2019 Michigan State Spartans men's soccer team

The 2019 Michigan State Spartans men's soccer team represented Michigan State University during the 2019 NCAA Division I men's soccer season. The program was coached by 11th year head coach, Damon Rensing. It was the 64th season the university fielded a men's varsity soccer team, and their 29th season in the Big Ten Conference.

2019 Michigan State Spartans men's soccer
Conference	Big Ten Conference
2019 record	3–11–3 (3–4–1 Big Ten)
Head coach	Damon Rensing (11th season)
Assistant coaches	Micah Collins (2nd season) Joe Ahearn (1st season) T.J. Kolba (1st season)
Home stadium	DeMartin Stadium

2019 Big Ten Conference men's soccer standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 9 Indiana ‡	7	–	1	–	0			15	–	3	–	4
No. 18 Penn State +	6	–	1	–	1			12	–	4	–	3
No. 17 Michigan +	4	–	1	–	3			11	–	5	–	6
Maryland +	3	–	3	–	2			11	–	8	–	2
Northwestern	3	–	3	–	2			8	–	8	–	2
Michigan State	3	–	4	–	1			3	–	12	–	3
Wisconsin	1	–	4	–	3			3	–	11	–	4
Rutgers	1	–	6	–	1			7	–	8	–	3
Ohio State	1	–	6	–	1			7	–	11	–	1
‡ – 2019 B1G Tournament champion + – Invited to the 2019 NCAA Tournament As of 17 December 2019; Rankings from United Soccer Coaches Source: Big Ten

Background

The 2018 campaign was one of the most successful college soccer seasons in Spartan soccer history. The program reached their first College Cup in 50 years, where they lost in the semifinals to eventual national runners-up, Akron. Michigan State goalkeeper, Jimmy Hague, won the Big Ten Conference Goalkeeper of the Year Award. Hague, Ken Krolicki, and Jimmy Fiscus were named to the All-Big Ten first-team. DeJuan Jones and Ryan Sierakowski were named to the All-Big Ten second-team. Sierakowski lead the Spartans in goals in 2018 scoring eight goals in 23 appearances. Giuseppe Barone lead the team in assists in 2018, dishing out 10 assists in 23 matches. Jones, Sierakowski, and Hague were all selected in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft.

Following the conclusion of the 2018 NCAA Division I men's soccer season, two of the three assistant coaches to Damon Rensing left the program. Micah Collins, who entered his first year as an assistant coach in 2018 remains on the coaching staff. Long-time assistant coach, Ben Pirmann, left the program to be an assistant coach with the USL Championship (U.S. second division) club, Memphis 901 FC. Michigan State University hired Northwestern associate head coach, Joe Ahearn, as an assistant coach to replace Pirmann. Additionally, assistant coach, Cale Wassermann left the program to take the head coaching job for the SIU Edwardsville Cougars men's soccer program. The program hired former Akron assistant coach, T.J. Kolba to replace Wassermann.

Squad

Roster

As of August 26, 2019[1]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  USA Hunter Morse 2 MF  USA Jack Beck 3 DF  DEN Patrick Nielsen 4 DF  USA Nick Woodruff 5 MF  USA Michael Pimlott 6 DF  USA Dante Morrissette 7 FW  YEM Alaa Algahim 8 MF  USA Alex Shterenberg 9 FW  KEN Farai Mutatu 10 MF  USA Giuseppe Barone 11 FW  CAN Gianni Ferri 12 DF  USA Nick Stone 13 FW  USA Conner Gorge

No. Pos. Nation Player 14 DF  NGA Olu Ogunwale 15 MF  USA Colton Stanley 16 FW  USA Kellan Landefeld 17 DF  KEN Michael Wetungu 18 MF  USA Michael Miller 20 MF  USA Cody Sweatte 21 FW   SUI Julian Ajroja 22 DF  USA Will Perkins 24 DF  USA Nate Jefferson 28 DF  USA Karo Azali 29 GK  USA Andrew Nicholson 30 GK  USA Isiah Handspike 32 GK  USA Davis Hooten

Team management

Front office
Athletic Director	Bill Beekman
Deputy Athletic Director	Alan Haller
Athletic Director	Jennifer Smith
Coaching staff
Head coach	Damon Rensing
Assistant coach	Joe Ahearn
Assistant coach	Micah Collins
Assistant coach	T.J. Kolba

Last updated: August 27, 2019
Source: MSUSpartans.com

Preseason

Preseason Big Ten poll

Michigan State was predicted to finish fourth in the Big Ten Conference.[2]

Coaches' Poll
Predicted finish	Team
1	Indiana
2	Maryland
3	Michigan
4	Michigan State
5	Wisconsin
6	Penn State
7	Northwestern
8	Ohio State
9	Rutgers

Schedule

Date Time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site City, State
Preseason
August 18* 7:00 pm	No. 7	at UIC	T 0–0 ^2OT		Flames Field Chicago, IL
August 20* 5:00 pm	No. 7	Butler	T 0–0 ^2OT		DeMartin Stadium East Lansing, MI
August 23* 7:00 pm	No. 7	at Xavier	T 0–0 ^2OT		XU Soccer Complex Cincinnati, OH
Non-conference regular season
August 30* 1:00 pm, BTN+	No. 7	SIUE	T 0–0 ^2OT	0–0–1	DeMartin Stadium (830) East Lansing, MI
September 2* 2:00 pm, BTN+	No. 7	No. 18 Florida Gulf Coast	T 1–1 ^2OT	0–0–2	DeMartin Stadium (790) East Lansing, MI
September 6* 7:00 pm, BTN	No. 16	No. 13 Washington	L 0–1	0–1–2	DeMartin Stadium (1,074) East Lansing, MI
September 8* 3:00 pm, BTN+	No. 16	Cornell	L 1–2 ^OT	0–2–2	DeMartin Stadium (1,627) East Lansing, MI
September 14* 7:00 pm		at Dartmouth	L 1–2	0–3–2	Burnham Field (847) Hanover, NH
September 20* 7:00 pm, BTN+		Western Michigan	L 0–1	0–4–2	DeMartin Stadium (1,502) East Lansing, MI
September 24* 7:00 pm, FS1		Notre Dame	L 0–1	0–5–2	DeMartin Stadium (616) East Lansing, MI
Big Ten Regular Season
September 27 7:00 pm		at No. 22 Rutgers	W 3–0	1–5–2 (1–0–0)	Yurcak Field (761) Piscataway, NJ
October 1 6:00 pm, BTN+		No. 22 Penn State	L 0–3	1–6–2 (1–1–0)	DeMartin Stadium (523) East Lansing, MI
October 6 1:30 pm, BTN		at Wisconsin	W 2–1 ^OT	2–6–2 (2–1–0)	Dan McClimon Stadium (504) Madison, WI
October 11 7:00 pm, BTN		No. 25 Maryland	T 1–1 ^2OT	2–6–3 (2–1–1)	DeMartin Stadium (1,041) East Lansing, MI
October 15* 7:00 pm, BTN		at Akron	L 0–2	2–7–3	FirstEnergy Stadium (1,763) Akron, OH
October 19 7:30 pm, BTN+		Ohio State			DeMartin Stadium East Lansing, MI
October 22* 7:00 pm, ESPN+		at Oakland			Oakland Soccer Field Rochester, MI
October 25 8:30 pm		at Northwestern			Martin Stadium Evanston, IL
October 29 8:00 pm, BTN		at Michigan Big Bear Trophy			DeMartin Stadium East Lansing, MI
November 3 3:00 pm, BTN+		at Indiana			U-M Soccer Stadium Ann Arbor, MI
Big Ten Tournament
November 10 TBD, BTN+		vs. TBD Quarterfinals			Ludwig Field College Park, MD
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from United Soccer Coaches. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses.

Rankings

Ranking movement
Legend: ██ Improvement in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking. ██ Not ranked the previous week. RV=Others receiving votes.

Poll	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
United Soccer[3]	7	16	NV	NV										None Released
TopDrawer Soccer [4]	8	8	6	NV	NV

2020 MLS SuperDraft

Player	Round	Pick	Position	MLS club	Ref.
Patrick Nielsen	1	23	DF	Atlanta United
Michael Wetungu	2	46	DF	Real Salt Lake

References

1. "2019 Men's Soccer Roster". Michigan State University Athletics. Retrieved August 27, 2019.
2. "Indiana Claims First Place in Men's Soccer Preseason Poll". bigten.org. Retrieved 2019-09-01.
3. "NCAA DI Men's National Rankings". National Soccer Coaches Association of America. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
4. "College Soccer National Rankings". TopDrawer Soccer. Retrieved May 15, 2018.

External links

• MSU Men's Soccer