For men’s college soccer programs that want a blueprint for how to build their foundations all the way up to reaching the pinnacle of the sport, look at Marshall Men’s Soccer's story.

Once a mediocre team with little major success to speak of, the Thundering Herd reached unprecedented heights over the past half-decade once they got the right man in for the job. 

Programs like Xavier can take lessons from them — and deal blows right back to them.

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The Musketeers broke nearly a decade-long NCAA Tournament drought last season, and while it’s a long way to top of the men’s college soccer food chain, getting to the first round of college soccer’s version of the “big dance” at least gives you a chance to duke it out with the best of the best.

That can also be done by scheduling elite teams — like Marshall — on your regular-season schedule. Plus, after picking up a trophy last season, Xavier wants a taste of what it’s like to stand on the college soccer summit.

And what’s the best way to join the elites of college soccer? By beating them on the pitch and proving that you belong.

Here’s a look at five things you need to know ahead of Xavier’s clash with No. 2 Marshall on Aug. 29, streamed live and exclusively on FloFC:

The Thundering Herd Are a Powerhouse

Before 2019, only Marshall fans and college soccer diehards probably would’ve known of or cared about the Thundering Herd’s men’s soccer team. The school has fielded a squad since 1979 and before 2019, it only had a regular-season conference championship in 2000 to show for it hardware-wise.

But after five years and one of the most meteoric rises up the college men’s soccer totem pole later, and no one is disagreeing with the fact nowadays that Marshall is among the nation’s elite. 

Coach Chris Grassie has revolutionized the Herd’s program since taking over in 2017, leading Marshall to its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2019 before one-upping it in a massive way a year later by capturing a national championship. The Herd haven’t missed the NCAA tourney since, making it to at least the Round of 32 every time and the Round of 16 twice.

Unsurprisingly, Marshall is expected to bring another loaded squad to the pitch in 2024, being ranked No. 8 in the country in the preseason United Soccer Coaches top-25 poll and the favorite to take the Sun Belt Conference regular-season title for the second straight year. The Herd’s clash with Xavier on Aug. 29 will be their second game of the season after they open up 2024 with a game at home against Northern Kentucky on Thursday.

Xavier Is Defending Conference Gold

It was a history-making campaign for the Musketeers in 2023 as they won the BIG EAST Championship for the first time and secured the league’s automatic bid as a result, getting back to the postseason for the first time in nine years in the meantime.

Third-year coach John Higgins is building a formidable program in Cincinnati as he’s achieved back-to-back nine-win seasons with Xavier, with this past year undoubtedly being a huge step forward for the team after numerous strong seasons under former coach Andy Fleming, who departed in 2021. 

The Musketeers were picked in this year’s BIG EAST Men’s Soccer Preseason Coaches’ Poll to finish second in the Midwest Division that they won last season, being sandwiched between former national champion Akron above them and 2022 BIG EAST Championship winner Creighton below them. 

Four first-place votes for Xavier in its division indicates that the rest of the conference is keeping a watchful eye on it this season, however, and it’ll be primed to get back to the NCAA tourney and make it a common trip — and not an occasional event. Preseason All-BIG EAST Team defender Dylan Kropp will be among those who are helping Xavier try and get back to that point.

The Musketeers Love An Upset

Think that just because the Herd are a top-10 team with aspirations of a deep NCAA tournament run that they’ll waltz into Corcoran Field and pick up a victory next week?

Think again.

Xavier, which has been ranked at some point in at least one major college soccer poll in every season since 2011, is most definitely a solid program in its own right and deserves its flowers. Still, the Musketeers aren’t usually listed among the nation’s elite men’s soccer programs — but they sure can beat the ones who are.

Back in 2015, Xavier defeated both No. 1 Creighton and No. 2 Notre Dame on the road in one year, becoming what’s believed to be the first men’s college soccer program ever to knock off both the Nos. 1 and 2 teams away from home in the same season. That tradition of slaying giants continued on in 2023, when the Musketeers took down a pair of top-25 teams in No. 21 Akron and No. 3 Georgetown (both while amid their BIG EAST Championship title run) on their way to the NCAA tourney.

Still, one ranked foe that Xavier wasn’t able to beat in 2023 was then-No. 5 Marshall, with the Herd picking up the 3-0 shutout in their meeting last September in West Virginia. Their rematch Aug. 29 in Cincinnati will be a major chance for the Musketeers to take advantage of a second opportunity at the former national champion.

Marshall’s Dos Santos Is One of America’s Best

Lineker Rodrigues dos Santos hasn’t played a match for Marshall yet (as of this writing Wednesday), but he’s undoubtedly going to be the man commanding the most attention from the Musketeers’ defense.

The senior forward from Brazil is a transfer from Memphis, where he was an electric player and goal-scoring machine with the Tigers a season ago. The American Athletic Conference’s Offensive Player of the Year and a United Soccer Coaches Third Team All-American, dos Santos started all 19 of Memphis’ matches and tallied 14 goals and five assists along the way as he led the Tigers to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 19 years.

A massive get from the portal for Marshall, dos Santos should fill the scoring void left behind by ex-Sun Belt Player of the Year Matthew Bell (10 goals, 12 assists in 2023) after he was selected in the first round of the 2024 MLS SuperDraft by Real Salt Lake, and dos Santos is ranked No. 8 in TopDrawerSoccer.com’s college men’s soccer preseason top-100 players list as expectations are sky-high for him at his new school. A place for him on the soon-to-be-released Hermann Trophy watch list wouldn’t be much of a surprise, either.

Xavier’s Back Line Is A Brick Wall

If you were trying to score on Xavier’s defense last season, the chances were that you were rarely getting the ball past its formidable barriers as the Musketeers rode a consistent stingy back line to silverware and postseason glory in 2023.

Xavier only allowed 16 goals last season, a mark which was the second-fewest allowed in the BIG EAST and among the top 20-fewest nationally. Kropp played a major role in that as the two-time All-BIG EAST selection and Ohio native played a team-high (minus goalkeepers) 1,633 minutes a year ago and was a crucial contributor to the Musketeers’ solid 0.83 goals against average.

Kropp’s strong season saw him join dos Santos plus nine other BIG EAST players on TopDrawerSoccer’s top-100 players list in preseason, and he will be the focal point of as Xavier tries to continue to keep goals out in 2024. Other contributors like returning starting goalkeeper Jonny Mennell (0.797 save percentage, nine shutouts in 2023) and freshman Aron Gudbjornsson — who has experience playing in Iceland’s top flight — will assist in that endeavor, as well, especially as All-BIG EAST defender and Nashville SC draft pick Makel Rasheed is now gone from Xavier’s defensive plans.

Division I Men’s Soccer Rankings

1. Clemson University (Previous Rank: 1, 1-0-0)
2. Marshall University (Previous Rank: 8, 1-0-0)
3. University of Pittsburgh (Previous Rank: NR, 2-0-0)
4. West Virginia University (Previous Rank: 3, 2-0-0)
5. Western Michigan University (Previous Rank: 12, 2-0-0)
6. Saint Louis University (Previous Rank: NR, 1-0-0)
7. Syracuse University (Previous Rank: 25, 2-0-0)
8. University of Portland (Previous Rank: 22, 1-0-0)
9. University of Denver (Previous Rank: RV, 2-0-0)
10. UCLA (Previous Rank: 21, 1-0-1)
11. Seattle University (Previous Rank: 23, 1-0-1)
12. Northwestern University (Previous Rank: NR, 2-0-0)
13. Stanford University (Previous Rank: 5, 1-1-0)
14. Virginia Commonwealth University (Previous Rank: NR, 2-0-0)
15. University of Louisville (Previous Rank: 24, 1-0-0)
16. Georgetown University (Previous Rank: 16, 1-1-0)
17. University of North Carolina (Previous Rank: 6, 1-0-1)
18. University of North Carolina-Greensboro (Previous Rank: NR, 2-0-0)
19. Oregon State University (Previous Rank: 4, 1-1-0)
20. Ohio State University (Previous Rank: NR, 1-0-1)
21. University of Central Florida (Previous Rank: 19, 1-0-1)
22. University of Wisconsin (Previous Rank: NR, 2-0-0
23. University of Kentucky (Previous Rank: RV, 1-0-0
24. University of California Santa Barbara (Previous Rank: NR, 1-0-0)
25. Seton Hall University (Previous Rank: NR, 1-0-0)

Also receiving votes: Hofstra University (13), California State University, Northridge (9), Lipscomb University (7), Virginia Tech (5), Southern Methodist University (4), University of Notre Dame (4), Marquette University (3), University of Vermont (3), James Madison University (2), Charlotte (2), Duke University (2)

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