College Soccer Week 1 Preview

The Division 1 men’s college soccer season kicks off tonight with 93 games nationwide and another 55 games on Saturday and Sunday.

Locally, the Temple Owls will be playing their first game in their new stadium near campus on Broad and Master streets. They host Manhattan at a 4 p.m. game tonight and then have a quick turnaround before hosting a derby match against Saint Joseph’s at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Nationally, there are a number of matches to check in week one, but the biggest will be a Friday night showcase match between Sebastian Elney’s 4th-ranked Maryland Terrapins and the star-studded (Jackson Yueill, Abu Danladi, Jose Hernandez and more) No. 16 UCLA at the StubHub Center at 10 p.m. eastern. Elney scored a late winner in the fixture in his first college game last year at College Park and he’ll want to start his sophomore season out on a similar high.

To get ready for the big game on the West Coast, you can check out preseason No. 2 Akron taking on Josh Yaro and Keegan Rosenberry’s alma mater Georgetown on a live stream at 7:30 p.m. Friday night. The Hoyas are missing a couple of huge pieces of their back line but still come into the season ranked 10th in the nation.

Other national games with local implications include a pair of weekend games for eighth-ranked North Carolina, which even without Auston Trusty still has four players with ties to the Philadelphia Union Academy in Colton Storm, Will Campbell, Jack Skahan and Sean Wilson, a possible collegiate debut for Union Academy grad Joe DeZart and No. 5 Wake Forest against Saint Louis on Friday and a tough task for senior Connor Maloney and Penn State visiting defending national champions Stanford on Friday night.

The Cardinal lost their superstar Jordan Morris to the Seattle Sounders, but they still look to be the team to beat going into the season with a large part of their national championship team – Lancaster County natives Drew Skundrich and Brian Nana-Sinkham included – still intact.

Local Games

Friday, August 26
Temple vs Manhattan, 4 p.m. (Live Stream)
Villanova vs Rider, 4 p.m. (Live Stream)
Delaware at Bucknell, 7 p.m. (Live Stream)
Lehigh at James Madison, 7:30 p.m.
La Salle at Loyola, 7 p.m. (Live Stream)
Drexel at St. John’s, 8 p.m. (Live Stats)

Sunday, August 28
Lehigh vs Radford in Harrisonburg, Va., noon
Temple vs St. Joseph’s, 2 p.m. (Live Stream)
Delaware vs Fordham, noon (Live Stats)

Tuesday, August 30
La Salle vs Drexel, 7 p.m. (Live Stream)

National Games

Friday, August 26
Saint Louis vs No. 5 Wake Forest, 7 p.m. (WatchESPN)
No. 17 Virginia vs No. 21 Coastal Carolina, 7 p.m. (Live Stats)
No. 24 South Carolina vs No. 3 Clemson, 7 p.m.
No. 8 North Carolina vs Cal Poly, 7:30 p.m. (WatchESPN)
No. 2 Akron vs No. 10 Georgetown, 7:30 p.m. (Live Stream)
UC Irvine vs No. 9 Notre Dame, 7:30 p.m. (WatchESPN)
No. 7 Creighton vs No. 25 Rutgers, 8 p.m. (BTN Plus)
No. 1 Stanford vs Penn State, 8 p.m. (Pac-12 Network)
No. 16 UCLA vs No. 4 Maryland at StubHub Center, 10 p.m. (UCLA Live Stream)

Sunday, August 28
No. 8 North Carolina vs Saint Louis, 7:30 p.m. (WatchESPN)
No. 13 UC Santa Barbara vs No. 18 Ohio State, 7 p.m. (BTN Plus)

Monday, August 29
Hartford vs No. 4 Maryland, 7 p.m. (BTN Plus)
Thursday, September 1
No. 6 Syracuse vs Colgate, 7 p.m.