No. 24 Stanford (0-1-3)
San Jose State (1-2-1)
Saturday, Sept. 10 • 7 p.m.
Laird Q. Cagan Stadium • Stanford, Calif.
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Television •Pac-12 Bay Area
Live Statistics •Available via GoStanford.com
LOOKING AHEAD » No. 24 Stanford (0-1-3) returns to The Farm for the first of three straight matches at home when it hosts San Jose State (1-2-1) on Saturday, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m. Troy Clardy and Kelly Gray have the call on Pac-12 Bay Area.
HISTORY VS. SJSU » The game against San Jose State will be the 40th all-time meeting between the two schools, with the Cardinal owning a 22-12-5 edge in records dating back to 1973. Corey Baird fed Foster Langsdorf in the 33rd minute and Stanford earned a 1-0 victory in last season's meeting on Sept. 10. San Jose State is tied with San Francisco as Stanford's sixth most-contested opponent in program history. The Spartans' last win in the series came at the Cal Legacy Classic in Berkeley, Calif. on Sept. 8, 2006 (2-1).
LOOKING BACK TO LAST WEEK » Stanford traveled to the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic in Bloomington, Ind. and came away with a loss and a draw against a pair of top-five foes. The Cardinal scored to close the first half, No. 4 Notre Dame caught its first goal in the final minutes of the second and the Irish converted a free kick in the second overtime period to hand Stanford its first loss of the season on Friday night, 2-1. Two days later, the Cardinal played its second scoreless draw of the season, this time with the stalemate coming against No. 5 Indiana.
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.
MENTOR IN TOWN » San Jose State head coach Simon Tobin is in his third season leading the Spartans following a 27-year run at CSU Bakersfield where he amassed a 305-189-54 record. He coached 1993 Bakersfield graduate Jeremy Gunn with the Roadrunners and the current Stanford boss also got his coaching career started as an assistant at his alma mater alongside Tobin. Gunn served as an assistant coach with Bakersfield's men's and women's soccer programs from 1993-1999. The Roadrunners won the 1997 NCAA Division II National Championship and advanced to the 1995 NCAA Final Four. While serving as the men's assistant coach, Gunn also performed duties as the acting head women's coach during the women's program's first two seasons. Gunn was named CCAA conference women's coach of the year after leading the Roadrunner women to a conference championship and national ranking in only their second season.
QUOTABLE » "Simon recruited me when I first came out here in 1989 to go to college at Cal State Bakersfield. The biggest thing I learned from him, both as his player and assistant coach, is if you have a vision and you're willing to push and push and push, you can achieve anything. The program was really struggling when he took over and had no business becoming great. Through his drive and desire, he took a team that was rock bottom in the country and made them champions."
LOGGING MILEAGE » The Cardinal has played more minutes than any other team in college soccer this season (433:47). Michigan (420:00) and Fairfield (410:39) are the only other schools that have logged over 400 minutes. Stanford's four double-overtime matches happened in the span of 10 days.
ALWAYS OT » Stanford has played four consecutive overtime matches for the first time in 18 years. Near the end of the 1998 campaign the Cardinal drew Cal State Fullerton on Nov. 8 (1-1) and California on November 15 (0-0) to close out the regular season. It then beat San Jose State in the third overtime of a first-round NCAA Tournament match on Nov. 21 (3-2) and followed that with a double-overtime victory against San Diego on Nov. 28 (3-1). The Cardinal would reach its first NCAA championship that season, falling to Indiana, 3-1. Stanford had five games go longer than 90 minutes all of last year.
NCAA Overtime Leaders
| School | Overtimes | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Stanford | 4 | 0-1-3 |
| Fairfield | 3 | 1-1-2 |
| Michigan | 3 | 0-1-3 |
| Ohio State | 3 | 0-4-0 |
| Penn State | 3 | 2-1-1 |
CHECKING THE POLLS » Stanford dropped to No. 24 in the NSCAA Top 25 on Tuesday. In a preseason polling of the nation's coaches, the Cardinal was picked as the country's No. 1 team, collecting 20 first-place votes and 579 points. The Cardinal went 18-2-3 a season ago, including a 7-1-2 mark in Pac-12 play, to earn its second consecutive conference title. It tied the school record for fewest losses in a season, tied the second-highest win total in program history and set a Stanford record for league wins.
TOUGH ROAD » The Cardinal has faced the nation's 28th-toughest schedule thus far with its four opponents combining for a .708 winning percentage. That mark is second among the teams in the NSCAA poll behind only No. 16 Kentucky, which has played the country's 14th-toughest schedule (.778).
SEARCHING FOR WIN NO. 1 » Four matches into 2016, Stanford is still in search of its first win. It's the first time since 2010 the Cardinal has gone this far into a season without a victory. That year the team lost its first four before reeling off four straight wins en route to an 8-10-0 overall record. The program has never gone winless in five straight to start a year. Game-by-game records are available beginning in 1973. Dating back to his first season as a head coach at Fort Lewis (1999), this is the first time a Jeremy Gunn-led team has started a season without a win in its first four matches.
CONFINES OF CAGAN » Stanford was unbeaten at Cagan Stadium in 2015 (10-0-2) and is 19-1-8 in its last 28 matches on The Farm. The program's goals-against average at home since 2014 is a miniscule 0.57. The Cardinal was one of seven teams in the nation to go without a loss at home last season, joining Radford (8-0-1), South Carolina (8-0-2), Coastal Carolina (7-0-2), Cal Poly (7-0-2), Loyola Chicago (5-0-2) and Missouri State (4-0-2).
NEW LOOK, SAME STANFORD » A process-oriented bunch, Stanford heads 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 50-21-14 (.671) in his four-plus seasons on The Farm, including 31-6-9 (.772) 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 237-82-45 (.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)
| Coach | Years | Record | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ray Reid, UConn | 27 | 414-109-70 | .757 |
| Carlos Somoano, North Carolina | 5 | 76-19-16 | .757 |
| Jeremy Gunn, Stanford | 17 | 237-81-42 | .717 |
| Steve Sampson, Cal Poly | 6 | 75-24-24 | .707 |
| Jamie Clark, Washington | 8 | 100-36-21 | .704 |
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 (0.74) would be second only to Adam Zapala's 0.63 from 1997-2000. His 125 career saves are four short of tying Drew Hutchins (2010-13) for 10th in the Cardinal record books and his 4,357:12 minutes in goal are already sixth all-time.
TOP TEN » Jeremy Gunn is included on Top Drawer Soccer's recently-unveiled list of the 10 best men's Division I college coaches along with Jared Embick (Akron), Sasho Cirovski (Maryland), Bobby Muuss (Wake Forest), Elmar Bolowich (Creighton), Brian Wiese (Georgetown), Pete Fewing (Seattle), Dave Giffard (VCU), Tim Vom Steef (UC Santa Barbara) and Greg Maas (Utah Valley).
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.
A photo posted by Stanford Men's Soccer (@stanfordmenssoccer) on Jan 8, 2016 at 2:58pm PST
MORE U.S. SOCCER TIES » Amir Bashti is a veteran of the U.S. system as well and most recently played with the U-19s at the 33rd International U-20 Men's COTIF Tournament in Valencia Spain. He was also with the U-20s at the Dallas Cup in late March and was part of a U-20 January training camp in Miami, Florida, at which the U.S. won two matches against local club teams. Last September, Bashti missed a pair of matches when he traveled with the U-20s to Serbia for the Stevan Vilotic-Cele Tournament. Last August, Corey Baird and Tomas Hilliard-Arce joined Brandon Vincent for the first College Identification training camp at the U.S. National Training Center. The camp was comprised of 28 collegians called by U.S. Under-23 Men's National Team head coach Andi Herzog.