Photo courtesy Jeff Reinking/University of Louisville Sports Information
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A Foster Langsdorf winner, some stout defense and a victory on the road in the quarterfinals. Stanford used a familiar script to knock off Louisville 2-0 on Saturday and book its second consecutive trip to the College Cup.
The fifth-seeded Cardinal will head to Houston and meet No. 9 seed North Carolina on Friday night at BBVA Compass Stadium. In what will be the program's fifth trip to the College Cup, Stanford will attempt to become the first back-to-back national champion in a dozen years.
"I thought it was an incredibly gutsy performance," Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn said. "Louisville is a wonderful soccer team. I don't think it always went our way in midfield and up front, but our back four was incredible yet again and kept Louisville at bay. Our players showed that wonderful commitment to working hard defensively while the other team was in ascendency and we were still carving out great chances in a tight game."
Last season on the road against another ACC foe in Wake Forest, Langsdorf's winning header came in the 97th. The suspense didn't build for as long in Louisville, as Stanford's junior striker knocked in the deciding goal in the 64th.
Freshman Derek Waldeck lined up to take one of the Cardinal's three corners from the far flag and whipped in his service to the middle of the six where Langsdorf rose up in a crowd. The Co-Pac-12 Player of the Year flicked the ball on goal, it took a small deflection off a Louisville defender and sailed in for his 15th of the year.
Langsdorf took over the national lead with his eighth game-winner of the season and his 15 goals are the most for a Stanford player in 35 years. The Cardinal last had a 15-goal scorer in 1981 when Willie Guicci tallied 22.
Stanford added some insurance in the 79th when Sam Werner knocked in a set piece from 30-yards out, beautifully curling in his free kick to the top corner and in an impossible location for Louisville keeper Stefan Cleveland.
The Cardinal defense shut down an offense that had been averaging 1.81 goals per game and hadn't been held scoreless since its regular-season finale on Oct. 28. Andrew Epstein made four saves to collect his 22nd career clean sheet and up his overall record to 45-8-10 (.794).
The shutout was the fifth straight in the postseason for Stanford. The Cardinal will head to the College Cup not having allowed a goal in its last 512:17 of postseason action.
"Our defenders performed perfectly tonight," Gunn said. "They built the ball well and started the attack for us and defensively each time they were called upon they took care of business."
Louisville nearly went ahead on the counter in the 55th minute when Tate Schmitt worked himself free in the box. Adam Mosharrafa raced back from his position at right back and tackled the ball away cleanly to thwart a dangerous 1-on-1 opportunity for the Cardinals.
Big defensive stops came from all across Stanford's back line of Mosharrafa, Brian Nana-Sinkam, Tomas Hilliard-Arce and Tanner Beason to lower the Cardinal's 2016 goals against average to 0.62.
The Cardinal and Tar Heels have met once before in a NCAA semifinal in 2001. North Carolina took that one 4-3 in quadruple overtime and beat Indiana 2-0 two days later to claim its first of two national championships in men's soccer.
Stanford is a repeat College Cup participant despite replacing five starters from a year ago who accounted for 53 percent of the Cardinal's goals, 48 percent of its assists and 52 percent of its points in 2015.
"We've said it all along," Gunn commented. "We graduated out incredible players and people that had been heartbeat of the team. What you hope as a staff is to create a culture that celebrates graduating on great players and then cultivates the next great player to come along. That's what we've managed to do this year."
Stanford and North Carolina will played the second semifinal at 7:45 p.m. CT/5:45 p.m. PT after Denver and Wake Forest at 5 p.m. CT/3 p.m. PT. A limited number of all-session tickets are available through Stanford by visiting GoStanford.com/tickets or calling 800-STANFORD. All-session passes are $45 each. Tickets will be available for pickup at the venue in Houston.