No. 2 Notre Dame takes on No. 9 Clemson for men's national championship

The GIST: College soccer’s grand finale hits the pitch tonight when No. 2 Notre Dame takes on No. 9 Clemson in the men’s national championship match at 6 p.m. ET on ESPNU. Notre Dame earned a narrow 3–2 victory when these squads met on September 9th — and three months later, both teams are battle-hardened and hungry for some hardware.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish (13-2-6): The Irish lacked consistency this year, finishing with the best regular-season record in the nation’s toughest conference, the ACC, only to crash out of the conference tourney’s first round. Since then, ND’s been living on the edge — two of their four national tournament matches went to penalty kicks.

• One thing the Irish can rely on? A rock-solid defense, which ranks second nationally in shutout percentage and has allowed only one goal all tourney.

• ND won their first and only natty in 2013. Since then, they’ve returned to the College Cup (aka soccer’s Final Four) only once, falling in the 2021 semis to…you guessed it, Clemson.

Clemson Tigers (14-3-5): The Tigers went on to win their program’s third title in 2021. This season, they peaked in the postseason, bagging the ACC tournament title in a nail-biter against UNC.

• Clemson also boasts a brick-wall defense: They’ve defeated all four of their opponents in regular time and haven’t allowed a single goal.

The takeaway: In a matchup between defensive powerhouses, finding the back of the net first is usually the key to victory. In other words, this will be a frantic and high-energy matchup from the first whistle. Don’t miss a single second.