UK Men’s Soccer Season Begins 2018 Friday at The Bell
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky men’s soccer team will begin its 2018 campaign against DePaul on
Friday with kickoff slated for 7:30 p.m. ET at The Bell.
ESPN3/WatchESPN will broadcast the match.
The setup
Kentucky finished 2017 with a record of won 8, lost 6, drew 4.
Kentucky returns an important corps of players from a year ago, including Conference USA Golden Glove Award, Freshman of the Year, First Team All-C-USA and the Conference All-Freshman Team and All-Southeast Region Enrique Facusse.
Five Wildcats who started more than 10 games a year ago are back for the 2018 campaign.
UK also brings back a talented young core including C-USA All-Freshman Team members Leon Jones and Aimé Mabika.
Seventh-year Kentucky head coach Johan Cedergren also added Josh Oldroyd to the staff to serve as an assistant coach, alongside Associate Head Coach Chase Wileman, who enters his fifth year in 2018.
Oldroyd joins the UK staff after spending the past two season at Evansville, where the Purple Aces went a combined 21-16-5 in that span. He replaced David Casper, who was hired as ETSU head coach. UK will face them at The Bell on Sept. 26.
Facusse led the league in conference games goals-against average (0.71), and was second in all games (0.89) last season. He won the Golden Glove award by virtue of leading the league in shutouts recorded in C-USA matches (four – tied with Old Dominion’s Mertcan Akar). Facusse had a league-best seven total shutouts.
UK was picked to finish fourth in Conference USA by the league coaches.
The opponent
DePaul enters 2018 with a new coaching staff. Former Blue Demon Mark Plotkin is at the helm this year.
DePaul’s squad that returns five of its starters from the 2017 season when the Blue Demons finished with a record of W6, L11, D3 (2-6-1 Big East). DePaul was picked to finish 10th in the Big East by league coaches.
The precedent
The two sides have never played a competitive match before.
Kentucky is 16-10-1 all-time in regular-season openers.
The Wildcats have won three openers in a row. Kentucky is 4-2 in season openers under Johan Cedergren.
Kentucky has won its home opener in all four previous seasons at now five-year-old Wendell and Vickie Bell Soccer Complex.
The logistics
Gates will open at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets are $8 for the general public and $5 for youth and seniors. Wildcat supporters five-years-old and under get in for free.
Fans can purchase tickets online via Ticketmaster or by calling (800) 928-2287, or at the ticket window at The Bell.
Kentucky Athletics is excited to continue ticket scanning at The Bell this season. Season ticket holders can use their provided digital bar codes on their mobile device to gain entry. The easiest way to manage mobile tickets is through the UK Athletics App.
Season ticket holders still receive a 2018 Kentucky Soccer scarf as a gift for their season ticket purchase (based on availability). Season tickets are still available for $42 through UKAthletics.com/tickets.
Season ticket holders can pick up their scarves at the marketing gazebo on match day.
Parking for the match is first come first served located outside the stadium’s main entrance and in the Kroger Field blue and green lots with continuous shuttle service running from car parks up to the front gates of The Bell beginning at 6:30 p.m.
The shuttle will continue until one hour after the match.
Students may ride a campus shuttle to and from the match, which begins running one hour prior to kickoff and includes stops at The 90 and the wildcat statue on north campus.
UK players will sign autographs on the side of the pitch following the match weather permitting.
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For the best coverage of UK men’s soccer follow the team’s social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in addition to on UKathletics.com.
