Soccer star-turned-pundit Gary Lineker once described the sport as a simple game in which 22 players chase a ball for 90 minutes "and at the end, the Germans always win."

A similar sentiment was long true of the NCAA women's soccer tournament. Year after year, a bracket of teams chased a championship for several weeks. And at the end, North Carolina always won. No more. When the quarterfinals begin Friday, North Carolina will be the only No. 1 seed not involved. That isn't because the Tar Heels were overrated or even because they played particularly poorly in a 2-1 overtime loss against No. 4 Princeton on Sunday.

The Tar Heels slipped because the path has never been slicker. The margin for error has never been smaller. This is the third year in a row in which at least one No. 1 seed failed to reach the quarterfinals and the third year in a row an unseeded team made it this far.

What will happen at the end? We don't know. And that's the fun of it.

Until then, here is how the road to the College Cup in Orlando, Florida, looks.

No. 3 Penn State at No. 1 Stanford

Alina Ortega Jurado and Penn State will try to upset top-seeded Stanford on Friday in the NCAA quarterfinals. Courtesy Penn State

The only quarterfinal between two former national champions has luster for that reason alone, but Penn State's play through the first three rounds makes this the most compelling quarterfinal for reasons beyond brand names.

This is a significant test for the No. 1 overall seed. And while the second- and third-round scores -- 2-0 over Auburn and 1-0 over Florida State -- may not suggest it, the Cardinal haven't been tested yet. The way they controlled the field against both the Tigers and Seminoles was in many ways more impressive than their nine goals against overmatched Utah Valley in the first round. Stanford took 53 shots against Auburn and Florida State. Those teams managed seven.

When Stanford defender Tierna Davidson, one of two Cardinal who already spent time with the U.S. women's national team, took off on a 60-yard rampaging run down the middle of the field to set up Jordan DiBiasi's winning goal against Florida State, it summed up so much about the top seed. The Cardinal have too much talent at too many positions to keep off the scoreboard.

But after beating Wake Forest and No. 2 West Virginia in the snow in Morgantown, West Virginia, Penn State is starting to play like the team its talent suggested it could be this season. This is, after all, a team that used seven players against West Virginia who started the national title game two years ago. And like that team, which was led by Costa Rican standout Raquel Rodriguez, the international game has provided these Nittany Lions with leading scorer Laura Freigang and Alina Ortega Jurado, who scored against both Wake Forest and West Virginia.

No. 3 Florida at No. 1 South Carolina