Sunday, November 23, 2014

Men's Championship Recap

Do you want to know about toughness?  That defined Ohio State.  They had tough games against UTEP and Virginia in their pool play games.  They had equally tough games in bracket play with wins over Florida and Virginia Tech.  The Texas A&M was tough for a half, especially after conceding an equalizer at the last kick of the 1st half. They seemed to be fighting everyone then (figuratively, including me).  But that toughness came through in the 2nd half as they cruised to a victory in that semifinal.  The final against San Diego State was epic and back-and-forth throughout.  They battled from 3 yellow cards in the first half, remained tough and forced the game to extra time.  In that extra time, a beautiful cross was put home to end it in the 92nd minute and gave them the national championship

They were led by Sam Nance as he won Most Outstanding Goalkeeper in the Men's Championship Division and by Tournament Most Valuable Player Alex Bujenovic who scored the dramatic championship winner in the 92nd minute to win the championship.  He overcame an early yellow in the first half, played with mental and physical toughness to stay in the game and be around in the 92nd minute to cash in the cross that sealed the title.

They are joined on the All-Tournament Team by:

Gregory Highley, Ohio State
Tim Grozier, Ohio State
TJ Schuster, Ohio State
Kody Duff, San Diego State
Ruben Vazquez, San Diego State
Kainoa Ownes, San Diego State
Greg Norris, San Diego State
Andrew Phinney, Michigan State
Jordan Brandel, Michigan State
Connor Hirt, Texas A&M

Congratulations to all of the players and to THE Ohio State University on winning the Men's National Championship!

1 comment:

  1. That was an aggressive game. There should have been more cards for many of the "tough" and reckless challenges in it.

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