By Scott Adamson
Adamsonmedia.com
No. 1 Wake Forest, which finished as national runners-up last season, will enter the 2017 NCAA Men’s Soccer Tournament as the top seed.
The field of 48 was announced earlier today.
The Demon Deacons won the ACC regular season and tournament crowns, while the league tied its own NCAA record with nine teams in the field.
Joining Wake are North Carolina, Louisville, Duke, Clemson, Virginia, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and North Carolina State.
Champions of 24 conferences are automatic qualifiers and 24 at-large teams comprise the field. The top 16 teams were seeded and receive first round byes.
Those schools are, listed from 1-16, Wake Forest, Indiana, North Carolina, Louisville, Akron, Duke, Michigan State, Clemson, two-time defending national champion Stanford, Western Michigan, Virginia, Notre Dame, Michigan, Georgetown, Dartmouth and VCU.
All first-round games will be played this Thursday on campus sites and second-round games are set for Sunday.
The third round is Nov. 25- 26; the quarterfinals Dec. 1- 2; and the Men’s College Cup Dec. 8- 10 at Talen Energy Stadium in Philadelphia.
NCAA Men’s Soccer Tourney Bracket
Deltas claim NASL title
The North American Soccer League has a new champion.
Will it be its last?
On Sunday at Kezar Stadium, the San Francisco Deltas topped the New York Cosmos 2017 to win the 2017 Soccer Bowl.
And while 9,691 fans showed up to celebrate the expansion team’s victory, there are some dark clouds hovering over the league and the champs.
The NASL has been denied second division status by the United States Soccer Federation, and unless that ruling is overturned by an appeals court the league could fold.
As for the Deltas, the club is drowning in red ink and could also go out of business, regardless of the fate of the NASL itself.
For 90 minutes however, none of that mattered.
Tommy Heinemann and Devon Sandoval each scored goals for the victors while Romuald Peiser recorded the clean sheet.
It marked the Cosmos’ first loss in a modern NASL title game. New York won the Soccer Bowl in 2013, 2015 and 2016.
USL title game tonight
Louisville FC and Swope Park Rangers will meet at 9 p.m. tonight in the United Soccer League Cup final.
Swope Park (Kansas City) enters the fray with an 18-8-9 record while Louisville City is 20-6-9.
The USL featured 30 franchises in 2017 and has a working relationship with Major League Soccer.