Christmas Eve news from Soccer America:
Soccer America’s Men’s Coach of the Year is Ken Lolla, who led Louisville to the Men’s College Cup for the first time.
Lolla also won the award in 2005, his last season at Akron before being coaxed away to take over the Cardinals.
Louisville’s loss to Akron was its only defeat of the 2010 season. And it followed a remarkable NCAA tournament run that saw the Cardinals draw crowds of more than 5,000 for every game at Cardinal Park.
Despite freezing temperatures and snow, 5,467 fans — some sitting on a berm just below Arthur Street — packed Cardinal Park for the quarterfinal match against UCLA, a 5-4 Louisville win that will go down as one of the epic matches in the history of the NCAA Men’s Tournament.