Stanford Starts Conference

LOOKING AHEAD » Stanford (3-2-3) begins its conference slate on Sunday, Oct. 2 at 5 p.m. when it hosts rival California (4-2-1). Mark Rogondino and Chris Sullivan will have the call on Pac-12 Network and Pac-12 Bay Area.
 
HISTORY VS. CAL » Stanford is 27-22-9 in 58 all-time meetings with the Bears dating back to 1973. The Cardinal is 4-0-1 in its last five games against Cal, including 2-1 and 1-0 victories last season. Stanford, back-to-back Pac-12 champions, has clinched each of those crowns against Cal. The 1-0 win at home last Nov. 12 secured the 2015 title outright for Stanford and on Nov. 16, 2014, Austin Meyer's winner in the 103rd minute at Berkeley lifted the Cardinal to its first league title since 2001 (3-2).

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A photo posted by Stanford Men's Soccer (@stanfordmenssoccer) on Nov 12, 2015 at 8:10pm PST

LOOKING BACK TO LAST WEEK » Stanford had its three-match winning streak snapped and dropped its second game of 2016 with a 2-1 setback at San Francisco on Sept. 23. After scoring 11 goals in its previous three outings, an 86th-minute own goal was the Cardinal's only tally. The loss snapped Stanford's eight-match unbeaten streak in the series (7-0-1) and was its first loss to the Dons since 2007.
 
PAC-12 DOMINANCE » Stanford, 13-2-5 (.775) in league action the last two seasons, is 21-11-8 (.625) in Pac-12 play under Jeremy Gunn the past four years. Stanford went 7-1-2 in conference in 2015, setting a school record for Pac-12 wins en route to its second straight league championship. The Cardinal's seven-point cushion at the top of the Pac-12 table was the third-largest margin in conference history, only surpassed by nine-point gaps for the champions in 2011 and 2003. Stanford is 7-0-5 in its last 12 Pac-12 home matches. Its last league loss at Cagan Stadium came to No. 3 UCLA on Nov. 1, 2013 (2-1).
 
UNRANKED IS AN ODDITY » The Cardinal will played as an unranked team on Sunday for the first time since Sept. 9, 2014 on Sunday, a span of 753 days. Stanford beat UC Santa Barbara that afternoon, 4-1, and moved up to No. 24 in the NSCAA rankings released the following Tuesday.
 
EVEN MORE RARE » The Cardinal and Bears will play with neither team ranked in the NSCAA top 25 for the first time since 2012. At least one team has been ranked in each of their past six meetings and both have been featured in the poll three times. In the last unranked matchup, Stanford thumped Cal, 6-1, on Nov. 9, 2012 behind a hat trick from Adam Jahn to close out Jeremy Gunn's first season at the helm. The offensive outburst, the most goals scored by a Cardinal team since 2002, concluded a 9-8-1 season for Stanford and a 5-4-1 mark in the Pac-12. A prophetic Jahn, currently with Columbus Crew SC in MLS, said after the match, "We're glad that this year we could make a big influence on the team and start the new era of Coach Gunn. The next few years will be exciting for this program and I have no doubt this team will be excellent next year. We've done well creating a winning culture going forward."
 
CONFINES OF CAGAN » Stanford was unbeaten at Cagan Stadium in 2015 (10-0-2), is 22-1-8 in its last 31 matches on The Farm, and has not dropped any of its last 17 at home. The program's goals-against average at home since 2014 is a miniscule 0.57.
 
2015 REWIND » One of the program's stated goals every year is to "play as many games as it can" and the Cardinal did that in 2015. Stanford's magical season was capped with the program's first national championship in its 100-plus year history when it routed Clemson, 4-0, at Sporting Park in Kansas City on Dec. 13. The Cardinal scored the most goals in an NCAA final since 1996 and won by the largest margin since 1975, tying for the highest margin in College Cup history. The win extended the school's streak of at least one NCAA team championship to an ongoing record 40 years and was Stanford's 108th NCAA team title (now at 109 following women's tennis' 2016 championship). Stanford became the fifth school to capture men's and women's Division I soccer titles, following the Cardinal women in 2011. Jeremy Gunn became one of four coaches to win NCAA titles in both Division I and Division II, following his 2005 crown at Fort Lewis.
 
PASSING AND MOVING » Stanford scored 11 combined goals in its three wins this season and at least three in each victory, which came in successive games against San Jose State, Harvard and Omaha. The program hadn't put home three or more goals in three straight games of the same season since doing it on six consecutive occasions in 2001. That year, Stanford beat Cal State Fullerton on Sept. 9 (3-1), Dartmouth on Sept. 28 (4-0), Fresno State on Sept. 30 (4-0), San Jose State on Oct. 4 (4-1), Saint Mary's on Oct. 7 (4-1) and San Francisco on Oct. 12 (3-1). More recently, the Cardinal finished the final two games of its 2012 campaign with 4-0 and 6-1 wins over San Diego State and Cal before beginning 2013 with a 3-3 draw against No. 2 Maryland.
 
AMERICAN FOR GOALS » Junior forward Foster Langsdorf bagged the first two braces of his career on Sept. 16 and 18, scoring twice each in wins over Harvard and Omaha. His six goals this season lead the team, are second in the Pac-12 and 18th in the nation. Langsdorf is also 30th in the nation in points (13) and puts 1.75 shots on goal per game, the 30th best mark in the country. He is one goal shy of tying his career high of seven, set last season in 23 games.
 
NEW LOOK, SAME STANFORD » A process-oriented bunch, Stanford headed into 2016 with the task of replacing five starters from a year ago, including MAC Hermann Trophy winner Jordan Morris and two-time Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Brandon Vincent. Those two, along with Slater Meehan, Ty Thompson and Eric Verso, accounted for 53 percent of the Cardinal's goals (23-of-43), 48 percent of its assists (23-of-48) and 52 percent of its points (69-of-134) last season.
 
GREAT UNDER GUNN » One of four coaches to win NCAA titles in both Division I and Division II, Jeremy Gunn's teams are 53-22-14 (.674) in his four-plus seasons on The Farm, including 34-7-9 (.770) since 2014.  He is one of only three coaches in program history to lead Stanford to three straight seasons of 10 or more wins along with Bobby Clark (1996-2000) and Nelson Lodge (1978-83). In guiding the Cardinal to consecutive conference championships, Gunn was awarded Pac-12 Coach of the Year and NSCAA Far West Region Coach of the Year honors in both 2014 and 2015. He owns a career record of 240-83-45 (.713) in 17+ seasons, a mark which makes him the third winningest active coach at the Division I level (by percentage).

Winningest Active Coaches (Entering 2016)

SKUNDRICH SCORES » Junior co-captain Drew Skundrich has tallied the first three goals of his career in Stanford's first eight matches and is second on the team in scoring. Skundrich has been able to up his offense with a move to the central midfield, the position at which he was recruited coming out of Lancaster, Pa. He was a stalwart right back during Stanford's championship run in 2015, starting all 23 games.
 
STOCKPILING CHANCES » Stanford has continually put itself in a position to score in 2016 and has put 42.4 of its attempts on frame this season. The Cardinal is 12th in the nation in shots per game (16.50) and 16th in shots on goal per game (7.00). Stanford is 39th nationally in goals per game (1.88).
 
RECORD WATCH » Redshirt junior Andrew Epstein is working his way into the conversation with some of Stanford's all-time best goalkeepers. His 15 career solo shutouts are two shy of tying Chris Helling (1986-89) for sixth in school history and his career goals against average (0.77) would be second only to Adam Zapala's 0.63 from 1997-2000. His 133 career saves are one short of tying Andrew Kartunen (2003-07) for ninth in the Cardinal record books and his 4,696:36 minutes in goal are already fourth all-time.
 
SCORE TWICE AND WIN » Stanford has scored two or more goals in 46 of Jeremy Gunn's 89 matches as Stanford's head coach and is 40-0-6 in those games. The Cardinal hasn't lost when scoring at least two goals since Nov. 11, 2010, when it fell 3-2 at Cal.
 
DESTINATION STANFORD » In late July, Liverpool used Cagan Stadium for training during its United States tour. The visit continued a trend of top national sides and clubs utilizing the unparalleled facilities and environment of Stanford for training. The USMNT visited campus for camp before the 2014 FIFA World Cup and within the past three years Stanford has also hosted Manchester United, Italian giant Juventus and English side Norwich City.
 
USMNT » In the past two years, a pair of Gunn's players have capped for the USMNT in Jordan Morris and Brandon Vincent. In November 2014, Morris became the first active collegian since 1995 to receive a cap for the U.S. Men's National Team when he came on in the 76th minute in a friendly against Ireland in Dublin. On April 15, 2015 in San Antonio, Texas, Morris started and scored for the United States against Mexico, becoming the first college player to score for the USA since September 1992. Vincent was pulled away from the MLS Combine after just one day when he was added to the U.S. Men's National Team roster for its January 2016 training camp in Carson, Calif. by head coach Jurgen Klinsmann. The 2015 College Cup Defensive Most Outstanding Player earned his first MNT cap on Feb. 5 when he came on for the second half of a 1-0 win against Canada at StubHub Center.

MLS » Four of Jeremy Gunn's players at Stanford are currently on MLS rosters. Jordan Morris in 2016 and Aaron Kovar in 2014 signed with the Seattle Sounders as Homegrown Players, Brandon Vincent was the fourth overall pick of the 2016 MLS SuperDraft by the Chicago Fire and Adam Jahn was recently traded to Columbus Crew SC by the San Jose Earthquakes, which drafted him with the 15th overall pick in the 2013 MLS Supplemental Draft. Off of last year's national championship team, Vincent was a 2016 MLS All-Star and Morris was just came in at No. 3 on MLSsoccer.com's list of its 24 Under 24 series, which ranks the 24 best Major League Soccer players under the age of 24. The two-time Stanford All-American and 2015 MAC Hermann Trophy winner, Morris has exploded for 12 goals so far in his first pro season, second in MLS history for a rookie. He also has six game-winning goals, an MLS rookie record and the most in the league this season.