No. 1 Stanford (0-0-0)
San Jose State (0-0-0) | Friday • 5 p.m. PT
Laird Q. Cagan Stadium • Stanford, Calif.
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LOOKING AHEAD » The three-time defending national and four-time defending Pac-12 champions, No. 1 Stanford begins its 2018 season at Cagan Stadium on Friday night when it hosts San Jose State at 5 p.m. Pac-12 Networks will carry the opener against the Spartans with Troy Clardy and Christopher Sullivan on the call.
CARDINAL KIDS DAY & COMMEMORATIVE CHAMPIONSHIP SHIRT » Stanford's home opener against San Jose State on Friday is Cardinal Kids Day and fans can receive up to two free youth tickets with the purchase of a paid adult ticket. The first 1,500 fans in attendance will also receive a t-shirt celebrating the program's back-to-back-to-back national championships.
STANFORD-SAN JOSE STATE SERIES » The game against San Jose State will be the 42nd all-time meeting between the two schools, with the Cardinal owning a 24-12-5 edge in records dating back to 1973. The Cardinal won its first season opener since 2012 last August with a 4-0 victory at San Jose State. Sam Werner had a pair of assists, Foster Langsdorf collected his fourth career brace and Stanford had its highest output in its first game of the season since a 5-0 thumping of Sacramento State in 2002. The Spartans' last win in the series came at the Cal Legacy Classic in Berkeley, Calif. on Sept. 8, 2006 (2-1). Stanford has won five straight.
MENTOR IN TOWN » San Jose State head coach Simon Tobin is in his fifth 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.
2017 REWIND » Stanford cemented its dynasty with yet another clinical postseason performance in 2017. On a sequence that began with a throw-in deep in opponent territory, Sam Werner stripped an Indiana player with one touch and stabbed a right-footed shot under the crossbar on his next, at 102:03, to beat the Hoosiers 1-0 and give Stanford just the second three-year championship run in NCAA history.
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CARDINAL QUICK HITTERS »
- Stanford is just the second program to win three straight NCAA titles, joining Virginia which won four in a row from 1991-94. It is also the seventh program to win at least three men's soccer national championships along with Saint Louis (10), Indiana (8), Virginia (7), San Francisco (4), UCLA (4) and Maryland (3).
- Stanford is 52-7-10 (.826) during its three-year championship run.
- The Cardinal did not allow a goal throughout the entire 2017 tournament for the second straight year and upped its NCAA-record postseason shutout streak to 12 - a stretch of 1,214 minutes and 20 seconds. The only other programs to go through a postseason without allowing a goal are Wisconsin (1995) and San Francisco (1976).
- The Cardinal has an active shutout streak of 689:15 and has not allowed a goal in seven consecutive matches. The last goal it surrendered was a Brian Iloski penalty kick against UCLA on November 2, 2017. Stanford hasn't given up a goal in open play since October 19, 2017 at Washington when Kyle Coffee headed in a cross, a span of nine matches and 923:02.
- The Cardinal is also in the midst of a 15-match unbeaten streak, tying the second-longest stretch in program history. Stanford went 15 straight without a defeat during the 2015 season and went 20 games without a loss across the 1996 and 1997 campaigns.
CONSENSUS NO. 1 » Stanford tops every major national poll - United Soccer Coaches, Top Drawer Soccer, Soccer America and College Soccer News - to start the season. The Cardinal was also the pick in the Pac-12 when the conference announced its preseason coaches poll. Stanford tallied 25 points and five first-place votes and was followed by Washington, UCLA, California, Oregon State and San Diego State.
NEW LOOK, SAME STANFORD » A process-oriented bunch, Stanford heads into 2018 with the task of replacing seven starters from a year ago, including the conference's career goal scoring leader Foster Langsdorf and 2017 Top Drawer Soccer Player of the Year Tomas Hilliard-Arce. Those two, along with Corey Baird, Nico Corti, Bryce Marion, Drew Skundrich and Sam Werner led Stanford to three national championships, four Pac-12 titles, a 65-10-13 overall record (.813) and 30-3-7 (.838) in their four years on The Farm. They combined for 71 percent of Stanford's scoring last season (34 of 48) and are all playing professionally. (Nico Corti – RGVFC; Foster Langsdorf – Timbers FC2; Tomas Hilliard-Arce – LA Galaxy; Bryce Marion – RGVFC; Corey Baird – Real Salt Lake; Drew Skundrich – Bethlehem Steel FC; Sam Werner – Israel)
GREAT UNDER GUNN » One of four coaches to win NCAA titles in both Division I and Division II, head coach Jeremy Gunn has led a team to the College Cup final four times in the past seven seasons. He and Virginia's Bruce Arena (1991-94) are the only coaches to win three consecutive NCAA men's soccer championships. His teams are 84-25-18 (.732) in his six seasons on The Farm and he owns a career record of 271-86-49 (.728) in 19 seasons, a mark which makes him the fourth winningest active coach at the Division I level and the 18th winningest coach all-time (both by percentage). Gunn and his staff were named the 2017 National Staff of the Year by United Soccer Coaches and he also secured the first national men's coach of the year award handed out by Top Drawer Soccer.
One responsibility. #GoStanford
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KENNEDY PROMOTED » On Wednesday, third-year assistant Oige Kennedy was promoted to associate head coach. Working primarily with the Cardinal's keepers, Kennedy's first two years on The Farm have been hugely successful. In 2017, Nico Corti put together the best statistical season for a goalkeeper in Stanford men's soccer history. He finished second in the country in both goals against average (0.386) and solo shutouts (14), set Pac-12 records in both categories, a school record in goals against average and tied the school record in solo shutouts. A year prior, Andrew Epstein made two consecutive penalty kick saves in the College Cup final against Wake Forest to lead the Cardinal to its second straight national championship. That season, Epstein was named the College Cup's Defensive Most Outstanding Player, a United Soccer Coaches Second Team All-American, CoSIDA First Team Academic All-American and finished seventh in the country in goals against average (0.571). Corti (0.00) and Epstein (0.34) are first and second in NCAA history in career postseason goals against average and just the fifth and sixth keepers in college soccer history to go through an entire postseason without allowing a single goal.
MAKE IT FOUR » Stanford finished its most recent regular season 15-2-1 overall and was unbeaten in conference action for the first time (9-0-1). The Cardinal's 2017 conference title sits on the mantle alongside championships from 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2001. Stanford became the second Pac-12 school to win four in a row. UCLA won the same number of consecutive conference crowns from 2002-05. Jeremy Gunn is the only coach in league history to win more than two consecutive Pac-12 titles as UCLA's four-year run was split evenly between Tom Fitzgerald and Jorge Salcedo.
CONFINES OF CAGAN » Stanford went 10-1-2 at home in 2016, 15th in the country in percentage (.846) and tied for seventh in wins. The Cardinal has posted a 37-3-8 (.854) record at home over the past four seasons with a goals against average of 0.50.
SCORE TWICE AND WIN » Stanford has scored two or more goals in 66 of Jeremy Gunn's 127 matches as Stanford's head coach and is 60-0-6 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.
FOREIGN TOUR » In late March, Stanford went on a foreign tour of England that included stops in London and Manchester and matches against academy sides from Fulham (W, 3-0), Queens Park Rangers (W, 5-2) and Bradford City (W, 3-1). A 20-minute documentary from Ingredient Films on the team's trip has garnered more than 60,000 views on YouTube and will debut on Pac-12 Networks immediately following the match against San Jose State.
DESTINATION STANFORD » In early August, AC Milan 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. Liverpool came during the summer of 2016 and the USMNT was on campus for camp before the 2014 FIFA World Cup and within the past five years Stanford has also hosted Manchester United, Italian giant Juventus and English side Norwich City.