North Carolina men’s soccer is stepping right into the fire to open the 2026 season.
The Tar Heels head to Washington, D.C. on Thursday night to face No. 5 Georgetown at 7:30 p.m. at Shaw Field, with Carolina entering the year ranked No. 25 in Top Drawer Soccer’s preseason poll. The matchup also gives the Heels a familiar opponent to start with: Carolina and Georgetown have met only twice, and their most recent meeting ended in a 0-0 draw before North Carolina advanced on penalties in the 2010 NCAA Tournament.
The game will air on ESPN+ with Dan Helfrich and Tom Greaser on the call.
Carolina arrives with plenty of recent postseason mileage. The Heels reached the NCAA Championship for the 32nd time last season and now own a 43-25-14 record in tournament play. It was also the 14th time in head coach Carlos Somoano’s 15 years that North Carolina earned a tournament bid.
Somoano is back for his 16th season leading the program and his 25th overall with Carolina soccer. He enters with a career record of 185-68-55 and an NCAA mark of 18-9-10.
There’s also no shortage of recognition around this year’s roster. North Carolina opens in the “Others Receiving Votes” portion of the United Soccer Coaches Top 25, and TopDrawerSoccer slotted the Heels at No.
- The Tar Heels’ transfer group of Nick Lockermann, Nico Loebus, Joschi Schelb and Ryan Zellefrow was ranked No. 2 by TopDrawerSoccer, while Carolina’s incoming freshman class came in at No.
Luca Nikolai is back after being drafted by NYCFC, choosing to return and finish his college career with the Tar Heels. Last season, he earned third-team All-South Region and second-team All-ACC honors.
Carolina also placed six players on the Hermann Trophy Watch Lists. Lockermann was included among the defenders, while Evans Dapaah, Loebus, Nikolai, Joschi Schelb and Zellefrow were all named to the midfielders list. Schelb is listed there despite being set to play forward this season.
In goal, Alan Rutkowski appears next in line after four seasons with Andrew Cordes handling the position. The Elmwood, N.J. native spent last season as Cordes’ backup after playing his club soccer with the New York Red Bulls.
In Other News...
UNC Quarterback Decision Just Changed The Tar Heels' Week 1 Outlook
North Carolina has settled its quarterback situation for Week 1, and it comes with a little more certainty than the early buzz suggested. The Tar Heels announced that a sixth-year transfer will start against TCU, ending a competition that had appeared to tilt toward Miles O'Neill during the opening stretch of camp. Instead, the Wisconsin transfer won the job and now gets the first crack at leading the offense when the season opens.
O'Neill is still very much part of the conversation, though, and that matters for a team trying to smooth out the transition at the game's most important position. He is expected to be the backup and remains in the mix for playing time if the starter gets benched, so this is not necessarily a closed file so much as a first answer. For North Carolina, the bigger takeaway is that the Tar Heels can now start shaping Week 1 around a defined quarterback plan instead of a battle that had lingered into the final stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Michael Malone Is Sending UNC Fans A Tough Early Message
Michael Malone is stepping into Chapel Hill with the kind of message fans often hear when a new era begins, but do not always want to absorb: the work comes first, and the results have to grow from it. As he gets ready for his debut season at North Carolina, Malone is pushing a long-term approach built around daily improvement rather than treating a championship as something that should arrive on schedule. That matters at a program that has already lived through a rough stretch, including a first-round tournament exit that helped bring about the coaching change.
There is reason for optimism, though, because Malone also brings a track record of recruiting success and is expected to help UNC stack talent in the 2027 class. The bigger question is how quickly all of that can be turned into a team that looks like a title contender again. For Tar Heels fans, the early message is less about instant gratification and more about patience, even as the pieces for a stronger future begin to come together. [Read more 🡒]
UNCs Offseason Additions Still Havent Silenced This Doubt
ESPNs latest Bracketology update gave North Carolina a little less room to breathe, slotting the Tar Heels as an 8-seed after they had been projected as a 7-seed two months ago. It is a small drop on paper, but it fits the uneasy tone around a team that has tried to bolster its roster in the offseason while still searching for the kind of confidence that comes with being viewed as a more secure tournament bet.
UNC did add Angelo Brizzi, Cameron Fens and Sayon Keita, giving the roster a different look heading into the season and some reason for optimism. Even so, the broader conversation has not fully moved off the same question: whether those additions are enough to quiet doubts about where the Tar Heels sit in the bracket and how tough their path could be if they wind up in a loaded region. [Read more 🡒]