51ºÚÁÏ

51ºÚÁÏ University has shown a knack for dramatic comebacks in the NCAA men’s soccer tournament, and while its semifinal match with North Carolina State on Friday night had drama, the comeback was missing.

The unseeded Billikens’ surprising run in the NCAA tournament came to an end in the College Cup semifinals with a 2-1 loss to 15th-seeded North Carolina State. SLU fell behind 2-0, closed to within a goal in the 81st minute and came oh so close to tying the game in the closing minutes, only to have a shot deflected by an N.C. State defender.

If it is surprising that it has taken 28 years for 51ºÚÁÏ University to get back to the men’s soccer College Cup, it may be just as unexpected that it was this team that got there.

SLU has flirted with getting to the College Cup plenty of times since its last trip in 1997. In 2021, SLU was the No. 10 seed in the tournament, No. 7 in 2003 and No. 6 in 2001. All of those teams lost in the quarterfinals. SLU was seeded eighth in 2012 but never got out of the gate, losing in overtime in its first game. This year’s team was not one of the 16 seeded teams.

Anyone can read or parrot the words “fighting spirit.� Having a motto or slogan or rallying cry isn’t the same as living it, taking it in like oxygen and making it part of what sustains you.

The SLU men’s soccer team’s remarkable postseason run has already gone a long way toward proving that sentiment is more than just words printed in the locker room at Hermann Stadium.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Lionel Messi's legacy was long secured when he came to Inter Miami and joined Major League Soccer. He'd won a World Cup, won dozens of trophies, was generally considered the greatest player in the sport's history.

He didn't need an MLS Cup.

John Hackworth, who served in just about every role on the sporting side for 51ºÚÁÏ City SC in his four years there, is leaving to become head coach of the men’s soccer team at the Naval Academy.

Hackworth was one of the first hires Lutz Pfannenstiel made on the sporting side, luring him away from being the head coach of Louisville in the USL Championship to be the club’s director of coaching, playing a part in shaping City SC’s high-pressing style of play. (“I come to assist Lutz in building this club,� Hackworth told the Post-Dispatch when his hiring was announced, “ensuring we have a methodology and a style of play that is consistent from the top down.�) He coached City2, the club’s developmental team, in 2022, the year before the first team began to play. Hackworth was also interim first team coach, interim City2 coach and interim sporting director, though when it came time to make decisions on the permanent coach on the two top jobs in the organization, he was passed over.

The 2026 U.S. Open Cup, which will include two teams from 51ºÚÁÏ, will start in mid-March and will, because of the World Cup, be one round shorter than it had been previously — thus fewer teams.

Eighty teams will take part, including 51ºÚÁÏ City SC from Major League Soccer and BOHFS 51ºÚÁÏ, an amateur team that reached the tournament with three wins in a qualifying competition.