On Friday at 7:00 PM PT on ACCNX, No. 22 Stanford men’s soccer will welcome the California Golden Bears to The Farm. Stanford comes in at 8-3-4 overall and 3-1-3 in the ACC while Cal comes in at 5-7-2 overall and 1-4-2 in the ACC.
Last time out: Stanford is coming off a frustrating 2-1 loss to No. 11 North Carolina on Sunday. As a result of their loss and other matches they’ve had since the last ranking update, Stanford fell to No. 22 in the nation.
RECAP: No. 7 Stanford MSOC falls to No. 11 North Carolina on The Farm
On Cal: The Golden Bears have not had as strong of a season as their women’s counterparts, but they do have a win over No. 1 Pittsburgh earlier in the season for their lone ACC win, so they can play. They’re a feisty team that plays scrappy and rarely gives up. If you face off against Cal, you know you’re in for a battle.
The top two offensive players for the Bears are fifth year forward Nonso Adimabua and senior forward Arik Duncan. Both guys have scored ten points each with four goals and two assists. They’re playing great and are two guys who you can’t take lightly. They know how to score and get their teammates involved. Junior goalkeeper Marco Brougher gives up just 1.42 goals per match with a .710 save percentage, so he’s very stout in the net.
Keys to the match: For Stanford, the first thing they need to do is not get down by multiple goals. This sounds like a really obvious key to the match, but Stanford does a good job of playing from behind and so long as they are within one goal, odds are good they’ll even it up at some point. What can’t happen tonight is for them to get down by 2+ goals. If that happens, it’ll be lights out for the Cardinal. Playing good defense and staying alert will be the key to that.
Secondly, Stanford needs to simply put away chances. They do a great job of creating opportunities and getting the ball around the net, but where they sometimes struggle is putting the ball away. If they can convert the good chances they get or at least enough of them, they’ll be fine.
Lastly, Stanford needs to play the cleaner match. In rivalry matches, things can get chippy and heated. Weird things can happen, too. If Stanford doesn’t commit silly penalties like a hand ball or give up a penalty kick, they should be in position to win. But if they do something stupid, Cal will be right there to take advantage.
Prediction: I picked Stanford women’s soccer to beat Cal last night and that didn’t happen. Cal won 3-2 on a last second penalty kick, so I wouldn’t take much stock in my predictions. That said, I will double down and say Stanford wins tonight by a final score of 2-1. As a bonus prediction, I’ll say freshman Alex Chow scores his first career goal for the Cardinal. He’s been knocking on the door and at some point, he’ll get one to fall.
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