# 2019 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season

The 2019 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season was the 7th season of men's varsity soccer in the conference. The season began on August 30, 2019, and concluded on November 5, 2019. The regular season culminated with the 2019 American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament, which was held from November 9 to November 16.
The defending regular season and tournament champions, UCF and SMU, respectively, successfully defended their title. Both UCF, SMU, as well as South Florida were selected by the NCAA Selection Committee to the 2019 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament. SMU reached the quarterfinals before losing to eventual national runners-up, Virginia. UCF lost to SMU in the Sweet Sixteen, and South Florida lost to Louisville in the first round.

## Background
### Previous season

The 2018 regular season was won by UCF, who finished conference play with a 5–1–1 record, and won on tiebreakers against SMU. SMU won the 2018 American Tournament, defeating UCF 5–4 in penalty kicks following a 1–1 draw in regulation and overtime. SMU earned the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, while UCF and Connecticut received at-large berths into the tournament. In the NCAA Tournament, SMU lost in the first round to Oregon State. Connecticut beat rivals, Rhode Island, in the first round, before losing to Indiana in the second round. UCF was one of the 16 seeded teams (seeded 14th), allowing them to earn a bye into the second round. There, they lost in overtime to Lipscomb.
Following the season, Cal Jennings won the Offensive MVP award for the conference. Jacob Hauser-Ramsey of Connecticut won the Defensive MVP. Fellow UCF players, Louis Perez, Yannik Oettl, and Scott Calabrese won the AAC Midfielder, Goalkeeper, and Coach of the Year awards, respectively. Perez and Jennings were also named All-Americans by United Soccer Coaches.
Emil Cuello was the first AAC player to be drafted in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft, when he was selected by the LA Galaxy with the 19th overall pick in the first round of the draft.

### Head coaches

| Team | Head coach | Previous job | Years at school | Overall record | Record at school | American record | NCAA Tournaments | NCAA College Cups | NCAA Titles |
| Cincinnati | Hylton Dayes | Wright State | 20 | 232–243–63 (.490) | 134–158–43 (.464) | 8–33–4 (.222) | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| UConn | Ray Reid | Southern Connecticut | 23 | 446–130–75 (.743) | 300–113–60 (.698) | 29–13–11 (.651) | 17 | 2 | 1 |
| Memphis | Richard Mulrooney | Memphis (asst.) | 6 | 32–39–15 (.459) | 32–39–15 (.459) | 13–24–8 (.378) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| SMU | Kevin Hudson | SMU (asst.) | 5 | 48–19–9 (.691) | 48–19–9 (.691) | 19–6–4 (.724) | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| South Florida | Bob Butehorn | Florida Gulf Coast | 3 | 142–108–33 (.560) | 13–14–6 (.485) | 7–4–4 (.600) | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Temple | Brian Rowland | Maryland (asst.) | 2 | 5–10–4 (.368) | 5–10–4 (.368) | 2–4–1 (.357) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tulsa | Tom McIntosh | Tulsa (asst.) | 23 | 250–173–50 (.581) | 250–173–50 (.581) | 17–16–4 (.514) | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| UCF | Scott Calabrese | FIU | 3 | 106–76–25 (.572) | 21–9–5 (.671) | 9–3–2 (.714) | 4 | 0 | 0 |

## Preseason
### Preseason poll

The preseason poll was released on August 20, 2019. UCF was picked to win the regular season.
| | Team Ranking | First Place Votes | Raw Points |
| 1. | UCF | 7 | 49 |
| 2. | SMU | 1 | 42 |
| 3. | UConn | 0 | 36 |
| 4. | South Florida | 0 | 31 |
| 5. | Temple | 0 | 24 |
| 6. | Memphis | 0 | 18 |
| 7. | Tulsa | 0 | 16 |
| 8. | Cincinnati | 0 | 8 |

### Preseason national rankings

The preseason national rankings were announced in August 2019. United Soccer Coaches, Soccer America, and TopDrawerSoccer.com do a Top-25 preseason poll. CollegeSoccerNews.com do a Top-30 preseason poll.
| | United Soccer | CSN | Soccer America | TopDrawer Soccer |
| Cincinnati | — | — | — | — |
| Memphis | — | — | — | — |
| SMU | RV | 22 | RV | — |
| South Florida | — | — | — | — |
| Temple | — | — | — | — |
| Tulsa | — | — | — | — |
| UCF | 15 | 18 | 13 | 17 |
| UConn | RV | 26 | — | — |

### Preseason All-Conference teams

| Honor | Recipient |
| Preseason Offensive Player of the Year | Cal Jennings, UCF |
| Preseason Defensive Player of the Year | Robin Lapert, UConn |
| Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year | Yannik Oettl, UCF |

#### Preseason All-AAC Team

2019 AAC Men's Soccer PreSeason All-AAC Teams :
* First Team
* Cal Jennings – UCF
* Yannik Oettl – UCF
* Louis Perez – UCF
* Yoni Sorokin – UCF
* Dayonn Harris – UConn
* Robin Lapert – UConn
* Felix Metzler – UConn
* Ben Roberts – Memphis
* Adrian Billhardt – South Florida
* Avionne Flanagan – South Florida
* Talen Maples – SMU
* Lukas Fernandes – Temple
* Chase Bromstedt – Tulsa

## Regular season
### Players of the Week

| Week | Offensive | Offensive | Offensive | Defensive | Defensive | Defensive | Goalkeeper | Goalkeeper | Rookie | Rookie | Rookie |
| Week | Player | Position | Team | Player | Position | Team | Player | Team | Player | Position | Team |
| Sep. 2 | Gianluca Arcangeli | FW | UCF | Ben Roberts | DF | Memphis | Bryson Reed | Tulsa | Jovan Prado | MF | Memphis |
| Sep. 9 | Cal Jennings | FW | UCF | Talen Maples | DF | SMU | Yannik Oettl | UCF | Kyle Healy | MF | Cincinnati |
| Sep. 16 | Sam Ashton | FW | Memphis | Javain Brown | DF | South Florida | Harrison Devenish-Meares | South Florida | Victor Claudel | FW | South Florida |
| Sep. 23 | Garrett McLaughlin | FW | SMU | Andres Hernandez | DF | UCF | Shane Lanson | SMU | Gino Vivi | MF | UCF |
| Sep. 30 | Gabriel Costa | MF | SMU | Javain Brown | DF | South Florida | Harrison Devenish-Meares | South Florida | Jonas Schmalbach | MF | UCF |
| Oct. 7 | Gabriel Costa | MF | SMU | Ben Roberts | DF | Memphis | Noah Lawrence | Cincinnati | Michael Blanke | FW | Memphis |
| Oct. 14 | Harris Partain | MF | Tulsa | Robin Lapert | DF | UConn | Gianluca Catalano | UConn | Gino Vivi | MF | UCF |
| Oct. 21 | Artur De Luca | FW | Memphis | Jackson Morse | DF | Memphis | Simon Lefebvre | Temple | Peter Chang | MF | Memphis |
| Oct. 28 | Garrett McLaughlin | FW | SMU | Pierre Cayet | DF | Temple | Yannik Oettl | UCF | Mickael Borger | DF | Temple |
| Nov. 6 | Adrian Billhardt | FW | South Florida | Javain Brown | DF | South Florida | Grant Makela | SMU | Gianluca Arcangeli | MF | UCF |

## Rankings
### United Soccer

| | Improvement in ranking |
| | Drop in ranking |
| RV | Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 |
| NV | No votes received |
| | Pre | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 6 | Wk 7 | Wk 8 | Wk 9 | Wk 10 | Wk 11 | Wk 12 | Final |
| Cincinnati | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV |
| Memphis | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | NV | NV |
| SMU | RV | RV | 22 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 5 | 7 |
| South Florida | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV |
| Temple | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV |
| Tulsa | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV |
| UCF | 15 | 15 | 16 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 9 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
| UConn | RV | 23 | RV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV |

### Top Drawer Soccer

| | Improvement in ranking |
| | Drop in ranking |
| RV | Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 |
| NV | No votes received |
| | Pre | Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 6 | Wk 7 | Wk 8 | Wk 9 | Wk 10 | Wk 11 | Wk 12 | Wk 13 | Wk 14 | Wk 15 | Wk 16 | Final |
| Cincinnati | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV |
| Memphis | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | RV | RV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV |
| SMU | RV | RV | RV | 16 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 |
| South Florida | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV |
| Temple | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV |
| Tulsa | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV |
| UCF | 17 | 17 | 11 | 19 | 17 | 14 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| UConn | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV | NV |

## Postseason
### AAC Tournament

The 2019 Tournament will be held at the home ground of the regular season winner.
| First round November 9 | First round November 9 | First round November 9 | Semifinals November 13 | Semifinals November 13 | Semifinals November 13 | Final November 16 | Final November 16 | Final November 16 |
| | | | 1 | UCF | 5 | | | |
| 4 | Memphis | 1 | 5 | Temple | 0 | | | |
| 5 | Temple | 2 | | | | 1 | UCF | 0 |
| | | | | | | 2 | SMU | 1 |
| | | | 2 | SMU (2OT) | 2 | | | |
| 3 | South Florida | 1 | 3 | South Florida | 1 | | | |
| 6 | UConn | 0 | | | | | | |

### NCAA Tournament

| Seed | School | 1st Round | 2nd Round | 3rd Round | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Championship |
| 8 | SMU | BYE | W 1–0 (2OT) vs. Coastal Carolina – (Dallas, TX) | W 2–1 (OT) vs. #9 UCF – (Dallas, TX) | L 2–3 (OT) vs. #1 Virginia – (Charlottesville, VA) | | |
| 9 | UCF | BYE | W 2–1 (2OT) vs. Missouri State – (Orlando, FL) | L 1–2 (OT) vs. #8 SMU – (Dallas, TX) | | | |
| None | South Florida | L 1–4 vs. Louisville– (Louisville, KY) | | | | | |
| | W–L–T (%): | 0–1–0 (.000) | 2–0–0 (1.000) | 1–1–0 (.500) | 0–1–0 (.000) | 0–0–0 (–) | 0–0–0 (–) Total: 3–3–0 (.500) |

### Postseason awards and honors
#### Conference honors

2019 AAC Men's Soccer Individual Awards :
| Award | Recipient(s) |
| Offensive Player of the Year | Cal Jennings – UCF |
| Midfielders of the Year | Yoni Sorokin – UCF Gabriel Costa – SMU |
| Defensive Player of the Year | Eddie Munjoma – SMU |
| Goalkeeper of the Year | Yannik Oettl – UCF |
| Rookie of the Year | Gino Vivi – UCF |
| Coach of the Year | Scott Calabrese – UCF |
2019 AAC Men's Soccer All-Conference Teams :
| First Team | Second Team | Rookie Team |
| Yannik Oettl, UCF Cal Jennings, UCF† Garrett McLaughlin, SMU† Harris Partain, Tulsa Yoni Sorokin, UCF† Dayonn Harris, UConn Gabriel Costa, SMU Yanis Leerman, UCF Javain Brown, South Florida Avionne Flanagan, South Florida Eddie Munjoma, South Florida Sam Ashton, Memphis | Simon Lefebvre, Temple Louis Perez, UCF Donovan Segree, Cincinnati Robin Lapert, UConn Felix Metzler, UConn Ben Roberts, Memphis Gurman Sangha, Memphis Adrian Billhardt, South Florida Knut Ahlander, SMU Lukas Fernandes, Temple Pierre Cayet, Temple Mitchell Cashion, Tulsa | Glademir Mendoza, UCF Gino Vivi, UCF† Mo Williams, Cincinnati Ben Awashie, UConn Moussa Wade, UConn† Peter Chang, Memphis† Ford Hunt, Memphis Javain Brown, South Florida† Sal Mazzaferro, South Florida Henrik Bredeli, SMU Sean Karani, Temple |
† denotes unanimous selection

#### National honors

| Player | Pos. | School | Honor |
| Gabriel Costa | MF | SMU | TopDrawer Soccer Second-Team All-American |
| Gabriel Costa | MF | SMU | Soccer America Third-Team All-American |
| Gabriel Costa | MF | SMU | United Soccer Coaches Third-Team All-American |
| Dayonn Harris | FW | UConn | Senior CLASS Award Senior All-American |
| Cal Jennings | FW | UCF | College Soccer News First-Team All-American |
| Cal Jennings | FW | UCF | CoSIDA Second-Team All-American |
| Cal Jennings | FW | UCF | Senior CLASS Award Senior All-American |
| Cal Jennings | FW | UCF | Soccer America First-Team All-American |
| Cal Jennings | FW | UCF | TopDrawer Soccer First-Team All-American |
| Cal Jennings | FW | UCF | United Soccer Coaches First-Team All-American |
| Yannis Leerman | MF | UCF | TopDrawer Soccer Second-Team All-American |
| Garrett McLaughlin | FW | SMU | Senior CLASS Award Senior All-American |
| Eddie Munjoma | DF | SMU | United Soccer Coaches First-Team All-American |
| Yoni Sorokin | MF | UCF | TopDrawer Soccer Second-Team All-American |
| Gino Vivi | FW | UCF | College Soccer News First-Team Freshman All-American |
| Gino Vivi | FW | UCF | TopDrawer Soccer Third-Team Freshman All-American |
| Ben Wendell | MF | Cincinnati | CoSIDA Third-Team All-American |

## American vs other conferences

| Conference | Record |
| America East | 1–0–0 |
| ACC | 4–3–0 |
| Atlantic 10 | 4–1–0 |
| Atlantic Sun | 9–0–0 |
| Big East | 2–7–0 |
| Big South | 1–0–0 |
| Big Ten | 0–3–1 |
| Big West | 1–0–0 |
| Colonial | 1–0–0 |
| Conference USA | 4–1–1 |
| Horizon | 2–3–0 |
| Ivy | 0–3–1 |
| MAAC | 2–0–0 |
| Mid-American | 1–2–0 |
| Missouri Valley | 2–1–0 |
| NEC | 0–1–0 |
| Pac-12 | 0–0–0 |
| Patriot | 1–0–0 |
| SoCon | 1–2–0 |
| Summit | 3–0–1 |
| Sun Belt | 2–1–0 |
| West Coast | 1–0–0 |
| WAC | 3–0–0 |
| Total Non-Conference Record | 45–28–4 |
| Power Conferences | Record |
| ACC | 0–2–0 |
| American | 1–1–0 |
| Power Conferences Total | 1–3–0 |
| Other DI Conferences | Record |
| Missouri Valley | 1–0–0 |
| Sun Belt | 1–0–0 |
| Other DI Total | 2–0–0 |
| Total Postseason Record | 3–3–0 |

## MLS SuperDraft
### Total picks by school

| Team | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Total |
| Cincinnati | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Connecticut | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Memphis | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| SMU | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| South Florida | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Temple | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Tulsa | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| UCF | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |

### List of selections

| Round | Pick # | MLS team | Player | Position | College |
| 1 | 8 | Houston Dynamo | Garrett McLaughlin | FW | SMU |
| 1 | 17 | FC Dallas | Cal Jennings | FW | UCF |
| 1 | 20 | Real Salt Lake | Dayonn Harris | MF | UConn |
| 1 | 21 | D.C. United | Simon Lefebvre | GK | Temple |
| 2 | 39 | Orlando City | Jonathan Dean | DF | UCF |

### Homegrown contracts

The Homegrown Player Rule is a Major League Soccer program that allows MLS teams to sign local players from their own development academies directly to MLS first team rosters. Before the creation of the rule in 2008, every player entering Major League Soccer had to be assigned through one of the existing MLS player allocation processes, such as the MLS SuperDraft.
To place a player on its homegrown player list, making him eligible to sign as a homegrown player, players must have resided in that club's home territory and participated in the club's youth development system for at least one year. Players can play college soccer and still be eligible to sign a homegrown contract.
| Original MLS team | Player | Position | College | Ref. |
| FC Dallas | Eddie Munjoma | DF | SMU | |