On Saturday, December 2nd, #16 Stanford men’s soccer fell to Clemson 2-0 in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament. This was the furthest Stanford had gone in the tournament since 2019 (an 0-2 loss to Georgetown in the College Cup semifinals), so the program took a major step forward this season.
BOX SCORE: Stanford at Clemson-Saturday, December 2nd
Clemson scored early in this one as graduate defender Gael Gilbert found the back of the net off an assist from Joran Gerbet at the 6:05 mark. That came off a corner kick at the 5:58 mark, which was the second corner kick of the match for the Tigers. It was also the Tigers’ second shot of the match after firing one at 2:46.
Clemson’s next shot came at 35:52 as Ousmane Sylla fired a shot that was counted as a team save for Stanford. At 36:53, Arthur Duquenne fired a shot that was saved by Stanford goalkeeper Rowan Schnebly only for Tyler Trimnal to score a goal off the rebound to give Clemson a 2-0 lead. Clemson would fire one more shot at 42:31 but wouldn’t score off of it. The Tigers led 2-0 at halftime.
At 53:15, shortly after Dylan Hooper picked up a yellow card for Stanford, the Cardinal got a corner kick. That corner kick led to a shot by Ryan Dunn, which was misfired out wide. Stanford would have another corner kick at 60:04 but wasn’t able to score off that either.
Stanford’s defense in the second half was able to keep the Tigers at bay, but the offense was not able to catch up. Stanford had corner kicks at 74:25, 85:02, and 85:42, but just couldn’t find the back of the net. Offensively, it just wasn’t their night.
In the end, Clemson would win the match 2-0, advancing to the College Cup. Touching quickly on Clemson, they went on to win their next two matches to win the national title. They defeated West Virginia 1-0 in the College Cup semifinals and then defeated Notre Dame 2-1 in the national championship match. An amazing run for them to win the national title.
As for Stanford, they can hold their heads high knowing they got within one match of the College Cup all while going down to the eventual national champions. If you are going to get beat, you might as well get beat by the team that goes on to win it all. There’s a lot for this Stanford to build off of and reason for them to think that next year, they’ll be in the College Cup. They’re a young team with a lot of players getting major minutes for the first time of their careers.
It’ll be fun to see what this Stanford team looks like next season and what kind of run they make in the NCAA tournament. The key will be for them to have a stronger regular season, win a few more matches, and give themselves a higher seed. Going on the road to knock off #1 Marshall and then hitting the road to Clemson was no easy task. What they did at Marshall was amazing, but at some point, it just gets hard to keep winning on the road. Particularly when it’s the postseason. If there’s one thing I can guarantee it’s that head coach Jeremy Gunn will have his team ready to go.
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