The Kansas City Roos men’s soccer team continues a historic run as it advances to the NCAA Round of 16 for the first time in program history.
On Sunday night, the team played the 15 seeded Missouri State Bears. Unlike in the NCAA basketball tournaments, only the top 16 teams are ranked.
This game was very similar to the Roos’ final regular season game against Oral Roberts and the Summit League Championship game against Denver. Kansas City let up a goal in the first half, only to win 2-1.
The first 30 minutes of the match were back-and-forth, with neither team able to break the opposing defense. Missouri State ended up with 60% of the first half possession time. Almost 30% of that was in the Roos defensive third.
Just past 31 minutes in the first half, the Bears found the back of the net. Some Roos players, including senior goalkeeper Brandon McGaugh, argued that the Bears player was offsides on the goal. However, the play was never reviewed.
Sophomore defender Ales Kohoutek mentioned that there was no sense of worry during halftime.
“Coach talked about it,” said Kouhoutek. “He believed in us, he was very calm. We have a lot of quality on this team, we believe we can beat anyone in the country. We were confident we could come back.”
As the clock neared 50 minutes, the Bears had a foul called against them, restarting the Roos play from the spot of the foul. Junior forward Sora Shibata ended up with the ball right in front of the Bears’ net. As he kicked the ball, it rebounded off of a Missouri State defender and into the net.
The goal was counted for Shibata, his second on the season. Assists on the goal came from sophomore defender Brevyn Cole and junior forward Elie Kisoka.
“To be honest, there was nothing in my mind,” said Shibata. “I just needed to hit the ball on target. We’ve been working on that play with Brevyn.”
About 20 minutes after the first goal was scored, a save was made by the Bears goalkeeper. However, the ball went out of play off of the goalkeeper, resulting in a corner kick for the Roos.
Senior midfielder Julien Le Bourdoulous lined up to kick the ball in. Just as he did with the last-second goal in the Summit League Championship, Le Bourdoulous placed the ball perfectly. This time, Kohoutek was the one to put the ball in the net.
“Julien has a quality that not many teams have,” said Head Coach Ryan Pore. “His service, his ability to play the ball. I don’t think he had his best game tonight, but again, he rises to the occasion. He is a top level player.”
This goal was Kohoutek’s first goal of the season, marking 19 different Roos to score this season. It would also be the game-winning goal. Le Bourdoulous also tied a program record with 10 assists on the season.
Kansas City has now reached the Round of 16. The Roos have now defeated three ranked opponents this season. The team beat Denver twice and Missouri State.
On Tuesday morning, Top Drawer Soccer released its Week 15 Top 25 list. Kansas City was ranked 11 on the list.
Next up, Kansas City faces possibly its toughest challenge yet. The next opponent is second-seeded Pittsburgh. Standing at 13-5, the Panthers are ranked 8 in the Top Drawer Soccer poll. Pitt was the runner-up in the Atlantic Coast Conference, one of the top soccer conferences in the nation.
“We know we have a tough test ahead of us,” said Pore. “We’re happy to get a week of rest. We’ll utilize it and prepare for Pittsburgh.”
The game against Pitt will be streamed on ESPN+ at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 1.
