2021 Pittsburgh Panthers men's soccer team

The 2021 Pittsburgh Panthers men's soccer team represented the University of Pittsburgh during the 2021 NCAA Division I men's soccer season. The Panthers were led by head coach Jay Vidovich, in his sixth season. They played home games at Ambrose Urbanic Field. This was the team's 68th season playing organized men's college soccer and their 9th playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

2021 Pittsburgh Panthers men's soccer
ACC Coastal Division Regular Season Champions
NCAA Tournament, Quarterfinals
Conference	Atlantic Coast Conference
U. Soc. Coaches poll	No. 6
TopDrawerSoccer.com	No. 8
Record	13–5–2 (5–2–1 ACC)
Head coach	Jay Vidovich (6th season)
Assistant coaches	Michael Behonick (6th season) Rich Costanzo (5th season)
Home stadium	Ambrose Urbanic Field
Seasons ← 2020 2022 →

2021 ACC men's soccer standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
Atlantic
No. 1 Clemson +	5	–	3	–	0			16	–	5	–	2
Louisville +	5	–	3	–	0			10	–	7	–	1
No. 17 Wake Forest +	4	–	3	–	1			13	–	7	–	1
Boston College	2	–	4	–	2			6	–	7	–	2
Syracuse	2	–	5	–	1			8	–	8	–	2
NC State	1	–	5	–	2			7	–	8	–	2
Coastal
No. 12 Duke +	5	–	2	–	1			14	–	5	–	1
No. 6 Pittsburgh +	5	–	2	–	1			13	–	5	–	2
No. 4 Notre Dame ‡	4	–	2	–	2			14	–	5	–	5
North Carolina +	4	–	4	–	0			11	–	7	–	2
No. 19 Virginia Tech +	3	–	4	–	1			11	–	5	–	4
Virginia	2	–	5	–	1			6	–	9	–	3
‡ – ACC Tournament champion + – Also invited to the 2021 NCAA tournament As of December 14, 2021 Rankings from United Soccer Coaches Source: The ACC

The Panthers finished the season 13–5–2 overall and 5–2–1 in ACC play to finish in a tie for first place in the Coastal Division. They won a tiebreaker with Duke to be awarded the first overall seed in the ACC Tournament. They earned a bye into the Quarterfinals where they defeated Virginia Tech before losing to eventual champions Notre Dame in the Semifinals. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and were awarded the fifth overall seed. After a First Round bye, they defeated Northern Illinois in the Second Round and Hofstra in the Third Round before losing to Notre Dame on penalties to end their season.

Background

Main article: 2020 Pittsburgh Panthers men's soccer team

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.

At the end of the season, one Panthers men's soccer player was selected in the 2021 MLS SuperDraft: Edward Kizza.^[1]

Player movement

Players leaving

Departures

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Reason for Departure
Alexander Steinbach	1	GK	5'11"	168	Sophomore	Frankfurt, Germany	—
Bryce Washington	4	DF	6'2"	163	Senior	Atlanta, GA	Graduated
Anass Amrani	6	MF	5'8"	153	Sophomore	Rabat, Morocco	—
Luis Lara	7	FW	5'9"	167	Freshman	Mexico City, Mexico	Transferred to Stetson
Sebastian Serpa	22	DF	5'8"	158	Freshman	Miami Beach, FL	—
Vinicius Belon	23	DF	5'7"	145	Freshman	Curitiba, Brazil	—
Dominic Reiter	26	DF	6'0"	175	Freshman	Sewickley, PA	—
Nathan Stricker	28	MF	5'5"	140	Freshman	Sinking Spring, PA	—

Players arriving

Name	Nat.	Hometown	Club	TDS Rating
Luis Shamkow FW	USA	Plano, TX	Solar Soccer Club	[2]

Squad

Roster

As of February 9, 2022^[3]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 0 GK  ESP Nico Campuzano 1 GK  NED Joe Van der Sar 2 DF  GER Jasper Löeffelsend 3 DF  FRA Raphaël Crivello 4 DF  JOR Mohammad Abualnadi 5 DF  ESP Arturo Ordoñez 6 MF  BRA Lucas Rosa 7 MF  BRA Guilherme Feitosa 8 MF  FRA Valentin Noël 10 FW  FRA Bertin Jacquesson 11 MF  BRA Rodrigo Almeida 13 FW  USA Alexander Dexter 14 DF  ESP Sito Sena

No. Pos. Nation Player 15 FW  USA Luke Mort 17 FW  USA Luis Sahmkow 18 MF  JPN Soshun Shigaki 19 MF  SRB Veljko Petkovic 20 MF  USA Matt Bailey 21 MF  SRB Filip Mirkovic 22 DF  USA Max Brown 23 FW  USA Cade Hagan 24 MF  SUI Jackson Walti 26 MF  USA Michael Sullivan 27 DF  USA Anthony Harding 28 MF  ENG Louis Spicer 32 GK  USA Andrew Noel

Team management

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

Source:^[3]

Schedule

Source:^[4][5]

Date Time, TV	Rank#	Opponent#	Result	Record	Site (Attendance) City, State
Exhibition
August 14* 7:00 p.m.	No. 3	Robert Morris	W 4–0[6]	—	Ambrose Urbanic Field Pittsburgh, PA
August 21* 7:30 p.m.	No. 3	at Maryland	L 1–2[7]	—	Ludwig Field College Park, MD
Regular season
August 26* 8:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 3	Duquesne	W 7–0	1–0–0	Ambrose Urbanic Field (1,310) Pittsburgh, PA
August 30* 7:00 p.m., ESPN+	No. 3	at West Virginia	L 1–2	1–1–0	Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium (1,316) Morgantown, WV
September 3* 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 3	Lehigh	W 2–1	2–1–0	Ambrose Urbanic Field (1,060) Pittsburgh, PA
September 6* 7:00 p.m., ESPN+	No. 3	at No. 19 Akron	L 1–2	2–2–0	FirstEnergy Stadium (1,955) Akron, OH
September 10 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 15	No. 4 North Carolina	W 4–0	3–2–0 (1–0–0)	Ambrose Urbanic Field (1,115) Pittsburgh, PA
September 13* 7:00 p.m., FS1	No. 15	at Penn State	W 1–0	4–2–0	Jeffrey Field (1,518) State College, PA
September 17 8:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 5	at Wake Forest	L 1–3	4–3–0 (1–1–0)	Spry Stadium (2,176) Winston–Salem, NC
September 25 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 15	at No. 2 Clemson	W 2–0	5–3–0 (2–1–0)	Riggs Field (2,231) Clemson, SC
October 1 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 16	Syracuse	W 3–2 2OT	6–3–0 (3–1–0)	Ambrose Urbanic Field (1,097) Pittsburgh, PA
October 5* 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 13	Cleveland State	W 4–0	7–3–0	Ambrose Urbanic Field (430) Pittsburgh, PA
October 9 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 13	No. 3 Duke	W 3–2	8–3–0 (4–1–0)	Ambrose Urbanic Field (1,409) Pittsburgh, PA
October 16 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 7	at Notre Dame	L 0–1 2OT	8–4–0 (4–2–0)	Alumni Stadium (385) Notre Dame, IN
October 22 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 10	at Virginia	T 2–2 2OT	8–4–1 (4–2–1)	Klöckner Stadium (0) Charlottesville, VA
October 25* 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 10	Massachusetts	W 5–1	9–4–1	Ambrose Urbanic Field (713) Pittsburgh, PA
October 29 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 12	No. 21 Virginia Tech	W 4–1	10–4–1 (5–2–1)	Ambrose Urbanic Field (900) Pittsburgh, PA
ACC Tournament
November 7 4:00 p.m., ACCN	(1) No. 6	(8) Virginia Tech Quarterfinals	W 2–1 2OT	11–4–1	Ambrose Urbanic Field (1,443) Pittsburgh, PA
November 10 5:00 p.m., ACCN	(1) No. 5	(5) No. 20 Notre Dame Semifinals	L 0–2	11–5–1	Ambrose Urbanic Field (1,626) Pittsburgh, PA
NCAA Tournament
November 21 4:00 p.m.	(5) No. 5	No. 19 Northern Illinois Second Round	W 5–2	12–5–1	Ambrose Urbanic Field (881) Pittsburgh, PA
November 27 4:00 p.m.	(5) No. 5	No. 13 Hofstra Third Round	W 4–0	13–5–1	Ambrose Urbanic Field (1,079) Pittsburgh, PA
December 4 5:00 p.m.	(5) No. 5	(4) No. 20 Notre Dame Quarterfinals	T 1–1 (2–4 PKs)	13–5–2	Alumni Stadium (1,303) Notre Dame, IN
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from United Soccer Coaches. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Eastern.

Awards and honors

Recipient	Award	Date	Ref.
Valentin Noël	Preseason All-ACC Watchlist	August 18, 2021	[8]
Jasper Löeffelsend	Preseason Hermann Trophy Watchlist	August 26, 2021	[9]
Valentin Noel
Veljko Petkovic	ACC Offensive Player of the Week	August 31, 2021	[10]
Matt Bailey	ACC Co-Offensive Player of the Week	September 28, 2021	[11]
Guilherme Feitosa	Co-Offensive Player of the Week	October 13, 2021	[12]
Jay Vidovich	ACC Coach of the Year	November 10	[13]
Jasper Löeffelsend	ACC Defensive Player of the Year
	All-ACC First Team
Rodrigo Almeida	All-ACC Second Team
Bertin Jacquesson
Valentin Noel
Arturo Ordoñez
Veljko Petkovic
Jackson Walti
Nico Campuzano	All-ACC Third Team
Guiherme Feitosa	ACC All-Freshman Team
Valentin Noel	ACC All-Tournament Team	November 15	[14]
Arturo Ordoñez

Rankings

Main article: 2021 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	15	Final
United Soccer[15]	3 (1)	3 (3)	15	5	15	16	13	7	10	12	6	5 (2)	Not released				6
TopDrawer Soccer [16]	3	2	6	11	22	21	22	8	12	16	14	12	15	12	7	8	8

2022 MLS Super Draft

Main article: 2022 MLS SuperDraft

Player	Team	Round	Pick #	Position
Arturo Ordoñez	Houston Dynamo	2	39	DF
Jasper Löeffelsend	Real Salt Lake	3	81	DF

Source:^[17]