Akron and Virginia for 2009 College Cup

It will be Akron and Virginia on Sunday for the 2009 College Cup in North Carolina.  Virginia slipped past Wake Forest 2-1 in extra time while Akron advanced past North Carolina in penalty kicks.

Wake Forest has to be considered unlucky to not be playing for the national championship as they were clearly the better team in the opening semifinal against Virginia.  Their speed of play often overwhelmed the Virginia midfield, but it was a pair of impactful plays from Jonathan Villanueva that led to both Virginia goals on the night.  On the opening goal, Villanueva knifed into the Wake penalty area before unleashing a quick shot that was saved but the rebound fell right to Tony Tchani who knocked it home.

Wake Forest would push for the equalizer and get it in the 70th minute when Corben Bone dribbled the end line and banked a ball off a Virginia defender and into the net.  Wake would control play from there, but a late introduction of Brian Ownby of Virginia would influence the game greatly.  Ownby almost got loose and scored just before the end of regulation, but the match would go to extra time.   There it was Villanueva who played a perfect ball in behind the Wake defense where the onsuhing Ownby would flick it home and send Virginia to the College Cup Final.

In the nightcap Akron would dominate possession and show the reason they were #1 all season long.  North Carolina stayed strong in the back and limited the Akron chances, but rarely got forward in numbers.  The game was scoreless in the 70th minute when Zach Loyd was shown his 2nd yellow and North Carolina were forced to go on with only 10 men.   UNC sat deep in their own half and were looking to kill off the Akron attack from there.

The strategy worked and North Carolina almost were able to steal the game at the end when a header from a corner kick was cleared off the line and two other shots were saved.  The match would go to penalty kicks where Akron would make all five spot kicks winning 5-4.