I was confident No. 2 seed Clemson would handle No. 15 and winless in the conference Louisville on Wednesday. A touch nervous when they tied it at 1-1 in the 48th minute, but the Tigers scored two goals within the next 12 minutes to win 3-1 and advance to the ACC Quarterfinals.
Clemson (12-2-3) will host the seventh-seeded Stanford Cardinal (9-4-4) on Sunday at 2 p.m. Stanford defeated Clemson at Historic Riggs Field 3-2 on Sept. 6 this year.
Against the plural Cardinals on Wednesday, Clemson was in great control for a vast majority of the game. The Tigers held 58% possession and had a 16-12 shot advantage with 11 on goal to 6 for Louisville.
Our captain, my captain Joran Gerbet broke the scoreless deadlock in the 47th minute with a penalty kick after Tyler Trimnal did a fantastic job of drawing a PK. Trimnal fought with Louisville’s Josh Jones for a ball on the edge of the box. Trimnal got his body positioned in the box and then got the call for the PK.
Was it a weak call? Eh. I’ve seen less called (ahem, UNC game against us).
Louisville tied it up less than a minute later on a long-distance shot that appeared to catch Clemson keeper Paddy Donovan a little slow-footed.
In the 58th minute,
Alex Meinhard put a header off a corner kick in the net for the game-winner. Ransford Gyan took the cross and Adam Lundegard had a lovely flick to Meinhard.
Then, less than two minutes later, our best build-up/possession of the night ended in a
tidy goal from Remi Okunlola to put the birds back in their nest.
Just a solid game from the Tigers. And Paddy D in his first start held up well, making one great save toward the end from point-blank range. He ended the night with five saves.
Round won, and on to the next.
Except, don’t think we forgot to do the Prick of the Game. For about 30 minutes, it was going to be Louisville sport administrator for men’s soccer Zach Brooks. This dude dressed up like H
e Still Knows What We Did Last Summer on the sideline and purposefully stood way too close a Clemson free kick in the 39th minute near their sideline and wouldn’t move. Go back to Paducah you bumpkin.
But then Cardinals midfielder Jack Lewis entered the fray.
Look at this guy and you already hate him. This asshole’s favorite team is Blackpool FC and, well, he played like some Championship menace (Blackpool??? Blackpool. Even people in Blackpool don’t like Blackpool). His favorite music artists are Coldplay, Bruno Mars and Adele – I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP. His favorite athlete is James Milner, who in his 38th year on this planet has played for practically every team in England EXCEPT BLACKPOOL.
But that’s not why Lewis won PotG. In the 62nd minute, right after we all but ended Louisville’s season with the third goal, this sumamma got his lunch money taken by Trimnal, so Lewis tackled Trimnal to earn a yellow card. Forty-seconds later, this jackleg hacks Wahabu Musah outside of the box that should have sent him off, but no foul was called.
A minute later, Lewis swept Antonio Illuminato’s leg after getting juked outside the box – still no second yellow.
In all, Lewis committed four fouls over a 15-minute period and should have been sent off. I don’t know who hurt him, but I will just assume it was Zach Brooks. Enjoy the offseason, chumps.
So, now onto the singular Cardinal. Stanford got here by maybe the most amazing sequence I’ve ever seen in their First Round win over Notre Dame.
The Irish tied the game at 2-2 with 12 seconds remaining and
then this happened. I can’t explain it. As a dad of a keeper, I feel awful for the goalie, but then I remember he plays for Notre Dame and that quickly dissipates.
While geographically Stanford and Clemson are incredibly far apart (2,572 miles between the two stadiums), this will be the fourth game between the two teams in six years (we’ve played UVA less times than that). Overall, Stanford holds a 3-1-1 record over Clemson – the Tigers lone win coming in the NCAA Tournament last year.
In the game back in September, that was when bully-ball was working against us. Clemson outshot the Cardinal 16-9, but was only able to put two on goal, while Stanford had five on goal. Two of their goals were from a PK and an own goal.
Oh, and we were without captain Adam Lundegard in the back who was serving a red card suspension.
Stanford does not play many players – only 14 played in the first game (two of which played less than 10 minutes) and 15 played on Wednesday against ND (two playing less than 122 seconds).
Believe it or not, Wednesday’s win over Notre Dame was Stanford’s first victory since they beat Virginia on Sept. 27 – a span of seven games where they went 1-3-3, including a loss to San Francisco and a draw against Pacific.
Jackson Kiil is a problem – was for us in the first game. He’s the bully and kind of had his way with Lukas Magnason and Titus Sandy Jr. – the former playing in his first ever game and the latter being a first-year starter. On the season, Kiil has four goals and two assists in 14 games played, but he had 6 (!) shots against Notre Dame on Wednesday.
Zach Bohane leads the Cardinal with five goals and three assists and Shane de Flores has four goals and three assists. Fletcher Bank and Will Cleary each have four assists.
This will be a battle – Stanford is one of the preeminent programs in the country year after year. I am glad that we don’t have to fly across the country and play at what would feel like 11 a.m. to the body.
So, let’s chat about Lundegard, the two-time captain of the Tigers. The redshirt-junior from La Plata, Md., has started 54 games for Clemson on the backline over the last two-plus seasons. He is the rock to the backline. Kiil and company won’t be able to bully him and gives Magnason and Sandy Jr., the confidence in his coverage with them.
In high school, he was one of the nation’s most sought-after recruits, playing as a member of Loudoun United FC within the USL Championship and started for Loudoun United against Louisville City FC on June 8, 2019 – his first of five starts. In the summer of 2018, he had a trial with West Ham United, and has been called into the national team camps at various age groups.
Simply: he good. At 6-2, he’s got the height to deal with Kiil (6-3), which will be important – Stanford will create chaos at the near-post on corner kicks.
In games that Lundegard started and finished this season, Clemson is 8-0-1 – the lone draw being that asinine game at Holy Cross. The last time the Tigers lost with him starting and finishing a game was Sept. 22, 2023 at Wake Forest in a 1-0 loss.
With Lundegard on the field, Clemson’s GAA drops to 0.74 – which would rank seventh in the country. Without him it balloons to 2.47, which would rank 197th. Clemson currently sits in 84th place in the category at 1.202. Last year, the number for the national champions was 0.810.
In last year’s matchup in the Elite 8, Lundegard played a full 90 minutes and Stanford had a total of four shots, all of which came after we were up 2-0 and only two of the four were on frame.
Sunday’s winner between the Tigers and Cardinal will take on the third-seeded Duke Blue Devils versus 11th seed Cal on Thursday, Nov. 14 in Cary, N.C., in the semifinals. Time will either be 5:30 or 8 p.m.
Go Tigers! Beat Stanford!
