Stanford men’s soccer begins their 2024 season this month, fresh off a season in which they advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament and went 11-4-5 overall and 3-2-5 in the Pac-12. Stanford is ranked #5 in the Preseason United Soccer Coaches Poll. Below is a breakdown of their schedule.
Via Stanford Athletics: 2024 Stanford Men’s Soccer schedule
Before their first regular season match, the Cardinal will have three home exhibitions against San Francisco (Friday, August 9th at 4:00 PM PT), Sacramento State (Sunday, August 11th at 4:00 PM PT), and Cal Poly (Saturday, August 17th at 7:00 PM PT). Those three matches will give head coach Jeremy Gunn a chance to experiment with different lineups and goalkeepers.
The first regular season match for the Cardinal will be on Thursday, August 22nd at home against San Jose State at 7:00 PM PT. That will kick off a four match homestand that will also feature Denver on Sunday, August 25th (4:00 PM PT), CSU Fullerton on Thursday, August 29th (7:00 PM PT), and Saint Mary’s on Sunday, September 1st (5:00 PM PT).
Stanford defeated San Jose State 2-0 last season on the road in a hard fought battle at Spartan Soccer Complex. San Jose State went 6-8-4 overall and 3-4-1 in the WAC last season.
Denver was a solid team last year, going 12-3-5 overall They were also 7-0-1 in the Summit League, so they’re a team that you can’t sleep on. The same goes for CSU Fullerton, who went 12-5-3 overall and 6-2-1 in the Big West. As for Saint Mary’s, they weren’t as good, going 8-7-2 overall and 3-4 in the WCC. Still, with them being a Bay Area school you know they’re going to come to The Farm fired up.
Stanford will then get their first match of ACC play when the face Clemson on the road on Friday, September 6th at 4:00 PM PT. This will be a re-match of last season’s NCAA quarterfinal match. Clemson won the quarterfinal match 2-0 and went on to win the national championship as the No. 9 seed in the tournament. This will be a really good test for the Cardinal and a great way for them to start off the ACC era. On the season as a whole, Clemson went 15-3-5 overall and 4-2-2 in the ACC.
Stanford will then come back home for a non-league match against UC Riverside on Tuesday, September 10th at 7:00 PM PT. UC Riverside went 3-9-5 overall and 3-3-3 in the Big West. They were also 1-7-2 on the road, so Stanford really ought to defeat them with little trouble.
Stanford will then continue ACC play with a road match at Notre Dame on Saturday, September 14th at 4:00 PM PT. Notre Dame fell to Clemson in the national championship match last season, going 13-3-6 overall and 6-0-2 in the ACC, making them regular season league champions. This will not be an easy match for the Cardinal and another really good test for them.
Stanford will then have another non-league home match against UC Davis on Wednesday, September 18th at 7:00 PM PT. The Aggies went 9-7-4 overall and 4-4-1 in the Big West last season. Another case where Stanford will be favored, but UC Davis being an in-state foe you know they’re going to bring it.
Stanford will go back to ACC play after that as they have their first home match of league play, welcoming the Duke Blue Devils to The Farm on Sunday, September 22nd at 7:00 PM PT. Duke went 11-4-3 overall last season and 4-3-1 in the ACC. Duke was a No. 15 seed in the NCAA tournament last season, dropping their first match in double overtime 2-1 against Western Michigan.
Stanford will then have three more ACC matches as they face Virginia on the road on Friday, September 27th at 4:30 PM PT, NC State at home on Friday, October 4th at 7:00 PM PT, and SMU on the road on Friday, October 11th at 4:00 PM PT.
Virginia went 11-4-4 overall and 5-2-1 in the ACC and fell in the third round/round of 16 to Indiana by a final score of 1-0 in the NCAA tournament. NC State had a rough season, going 6-9-3 overall and 1-5-2 in the ACC. As for SMU, they had a strong season going 14-3-2 overall and 7-0-1 in the American Athletic Conference. They were the No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament, falling to Oregon State 7-1 in the third round/round of 16. Along with Stanford and Cal, SMU is entering their first season in the ACC.
Stanford will then have a pair of non-conference matches against a pair of WCC teams. On Thursday, October 17th at 7:00 PM PT they’ll face San Francisco on the road. On Monday, October 21st at 7:00 PM PT, they’ll face Pacific at home. Neither team was strong last season. San Francisco went 8-4-5 overall and 2-3-2 in the WCC while Pacific went 5-8-4 overall and 1-5-1 in the WCC.
Stanford will then close out regular season play with their final two ACC matches of the season against North Carolina and Cal. The match against the Tarheels will be on Sunday, October 27th at 5:00 PM PT while the match against Cal will be on Friday, November 1st at 7:00 PM PT. North Carolina went 11-4-7 overall and 2-3-3 in the ACC last season, falling to Oregon State 1-0 in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament. As for Cal, they went 7-6-5 overall and 3-4-3 in the Pac-12 last season. They had a 1-1 draw against Stanford in Berkeley and fell to Stanford 2-1 on The Farm in the final match of the season. Cal barely missed the NCAA tournament last season. Had they been able to beat Stanford one of those two matches, they might have gotten in.
From November 5th to November 15th will be the ACC tournament. First round on Tuesday, November 5th; quarterfinals on Friday, November 8th; semifinals on Tuesday, November 12th; and the final on Friday, November 15th. After that will be the NCAA tournament.
This is a strong schedule for Stanford. Their first two league matches are on the road against both teams who played in the NCAA tournament championship match in Clemson and Notre Dame. That alone makes it a tough schedule. But then on top of that when you go up and down the league, there’s very few matches that don’t feature an NCAA tournament team. It’s going to be fun to see how the Cardinal do at Cagan Stadium this season and whether or not they’ll be able to make a run to the College Cup after coming up one match short a season ago.
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