MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – People who follow college soccer know what's happening in West Virginia right now with the Marshall and West Virginia University men's programs.
Just last May, the Thundering Herd outlasted top-ranked Clemson on penalty kicks before topping Georgetown, North Carolina and Indiana in succession to claim its first national championship.
It was a stunning performance for coach Chris Grassie's program, considering Marshall's NCAA Tournament history consisted of just one appearance the year prior.
Grassie, a United Kingdom native who played collegiately at Alderson-Broaddus, turned the University of Charleston into a Division II power before handing the reins over to WVU graduate
Dan Stratford. Grassie never won a Division II title at Charleston, losing twice in the finals, but Stratford managed to win a pair of national championships before moving on to replace Marlon LeBlanc at WVU in 2020.
LeBlanc's final match at West Virginia was a 2-1 loss at Marshall in the NCAA Tournament before a record crowd of 2,126. Among the dignitaries in attendance that sunny afternoon were West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and U.S. Senator Joe Manchin.
Last season, Marshall lost only two regular season matches – one to seventh-ranked Akron and the other a 1-0 decision to Stratford's Mountaineers in Morgantown.
West Virginia believed it should have received an at-large bid in last spring's pared-down NCAA Tournament, and its argument was only made stronger by Marshall's three-week run last May.
Four months later, preseason No. 1-ranked Marshall is sitting at No. 6 in the coaches' poll after stumbling at Virginia Tech by giving up a two-goal lead in the second half. Then, a 3-3 draw at Coastal Carolina was preceded by back-to-back victories over East Tennessee State and Bowling Green to give the Herd a 3-1-1 record.
West Virginia, meanwhile, went from unranked to No. 4 in a span of just two weeks with impressive victories over Pitt, Penn State and Ohio State.
A No. 4 vs. No. 6 matchup is not what you'd expect to see from these two schools, but that's where we presently sit when West Virginia (4-0-1) takes on Marshall 7 p.m. tonight at Hoops Family Field.
There won't be enough bleachers to accommodate the soccer-crazed fans who will be making their way to Huntington to watch this one. And there will be thousands more watching the ESPN+ telecast as well, including Travis Clark, director of content for the college soccer website Top Drawer Soccer.
"I'm looking forward to it," he said earlier this week. "It's very impressive what the head coaches at these two schools have managed to do so far, but considering what their track records were at their previous stops, it's not a surprise, really.
"It's an exciting time for soccer fans in West Virginia, and I will be interested to see what these two programs can do later on in the season nationally," he added.
Bob Bradner, editor of Tallahassee, Florida-based College Soccer News, will also be watching tonight.
"For us, this is the marquee game of the week in men's college soccer, without a doubt," Bradner said.
Bradner said he was extremely impressed with Marshall's run last year to win the College Cup.
"Marshall plays a very possession-oriented style," Bradner explained. "They probe to find a weakness and then they try to exploit it. That's one of the reasons why they did so well during the NCAA Tournament last year because they play a style that is conducive to the one-and-done environment."
"The ACC gets a lot of talk, but the conference hasn't won a national championship since 2014 when Virginia won it," Clark noted. "The ACC generally sends one or two teams to the College Cup each year, but I think there is a little more parity in men's soccer right now. I think the spring season kind of threw things for a loop, and I'm not saying that's why Marshall won it, but a lot of players left their programs after the fall to begin their pro careers.
"Georgetown, which Marshall beat, three of their players left for the pros two weeks before the tournament started," Clark added.
In addition to having two coaches who are familiar with each other, the two in-state programs also share something else in common – a large number of international players. Of the staggering 53 players listed on Marshall's 2021 roster, 27 of them are from other countries and just six are from West Virginia.
WVU's 29-player roster consists of 15 foreigners and five Mountain State natives. Only four West Virginians are likely to get on the field tonight – Marshall's Collin Mocyunas and West Virginia's
Elijah Borneo,
Ike Swiger and
Max Trethewey.
Mocyunas is a University High graduate in Morgantown; Borneo is from Morgantown High, Swiger hails from Fairmont Senior High and Trethewey is a George Washington High product.
Clark said many college soccer programs recruit internationally today because there are so many talented and experienced players looking to come to the United States to get a college education and continue their playing careers.
And, unlike many of the top U.S. prospects who generally gravitate toward the best ACC and Pac-12 schools, international players are more open-minded about their college choices.
That's how Marshall went from five straight losing seasons to winning 32 of its last 45 matches over the last three years.
West Virginia is doing likewise.
"It's pretty remarkable when you consider the parallel of the two situations," Clark said. "I think West Virginia had a little bit more of a soccer reputation before
Dan Stratford got there, but I'm also not surprised to see where these two programs are trending because of what these two coaches did at the University of Charleston, and it's nice to see them making the most of their opportunities."
Bradner is pretty up-to-speed on both teams, and he offers this analysis of tonight's big match.
"I think both of these coaches like to attack, but I think they also really value good, sound defensive play so the play of both keepers will probably have an impact," he said. "I also think both teams will be relatively conservative in the early going, but normally when you say games are going to be low scoring they end up being high scoring and vice versa.
"But neither one of these teams want to chase from behind, I guarantee you that," he added.
Other than state bragging rights, Bradner doesn't see the winner getting much of a recruiting bump because the two programs pursue players from so many different parts of the world. He does believe the winner is going to get some momentum heading into conference play, however.
"There is the in-state bragging rights that inherently goes into a game like this, but from our perspective it's about one of these two teams securing a signature win that could help them down the road resume-wise in terms of the NCAA Tournament and potential seeding in tournament," he said.
Based on where Marshall is right now, and where West Virginia is heading, the possibility exists that these two programs could be meeting again later this season.
From that perspective, it's really remarkable how far these two schools have come in just a short period of time.
"For a sport like soccer, it's a lot about community feel around the country, so I think it's really cool to see this happening in West Virginia," Clark said.
Bradner added, "We created our site 20 years ago with the goal of enhancing the reach of soccer from coast to coast, so for us to see a game like this where there is so much enthusiasm and support it's great. I don't care who wins, this is great for college soccer."
