2023 Marshall Thundering Herd men's soccer team

2023 Marshall Thundering Herd men's soccer
Sun Belt regular season champions Sun Belt Tournament champions
Conference	Sun Belt Conference
U. Soc. Coaches  poll	No. 1
TopDrawerSoccer.com	No. 1
Record	18–2–0 (7–2–0 Sun Belt)
Head coach	Chris Grassie (7th season)
Assistant coaches	Josh Faga (5th season) Rafa Simoes (3rd season)
Home stadium	Hoops Family Field
Seasons ←  2022 2024  →

The 2023 Marshall Thundering Herd men's soccer team represents Marshall University during the 2023 NCAA Division I men's soccer season. It is the 45th season of the university fielding a men's varsity soccer program. The Thundering Herd, led by seventh-year head coach Chris Grassie, play their home games at Hoops Family Field as members of the Sun Belt Conference. ^{[1] [2]}

2023 Sun Belt Conference men's soccer standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 8 Marshall ‡	7	–	2	–	0			18	–	3	–	0
No. 19 UCF +	6	–	2	–	1			10	–	4	–	2
No. 3 West Virginia +	5	–	1	–	3			17	–	3	–	4
No. 18 James Madison +	4	–	2	–	3			10	–	5	–	5
Kentucky +	3	–	3	–	3			8	–	8	–	4
Georgia State	3	–	4	–	2			6	–	7	–	5
South Carolina	3	–	4	–	2			6	–	9	–	3
Old Dominion	2	–	6	–	1			5	–	7	–	5
Georgia Southern	1	–	5	–	3			2	–	9	–	6
Coastal Carolina	1	–	6	–	2			3	–	9	–	3
‡ – 2023 Sun Belt Conference tournament champion + – At-large invitation to the 2023 NCAA tournament As of December 12, 2023 Rankings from United Soccer Coaches Source: Sun Belt

The Thundering Herd finished the regular season with a 14–2–0 record winning the Sun Belt Conference men's soccer regular season championship. This marks the first team championship Marshall has won in the Sun Belt Conference. The 14–2–0 record also marks the best regular season Marshall men's soccer has ever had.

Marshall continued their dominance into the Sun Belt Conference tournament where they got revenge on the two teams that defeated them in the regular season; Kentucky, and West Virginia. They ultimately won the Sun Belt tournament with a score of 3–2 against fierce rival West Virginia to clinch a spot in the NCAA tournament. This also marks the first tournament championship The Herd has won in the Sun Belt Conference.

Marshall made school history on November 13, 2023 as they laid claim to the No.1 overall seed in the NCAA men's soccer tournament during the selection show. Despite being the top seed overall, they would fall in the third round to Stanford.

Background

Main article: 2022 Marshall Thundering Herd men's soccer team

The season prior, Marshall finished 11-4-4 after losing in the third round of the 2022 NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament. ^[3]

Marshall was ranked 11th in the United Soccer Coaches preseason poll and 2nd in the Sun Belt Conference preseason poll. ^{[4] [5] [6]}

Roster

Updated August, 2023 ^[7]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK   IRL Dan Rose 4 DF   ENG Alex Bamford 5 MF   USA Ryan Holmes 6 MF   BRA Guga Veiga 7 FW   FRA Adam Aoumaich 8 MF   JPN Taimu Okiyoshi 9 FW   ESP Alvaro Garcia-Pascual 10 FW   JAM Matthew Bell 11 MF   ESP Pablo Simon 12 DF   BRA Joao Roberto 13 DF   USA Ethan Prescott 15 DF   JPN Takahiro Fujita 16 DF   BRA Felipe Santos 17 MF   BRA Filipe Short 18 FW   ARG Agustin Iusem

No. Pos. Nation Player 19 MF   USA Nikola Sljivic 20 MF   DEN Alex Stjernegaard 21 MF   FRA Theo Godard 24 DF   GHA Mohammed Seidu 25 DF   GER Morris Duggan 27 MF   MAR Aymane Sordo 29 GK   USA Gabe Sitler 31 DF   POR Rai Pinto 32 MF   JPN Masaya Sekiguchi 38 GK   DEN Paul Weincierz 43 DF   BRA Braian Amaro 44 FW   GHA Alexander Adjetey 47 MF   USA Marco Silva 49 FW   FRA Illias Aoumaich 99 GK   PAR Gabriel Perrotta

Schedule

Source: ^{[8] [9]}

Date Time, TV	Rank#	Opponent#	Result	Record	Site (Attendance) City, State
Regular season
August 24* 7:15 pm,  ESPN+	No. 11	Oakland	W 4–0	1–0–0	Hoops Family Field (1,492) Huntington, WV
August 28* 7:15 pm, ESPN+	No. 11	Wright State	W 5–0	2–0–0	Hoops Family Field (1,135) Huntington, WV
September 1* 7:15 pm, ESPN+	No. 5	Xavier	W 3–0	3–0–0	Hoops Family Field (1,713) Huntington, WV
September 5* 6:00 pm,  ACCN	No. 2	at  Pittsburgh	W 3–1	4–0–0	Petersen Sports Complex (1,081) Pittsburgh, PA
September 8* 7:15 am, ESPN+	No. 2	High Point	W 2–1	5–0–0	Hoops Family Field (2,135) Huntington, WV
September 12* 7:15 pm, ESPN+	No. 2	Cleveland State	W 5–0	6–0–0	Hoops Family Field (1,579) Huntington, WV
September 16 7:00 pm, ESPN+	No. 2	at No. 9  James Madison	W 3–1	7–0–0 (1–0–0)	Sentara Park (1,119) Harrisonburg, VA
September 23 7:15 pm, ESPN+	No. 1	No. 3  UCF	W 1–0	8–0–0 (2–0–0)	Hoops Family Field (3,075) Huntington, WV
September 27* 7:00 pm, ESPN+	No. 1	at  VCU	W 1–0	9–0–0	Sports Backers Stadium (995) Richmond, VA
October 1 7:00 pm, ESPN+	No. 1	at  Georgia Southern	W 3–1	10–0–0 (3–0–0)	Eagle Field (391) Statesboro, GA
October 7 7:15 pm, ESPN+	No. 1	Georgia State	W 2–0	11–0–0 (4–0–0)	Hoops Family Field (2,042) Huntington, WV
October 13 7:15 pm, ESPN+	No. 1	Coastal Carolina	W 6–1	12–0–0 (5–0–0)	Hoops Family Field (1,861) Huntington, WV
October 18 7:00 pm, ESPN+	No. 1	at No. 5  West Virginia Mountain State Derby	L 2–5	12–1–0 (5–1–0)	Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium (3,147) Morgantown, WV
October 22 4:30 pm, ESPM+	No. 1	Kentucky	L 0–2	12–2–0 (5–2–0)	Hoops Family Field (3,099) Huntington, WV
October 27 7:00 pm, ESPN+	No. 6	at  Old Dominion	W 2–0	13–2–0 (6–2–0)	Old Dominion Soccer Complex (548) Norfolk, VA
October 31 7:15 pm, ESPN+	No. 4	South Carolina	W 2–0	14–2–0 (7–2–0)	Hoops Family Field (1,714) Huntington, WV
Sun Belt Tournament
November 5 3:00 pm, ESPN+	(1) No. 4	(8) Old Dominion Quarterfinals	W 2–0	15–2–0	Hoops Family Field (1,790) Huntington, WV
November 8 7:00 pm, ESPN+	(1) No. 1	(5) Kentucky Semifinals	W 3–0	16–2–0	Hoops Family Field (2,176) Huntington, WV
November 12 1:00 pm, ESPN+	(1) No. 1	(3) No. 5 West Virginia Finals	W 3–2	17–2–0	Hoops Family Field (3,151) Huntington, WV
NCAA Tournament
November 19* 1:00 pm, ESPN+	(1) No. 1	Cal Baptist Second round	W 3–0	18–2–0	Hoops Family Field (2,959) Huntington, WV
November 26* 1:00 pm, ESPN+	(1) No. 1	(16) No. 22  Stanford Third round	L 3–0	18–3–0	Hoops Family Field (3,042) Huntington, WV
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from United Soccer Coaches. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses.

Awards and honors

Recipient	Award	Date	Ref.
Matthew Bell	SBC Offensive Player of the Week	Aug. 29	[10]
Marco Silva	SBC Offensive Player of the Week	Sept. 5	[11]
Matthew Bell	SBC Offensive Player of the Week	Sept. 19	[12]
Adam Aoumaich	SBC Offensive Player of the Week	Sept. 26	[13]
Pablo Simon	SBC Offensive Player of the Week	Oct. 17	[14]
Alexander Stjernegaard	SBC Offensive Player of the Week	Nov. 2	[15]
Gabriel Perrotta	SBC Defensive Player of the Week
Matthew Bell	SBC Player of the Year	Nov. 3	[16]
Matthew Bell	SBC Offensive Player of the Year
Morris Dugan	SBC Defensive Player of the Year
Gabriel Perrotta	SBC Goalkeeper Player of the Week
Matthew Bell	SBC First-Team All-Conference
Morris Duggan	SBC First-Team All-Conference
Gabriel Perrotta	SBC First-Team All-Conference
Taimu Okiyoshi	SBC Second-Team All-Conference

Rankings

Main article: 2023 NCAA Division I men's soccer rankings

Ranking movements
Legend:██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
( ) = First-place votes

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Final
United Soccer [17]	11	5	2	2 (3)	1 (7)	1 (8)	1 (7)	1 (7)	1 (8)	6	4	1 (8)	N/A
Top Drawer Soccer [18]	9	6	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	6	6	3	1

References

1. "Chris Grassie - Men's Soccer Coach". Marshall University Athletics. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
2. "NCAA Statistics". stats.ncaa.org. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
3. MetroNews (November 28, 2022). "Marshall suffers 1-0 loss at Indiana in third round of NCAA Tournament". WV MetroNews. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
4. "NCAA DI Mens Rankings – National | United Soccer Coaches" . Retrieved August 15, 2023.
5. "NCAA Men's Soccer Preseason Top 25 Rankings announced". SoccerWire. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
6. CREASY, LUKE (August 14, 2023). "Marshall men picked second, land two on All-SBC preseason team". The Herald-Dispatch. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
7. "2023 Men's Soccer Roster". Marshall University Athletics. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
8. "2023 Men's Soccer Schedule". Marshall University Athletics. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
9. "MSN". www.msn.com. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
10. "Marshall's Bell and James Madison's Nikolai Tabbed as Sun Belt Men's Soccer Players of the Week". Sun Belt Conference. August 29, 2023.
11. "Marshall's Silva and UCF's Bubb Garner Sun Belt Men's Soccer Player of the Week Honors Honors". sunbeltsports.org. Sun Belt Conference. September 5, 2023.
12. "Marshall's Bell and South Carolina's Alexander Secure Sun Belt Men's Soccer Weekly Honors". Sun Belt Conference. September 19, 2023.
13. "Marshall's Aoumaich & Georgia Southern's Martinez Earn Sun Belt Men's Soccer Player of the Week Distinction". sunbeltsports.org. Sun Belt Conference. September 26, 2023.
14. "Marshall's Pablo Simon and James Madison's Enrique Garcia Barelles Garner Sun Belt Men's Soccer Weekly Honors". sunbeltsports.org. Sun Belt Conference. October 17, 2023.
15. "Marshall Sweeps Final Sun Belt Men's Soccer Weekly Honors". sunbeltsports.org. Sun Belt Conference. November 2, 2023.
16. "2023 Sun Belt Men's Soccer Awards and All-Conference Teams Announced". Sun Belt Conference. November 3, 2023.
17. "NCAA DI Men's National Rankings". National Soccer Coaches Association of America. September 27, 2022. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
18. "College Soccer National Ranking". topdrawersoccer.com. Top Drawer Soccer. September 4, 2023. Retrieved September 4, 2023.