FRISCO, Texas -- When Pizza Hut Park plays host to the 2008 NCAA Men's College Cup this weekend, the event will conjure up images of their own experiences on college soccer's biggest stage for three current members of FC Dallas -- midfielder Eric Avila, defender Michael Dello-Russo and defender Drew Moor.
Avila, who is currently with the Generation adidas team on their trip to England, just completed a rookie campaign where he played in 14 games and had two assists. The southern California native played in the 2006 College Cup with California-Santa Barbara, scoring the national championship-winning goal as the Gauchos beat UCLA 2-1 in the NCAA title game.
It's an experience he still remembers well. "I think it was an experience I will never forget," Avila said. "My whole time in my college career, I just wanted to make the Final Four. That's basically what my goal was. The experience of being in there and having all the coaches around you was great."
Dello-Russo played in eight games for FCD this year. But before he was a fourth-round pick of the Hoops in the 2006 SuperDraft, he played at Maryland. He played in the College Cup in each of his four seasons, and was named to the 2005 All-College Cup team as a senior on the last Terrapins team to win a national championship.
"It was awesome," he said. "It was probably the best soccer experience of my life. We were lucky enough to go to three before that but that one was definitely awesome because it was my senior year and everything was on the line. We loved each other and played for each other. It was great to be there."
And the 25-year-old knows how fortunate he was to have been to the event every year.
"Extremely lucky, it's all based on Maryland," Dello-Russo said. "The coaching staff has done an amazing job there. That is probably the most elite program in the country right now. Just to be part of it and of the growing of that program is unbelievable and unforgettable.",p> Just after the conclusion of the 2008 season, Moor was rewarded with a multiple-year contract extension that will keep him in hoops for years to come after a season where he started 27 games, scored two goals and assisted on another. But before he was the sixth overall pick in the 2005 draft, he spent time at Indiana and played for the Hoosiers' championship teams in both 2003 and 2004.
"Obviously it was a great experience," he said. "I was fortunate to go to two College Cups actually and being able to win two national championships was great. The one thing that was really cool about the first one was that it was Coach (Jerry) Yeagley's last year there, which was obviously special. Then the next year was Coach (Mike) Freitag's first year there. It was just a good year to be at Indiana and such a great team. A lot of those players are in MLS now. I bet half that roster is in MLS now, so it was a special time."
Being a Dallas native, even though IU didn't advance to the final four, falling to St. John's in the quarterfinals, he still plans to be in attendance.
"I'm definitely looking forward to it," Moor said. "It's definitely a cool thing that Pizza Hut Park is able to host it. It will be fun to go out and watch the games."
Also worth noting is that FCD defender Aaron Pitchkolan has also experience playing for an NCAA title. When he was a freshman at Tampa in 2001, Pitchkolan was part of a team that won the NCAA Division II national championship. Pitchkolan just completed a solid year where he played in 21 games, 15 of those starts and scored for the first time since 2006.
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