UK Dominant Again in Biggest Win Yet
Kentucky has worn almost every conceivable label as a team.
The Wildcats began the season unranked and off the radar. Now, in the NCAA Tournament, no one would dare call UK an underdog.
As UK has slowly established itself as a force to be reckoned with in the minds of others, the Cats have remained the same team. That’s because they’ve known who they are since well before the season started.
“Once we felt like we had a good plan, we just stuck to it,” head coach Johan Cedergren said. “It’s not just something that over the last couple weeks we’ve gotten hot. It’s something that we started working on in January.”
Kentucky – seeded No. 3 overall in the NCAA Tournament – was the favorite in hosting Portland on Sunday afternoon and played like it. Downing the Pilots 4-0, UK advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since the 2000 season with a dominant performance at the Wendell & Vickie Bell Soccer Complex.
“It’s really nice to be sitting here, finally having an NCAA win,” Cedergren said, “but at no point did I think that we were not going to be able to get over the hump.”
Bulldozed over the hump is more like it.
Even though Kentucky was 0-4-1 all time when hosting in the NCAA Tournament and had yet to win a tournament game in Cedergren’s seven seasons entering Sunday’s match, the Cats were unfazed.
“Despite those frustrations we had year after year, we kept going back to the drawing board,” Cedergren said. “We tweaked things, we kept pushing and these guys…were out in February doing team competitions with sleds and they’re running in the arboretum and they’re doing pull-ups.”
In addition to all the team’s hard work, UK also made a switch to a 4-4-2 formation, adding a second attacker to help create more room for star junior JJ Williams. The move once again bore fruit on Sunday. Williams and his new attacking mate, Kalil ElMedkhar, did plenty of damage together, accounting for two goals apiece. They now have 29 goals and 18 assists between them on the season.
“I think that me and Kalil work well together and we are a dynamic duo, I’m not going to lie, because he’s one of the best attacking players in the conference, let alone the country,” Williams said. “I’m thankful to be playing with him because he makes it pretty easy for me at times, putting me in great positions to score.”
Combine that duo with a defense that has now kept 14 clean sheets on the season and you have a team deserving of that favorite label.
“From the back line and scoring four goals, I think that we’re a pretty dynamic team,” Williams said. “We’re a complete team and definitely whenever you give us opportunities, especially at this point in the season, we’re really focusing on we have to be able to punish, we have to be able to finish games and I thought that’s what we did tonight.”
UK will now await a home matchup next weekend against either No. 14 UCF or Lipscomb next weekend. First, the Cats will realize an ambition of Cedergren’s.
“One of the goals that we have is to celebrate Thanksgiving with the team,” Cedergren said. “Because, again, I love all these guys. They fight for each other. They do what you ask of them. They just want to do whatever the team needs them to do. … It’s really, really great to be able to combine having my family, who of course will be there, with the soccer family. To be able to be together on Thanksgiving getting prepared for a very, very big weekend, it’s a wonderful feeling.”