolina	L  0–3	8–2–0 (4–1–0)	Dorrance Field (315) Chapel Hill, NC
March 13, 2021 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 8	Boston College	W  1–0	9–2–0 (5–1–0)	Ambrose Urbanic Field (0) Pittsburgh, PA
March 19, 2021 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 7	at Duke	W  4–3  2OT	10–2–0 (6–1–0)	Koskinen Stadium (0) Durham, NC
March 27, 2021 1:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 5	at Virginia Tech	W  2–1  2OT	11–2–0 (7–1–0)	Thompson Field (600) Blacksburg, VA
April 3, 2021 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 3	Notre Dame	W  2–0	12–2–0 (8–1–0)	Ambrose Urbanic Field (0) Pittsburgh, PA
April 8, 2021 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 1	Virginia	W  5–0	13–2–0 (9–1–0)	Ambrose Urbanic Field (0) Pittsburgh, PA
NCAA Automatic Bid Play-In
April 17, 2021 7:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 1	No. 4 Clemson	L  0–2	13–3–0	Riggs Field (1,000) Clemson, SC
NCAA Tournament
May 2, 2021 8:00 p.m.	(2) No. 3	vs.  Monmouth Second Round	W  6–1	14–3–0	Bryan Park (300) Browns Summit, NC
May 6, 2021 3:00 p.m.	(2) No. 3	vs. No. 18  UCF Third Round	W  4–0	15–3–0	WakeMed Soccer Park (86) Cary, NC
May 10, 2021 1:00 p.m., NCAA Livestream	(2) No. 3	vs. (7) No. 8  Washington Quarterfinals	W  3–0	16–3–0	WakeMed Soccer Park (74) Cary, NC
May 14, 2021 8:30 p.m.,  ESPNU	(2) No. 3	vs. (3) No. 2  Indiana Semifinals	L  0–1	16–4–0	WakeMed Soccer Park (2,667) Cary, NC
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from United Soccer Coaches. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses.

Awards and honors

Recipient	Award	Date	Ref.
Arturo Ordoñez	ACC Defensive Player of the Week	September 28, 2020	[16]
Veljko Petkovic	ACC Offensive Player of the Week	October 12, 2020	[17]
Valentin Noël	ACC Co-Offensive Player of the Week	October 19, 2020	[18]
Nico Campuzano	All-ACC Tournament Team	November 22, 2020	[19]
Veljko Petkovic
Valentin Noël
Veljko Petkovic	MAC Hermann Trophy Watchlist	January 28, 2021	[20]
Valentin Noël
Valentin Noël	ACC Co-Offensive Player of the Week	March 22, 2021	[21]
Jackson Walti	ACC Defensive Player of the Week	March 29, 2021	[22]
Jay Vidovich	ACC Coach of the Year	April 14, 2021	[23]
Valentin Noël	ACC Offensive Player of the Year
Jasper Löeffelsend	ACC Defensive Player of the Year
Bertin Jacquesson	ACC Freshman of the Year
Nico Campuzano	All ACC First-Team
Jasper Löeffelsend
Valentin Noël
Bertin Jacquesson	All ACC Second-Team
Veljko Petkovic
Jackson Walti
Alexander Dexter	All ACC Third-Team
Arturo Ordoñez
Bertin Jacquesson	All ACC Rookie Team
Filip Mirkovic

Rankings

Main article: 2020 NCAA Division I men's soccer rankings

Fall 2020

Ranking movement
Legend:██ Improvement in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking. ██ Not ranked the previous week. RV=Others receiving votes.

Poll	Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Final
United Soccer [24]	4	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	2

Spring 2021

Ranking movement
Legend:██ Improvement in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking. ██ Not ranked the previous week. RV=Others receiving votes.

Poll	Pre	Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Final
United Soccer [24]	None Released				4	8	7	5	3 (1)	1 (13)	1 (16)	3 (1)	None Released		3 (2)
TopDrawer Soccer [25]	3	3	3	3	3	7	6	5	4	4	3	6	5	1	3

2021 MLS Super Draft

Main article: 2021 MLS SuperDraft

Player	Team	Round	Pick #	Position
Edward Kizza	New England Revolution	1	24	FW

Source: ^[26]

References

1. "Virginia Picked to Win ACC North Region". virginiasports.com. September 8, 2020. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
2. Bobeck, Ben (October 8, 2020). "Pitt soccer parts ways with leading scorer Edward Kizza". pittnews.com. The Pitt News. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
3. "Vinicius Belon". topdrawersoccer.com. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
4. "Brandon Clagette". topdrawersoccer.com. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
5. "Lucas Matuszewski". topdrawersoccer.com. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
6. "Luke Peperak". topdrawersoccer.com. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
7. "Dominic Reiter". topdrawersoccer.com. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
8. "Soshun Shigaki". topdrawersoccer.com. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
9. "Nathan Stricker". topdrawersoccer.com. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
10. "2020 Men's Soccer Roster". pittsburghpanthers.com. University of Pittsburgh Athletics. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
11. "2020 Pitt Men's Soccer Schedule". pittsburghpanthers.com. University of Pittsburgh Athletics. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
12. "Vidovich Announces 2021 Spring Schedule". pittsburghpanthers.com. University of Pittsburgh Athletics. January 25, 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
13. "Pitt Men's Soccer Activities Paused". pittsburghpanthers.com. Pittsburgh Panthers Athletics. October 28, 2020. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
14. "Pitt, Georgetown Exhibition Canceled". pittsburghpanthers.com. Pittsburgh Panthers Athletics. February 13, 2021. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
15. "Sunday's Home Match Versus Akron Postponed". pittsburghpanthers.com. University of Pittsburgh. February 20, 2021. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
16. "Pitt, Wake Forest Earn Men's Soccer Weekly Honors". theacc.com. The Atlantic Coast Conference. September 28, 2020. Retrieved September 28, 2020.
17. "Petkovic, Shutler, Zattarin Earn ACC Men's Soccer Weekly Honors". theacc.com. The Atlantic Coast Conference. October 12, 2020. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
18. "Noel, Smith, Marks Claim ACC Men's Soccer Weekly Honors". theacc.com. The Atlantic Coast Conference. October 19, 2020. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
19. "Clemson Downs Pitt, 2-1, to Win ACC Men's Soccer Championship". theacc.com. The Atlantic Coast Conference. November 22, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
20. "2020-21 MAC Hermann Trophy Watch Lists Announced". unitedsoccercoaches.org. United Soccer Coaches. January 28, 2021. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
21. "ACC Announces Weekly Men's Soccer Honors". theacc.com. The Atlantic Coast Conference. March 22, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
22. "Duke's Ulfarsson, Pitt's Walti Earn Weekly ACC Men's Soccer Honors". theacc.com. The Atlantic Coast Conference. March 29, 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
23. "2020 All-ACC Men's Soccer Team Announced". theacc.com. The Atlantic Coast Conference. April 14, 2021. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
24. "NCAA DI Men's National Rankings". National Soccer Coaches Association of America. May 18, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
25. "College Soccer National Rankings". TopDrawer Soccer. May 18, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
26. "2021 MLS SuperDraft Tracker". MLSSoccer.com. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2021.