No. 23 Virginia Men's Soccer Battles No. 2 Maryland Friday Night

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The Virginia men's soccer team returns home at 7 p.m. Friday for an ACC clash with No. 2 Maryland at Klöckner Stadium. The ACC's Regional Sports Networks will televise the match live.

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Comcast Sports Mid-Atlantic, Sun Sports, NESN and Fox Sports Prime Ticket all will show the contest live. Live statistics also will be available at VirginiaSports.com.

Ranked 23rd nationally by Soccer America, Virginia comes into the match with a 6-4-0 record, including a 2-1-0 mark in the ACC. Maryland is unbeaten at 11-0-1 and tops the ACC with a 3-0-0 record.
The match Friday pits two of the top offenses nationally. Maryland is ranked first nationally with 31 goals; UVa is tied for 18th with 20 scores. The match also features two of the top scorers nationally - UM's Casey Townsend, who is fourth nationally in goals, and UVa's Will Bates, who is fifth.

The Cavaliers are coming off their best performance of the year, a dominating 2-0 win at Clemson last Friday. Virginia limited Clemson to just two shots while thoroughly controlling possession; UVa out-shot Clemson, 15-2. Brian Span scored a goal and added an assist, while Ryan Zinkhan nabbed the game-winning score - his first goal as a Cavalier.

Bates leads the team with nine goals this year, which ranks third in the ACC. He trails Duke's Andrew Wenger (12 goals) and Townsend (11). With three assists this year, Bates owns 21 points, which also ranks third in the ACC (Wenger, 28, and Townsend, 21). Bates is 11th in the ACC in assists.
Bates also ranks among the national leaders in scoring (through games of Oct. 2). He is fifth nationally in total goals (9); UCF's McKauly Tulloch leads the country with a dozen goals.

The Terrapins are unbeaten with an 11-0-1 record entering play Friday. UM is ranked as high as second nationally, behind only Connecticut. Casey Townsend leads the team with 11 goals. The Terps also have been strong defensively, surrendering a league-low seven goals.

Maryland owns a 37-28-8 edge in the programs' all-time series, which dates to 1941. The teams have met five times in the last two seasons, with Maryland winning both matchups by 2-0 counts last season and UVa taking all three contests in 2009, including two in the postseason. The Cavaliers are 4-5-1 in their last 10 matches against Maryland.

Virginia returns home at 7 p.m. Tuesday (Oct. 11) when it entertains the Navy Midshipmen at Klöckner Stadium. UVa travels to Wake Forest next Friday (Oct. 14) in its next ACC action.

Virginia Colleges in National Top 25 Rankings | Oct. 4

Top 25

Soccer America Men's Top 25 (Oct. 01)
TEAM (2011 RECORD) LAST WEEK

21. James Madison (6-1-1) NR
23. Virginia (6-4-0) NR
25. Old Dominion (5-2-0) 20


Soccer America Women's Top 25 (Oct. 03)
TEAM (2011 RECORD) LAST WEEK

8. Virginia (8-3-2) 7
24. William & Mary (9-1-2) NR

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Top 25 - 7th Poll

NSCAA National Rankings Men's Top 25 (Oct. 04)

21. Old Dominion  prev. 20
22. William & Mary  prev. N/R

*Also receiving votes: JMU
NSCAA National Rankings Women's Top 25 (Oct. 04)

16. Virginia  prev. 13

*Also receiving votes: William & Mary, Virginia Tech

WPS Players helping First Lady promote Let's Move! campaing at White House

Last year D.C. United and Washington Freedom players helped raise awareness of the Let's Move campaign in Washington, D.C.

South Lawn Series Continues at White House | Oct. 13, 2010

The White House will be teaming up with professional soccer players again as Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) has announced six players will join First Lady Michelle Obama in hosting a Let's Move! clinic on Thursday, Oct. 6 on the South Lawn of the White House to teach kids soccer skills and highlight the importance of physical activity.

Check out the Live Stream below starting at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 6th.

JOIN THE LIVE CHAT

VISIT WHITEHOUSE.GOV

  Nicole Barnhart (Philadelphia Independence), Rachel Buehler (Boston Breakers), Lori Lindsey (Philadelphia Independence), Alex Morgan (Western New York Flash), Kelley O'Hara (Boston Breakers) and Becky Sauerbrunn (magicJack) will represent the U.S. Women's National Team on Thursday.  All six players taking part in the clinic were members of the U.S. Women's National Team that reached the final of the 2011 Women's World Cup in Germany. Additionally all six players returned from the mid-summer tournament to help their clubs to appearances in the WPS Playoffs, where Morgan and the Flash captured the WPS Championship.

The WPS stars will lead local kids through a soccer clinic based on the principles of U.S. Soccer's coaching curriculum. The curriculum is designed to improve development of players in the U.S., concentrating on creating more organized, age-appropriate training sessions, developing coaching practices and creating a fun environment.

WPS has continuously supported the First Lady's Let's Move! initiative since its launch in Spring of 2010.  In addition to participating in multiple events hosted at the White House, WPS has also hosted a series of Get Active with Citi Soccer Kids clinics, delivering the Let's Move! message of the importance of physical activity to youth in WPS markets across the country through fun and engaging soccer clinics with WPS players and coaches.

Bradley now rare American coach on foreign soil | The Press-Enterprise

Here is an interesting read about former Univeristy of Virginia and D.C. United assistant coach (and of course former USMNT head coach) Bob Bradley who was recently named head coach of the Egytpian National team.

SOCCER: Bradley now rare American coach on foreign soil Soccer PE.com - The Press-Enterprise

United stumble down the stretch, now 'must win' vs Vancouver

On September 24th D.C. United had an impressive showing against a somewhat second team squad of Real Salt Lake but the result was exactly what United needed - 3 points.

The Black and Red seemed poised to make a strong playoff push down the stretch of the 2011 MLS season however the ensuing road trip saw United lose to Eastern Conference and I-95 rivals Philadelphia Union and Columbus Crew just three days later failing to collect a single point. Not the results the coaching staff, players, and fans had hoped for.

Now United find themselves two points out of the Wild Card Race and looking at a possible last chance to salvage any hopes of making the playoffs for the first time since 2007. Luckily for United they are set to face Vancouver (W-T-L-L-L) who they handled easily back in August in a 4-0 home win. Now D.C. United faces a must win situation and three points are the only acceptable result.

One negative note for the re-match against the Whitecaps is that MLS leading scorer and MVP candidate, Dwayne De Rosario will most likely miss the game due to national team duty. The absence of DeRo will simply be an opportunity for another United player to step-up (Davies, Najar?) and help salvage the teams hopes of a playoff birth.

Oct. 12 D.C. vs Vancouver players to watch:

D.C. =

Perry Kitchen, the rookie must not suffer the mental lapses we have seen from him throughout the season while having to help the United defense keep track of F Eric Hassli (10 goals).

Charlie Davies, the streaky attacker has 11 goals this season and must help fill the void if De Rosario is absent as expected. Vancouver has allowed 8 goals over their last 4 matches.

Vancouver =

Eric Hassli, the Frenchman has 10 goals this season but was essentially a non-factor in the previous match against United at RFK. He will be looking to exploit the inconsistent play of United's back line. Keep an eye on the 6'4" stiker on set pieces and crosses into the box.

Jay DeMerit, DeMerit is back to top form after having played the full 90 in his teams last six games. If DeRo does not play, the former USMNT defender and Whitecap captain will be looking to minimize the United attack and shut down Davies up the middle.