STANFORD, Calif. - No. 5 Stanford suffered its first defeat of the season on Sunday, dropping a 1-0 loss to Denver at Cagan Stadium. The Cardinal moves to 1-1 on the season.
“We knew it’d be a really tough game against a rock-solid team,” said the Knowles Family Director of Men’s Soccer Jeremy Gunn. “Denver is a great program and very tough to play against so we knew it was going to be a tight and tough game.”
Stanford and Denver were tightly contested throughout the 90 minutes, with neither defense allowing much offensive opportunity. Statistically, the Cardinal was more threatening, tallying nine shots to the Pioneers’ five.
“I’ve got such mixed emotions because I’m so proud of how we played and we were definitely carving out the little bit better chances in a tough game,” added Gunn. “We were doing enough to edge a 1-0 game against a team that just does not want to give goals up.”
The teams came out of the halftime break firmly knotted at 0-0, but it was Denver who broke the deadlock.
“I’m truly proud with so many things about the team, and then I’m absolutely devastated at two moments,” explained Gunn. “Their goal is devastating. We don’t challenge for the first goal kick or the second goal kick, and from our goal kick, we basically have the ball in the back of our net within five seconds.”
“Credit to the Denver players, their centerback wins a strong header and their attacker absolutely buries a great shot,” said Gunn. “So you cannot take anything away from Denver, but I’m absolutely devastated by us letting that goal in.”
The Cardinal continued to battle, earning three corner kicks within six minutes of the goal and applying more pressure for the equalizer. Stanford kept pushing for a goal when a marvelous piece of footwork from Shane de Flores led to a rocketing shot that bounced off the crossbar and straight down to the goal line.
The referee opted to use video review on the play, but no goal was given.
“I’ll have to look back at the video, but to me, it looks like we’ve scored a goal,” said Gunn. “And then we had a few more goalmouth scrambles where we could’ve, would’ve, should’ve, but I’ll credit Denver on those moments because they made it so tough.”
The Cardinal continued to search for an equalizer, but the Denver defense held strong against the Stanford attack.
“I’m so proud of how we played in so many ways and just devastated at ourselves for one moment,” said Gunn. “And then devastated at the world for the other.”
Stanford returns to action at Cagan Stadium on Thursday against Cal State Fullerton at 7 p.m.