Men's soccer falls short of College Cup, lose to Stanford 2-0 • The Louisville Cardinal

By Jordan Shim–

With a trip to the College Cup on the line, the fourth-seeded men’s soccer team (14-6-2) were defeated 2-0 by the defending national champions, fifth-seeded Stanford (14-3-4).

Second half goals by Foster Langsdorf and Sam Werner lifted Standford past the Cardinals for their second straight berth to the College Cup.

“We’re just excited with the result,” Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn said. “It was just another tight game of soccer. Ken (Lolla) has done an amazing job. They had a couple of good chances. We had a couple of good chances. On the night, we just managed to take ours. The winning factor on the night was that I think our back four was immense.”

Two of the nation’s top defenses, both teams failed to register a shot on goal through the opening 30 minutes. Louisville was able to harbor Stanford with the offside trap. The Cardinal attacking front led by Langsdorf was limited to one first-half shot. Louisville had more luck with five chances of their own but was unable to convert.

Stanford came out of the break the more aggressive team with early chances. Derek Waldeck came close to giving the defending champs the lead in the 48th minute. Louisville failed to clear a low cross sent into the box and the ball rolled to Waldeck, who fired from six yards, but Cleveland pushed it wide for a corner.

Stanford took the lead in the 63rd minute against the run of play. Bryce Marion beat Danny Reynolds on the right flank and tip-toed down the line. Reynolds was able to slide tackle the ball out for a corner kick. Langsdorf headed the cross swung in by Waldeck but deflected off of a Louisville defender into the back of the net. Langsdorf was credited with the goal for his 15th of the season.

“My role was the goalkeeper,” Langsdorf said. “We have an inswinging cross every single time. And when I saw the flight of the ball, I wasn’t really thinking. I just ran right to the ball and tried to flick it to the back post.”

Restarts have been a reoccuring theme Louisville head coach Ken Lolla has stressed to his team during the year. After failing to defend one that led to the first goal, Stanford doubled the advantage with another. However, no goalkeeper was stopping Sam Werner’s goal in the 79th minute. A free kick from the edge of the box on the right flank, Werner curled an incredible effort to the far left post over the outstretched arms of Louisville goalkeeper Cleveland.

“He hit it well,” Lolla said. “I’m not sure that’s what he intended to do. I think Stef was expecting him to make a cross and he positioned himself for that. If he starts half a step back, he probably gets one hand to it. But again, whether he meant it or not, it was well placed.”

Despite the loss, Tim Kubel believed Louisville did not have a bad game and felt the game went the way they had planned.

“I think we controlled most of the match, to be honest,” Kubel said. “We knew they were a restart team. That’s their game plan, and we should have done better. We executed what we needed to do. It’s just we were a little unfortunate in the attacking third.”

Louisville doubled Stanford shot count, finishing with a 12-6 advantage. Mohamed Thiaw led the way with a game-high five shots.