By: Noah Allison
Louisville’s 18th ranked men’s soccer team fell to eighth ranked Stanford in a 1-0 loss on Monday night. The loss brings Louisville to a 1-1 record early into the season.
Stanford’s junior forward Jordan Morris scored the game’s lone goal in the 80th minute. Morris spent time this past summer on USA’s national team and is one of the nation’s premier scorers.
“He was a threat for some part of the game but overall I think we did a good job containing him. There is a lot of hype around him but I don’t think we did bad against him,” junior defender Michael DeGraffenreidt said. “(On the goal) we just fell asleep for a moment. It can’t happen and we definitely can’t let it happen in the future. We have a lot to work on.”
Louisville weathered a few Stanford attacks early on and made a game of it. Each team executed dangerous set pieces and played solid defense on the back line. The difference in the game was a brief moment of not holding defensive positions that Stanford quickly capitalized off of.
“The game plan was to make sure that we won the territorial battle,” head coach Ken Lolla said. “Stanford, what they want to do is play in your end. Play an up tempo game and I think we did a good job at winning that battle for large portions of the game. All in all I think we had some good possession in their half, some dangerous possession, and a overall we did a pretty effective job at shutting them down.”
Defensively the Cards started two freshmen, a sophomore and a junior on the back line. Despite the youth they handled an attacking minded Stanford offense.
“They are young. Its really the first time that group has played together so I think they’ll continue to get better but I think tonight was a great opportunity for them to learn and grow and I think they did. They handled it very well,” Lolla said.
Just two games into the season the young Cardinals have had a chance to gauge themselves against a top-ten team in the country. Putting on a solid performance the Cards can walk away with a bad taste in their mouths knowing the result could have been in their favor.
“They’re (Stanford) a good team. They’re going to win a lot of games this year. You would expect them to be in the NCAA Tournament at the end and I think based on tonight we did enough to win the game. Which sais that we are a good team,” Lolla concluded. “We’re not good enough yet. We have a lot of work to do.”
