Virginia beat Akron to win the 2009 NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship in a game that was superficially, yet eerily similar to the 1994 World Cup final in Pasadena.
Blair Gavin, Roberto Baggio Knows Your Pain
↵Both games featured a scoreless 120 minutes of regulation and overtime. (Though the NCAA game clock annoying counts down, not up.) That meant both were decided by kicks from the penalty mark... a shootout for those of you who aren’t fluent in the language of the beautiful game.
↵In 1994, Brazil was up 3-2 when Italy had to take their fifth kick. Roberto Baggio, star of that Italian team, lined up to take the kick. What resulted was one of the most famous moments in soccer history.
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↵This time around, Blair Gavin, one of the Zips’ biggest stars during their NCAA run, had the chance to force additional kicks in the bottom of the fifth frame. Unfortunately, his kick looked very much like Mr. Baggio’s.
↵When it comes to the shootout, you win some and you lose some. Akron succeeded when they got drawn into one after Friday’s semifinal against North Carolina, but Lady Luck wasn’t as kind in this one. A single miss gave the Cavaliers a sixth title, while Akron is still left searching for their first.
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