LSJU M soccer 2026 - Printable Version

LSJU M soccer 2026 - Printable Version

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LSJU M soccer 2026 - Nobadeer - 08-12-2026

Went to Cagan for today's M soccer (preseason ranked 9th) exhibition v Sac St.

Coach Gunn recruited the #2 class in the nation, and the 10 new freshmen are *tall*, all are at least 6 feet, and four of the non-goalies are 6-3 or taller. This has to be one of the tallest LSJU M soccer rosters ever.

The starters played about half of each half, looked quite good, and then the frosh entered. Small sample size, but yes, tall (!) and fast, and looking fairly skilled for a debut exhibition.

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - PVTree - 08-13-2026

One thing that I noticed about US college soccer (I have attended countless games at all levels in different parts of the world) is that it is always high pressure all the time.

The player with the ball always has someone sprinting at them to take it away. That leads to a lot of long kicks to the other side of the field as to not lose possession in your half.

That doesn't happen in many leagues. I attribute it to the substitutions that are allowed at the NCAA level.

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - Nobadeer - 08-13-2026

Yes, as long as I can remember, college men's soccer has been quite frenetic and kinetic and physical. Not always perfect for spectating but rarely dull!

LSJU M soccer has had some great and dynamic players going back to the late 1990s and hopefully this year's edition will be at least equally so.

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - rogpodge - 08-14-2026

(08-12-2026, 10:37 PM)Nobadeer Wrote: Went to Cagan for today's M soccer (preseason ranked 9th) exhibition v Sac St.

Coach Gunn recruited the #2 class in the nation, and the 10 new freshmen are *tall*, all are at least 6 feet, and four of the non-goalies are 6-3 or taller. This has to be one of the tallest LSJU M soccer rosters ever.

The starters played about half of each half, looked quite good, and then the frosh entered. Small sample size, but yes, tall (!) and fast, and looking fairly skilled for a debut exhibition.

I hear Peter Crouch isn't doing anything at the moment (podcasting). Is he available to coach for cheap?

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - Hieronymus - 08-16-2026

Are any of the Frosh and elite scorer? This has been a very good team the last few years, but they haven’t had an elite forward and the defense has been good but not lockdown. Eventually they give up a goal they aren’t able to get back in the tournament.

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - BobK - 08-16-2026

Stanford beat Cal Poly last night 2-0!

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - Nobadeer - 08-20-2026

LSJU, ranked 9th nationally, beat Grand Canyon 2-1 at Cagan. I wasn't there but heard it on KZSU. Per the student announcers, half the LSJU starting lineup were freshmen.

GCU, ranked 21st, upset Ucla in last year's NCAA tournament. They have *19* foreign players, from Canada, Europe and Africa . . .

LSJU scored first on a spectacular bicycle kick by soph Eric Frintu (highlights on the ESPN app), GCU equalized, and LSJU's Alex Chow from Palo Alto HS scored the winner on a left foot laser with less than 20 minutes remaining. Chow is LSJU's version of Lionel Messi, listed at 5-6 /140 with a solid left foot. He looked good last week in attacking midfield in the exhibition with Sac St. and the KZSU announcers named him their man of the match tonight. A few minutes before he scored the game winner, he was fouled hard on a breakaway and it sounded like he went airborne from the contact.

Next match is at Cagan on Sunday evening vs. U of Denver.

If any CardBoarders were at Cagan tonight, would love to hear their report.

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - Hieronymus - 08-21-2026

Overall fairly even game. 2 highlight reel goals with a side volley and a 25 yd bomb isn’t a sustainable offensive plan though.

I liked the Chow revenge goal almost immediately after suffering an orange card foul.

Stanford conceded while pressing. GCU got the ball quickly forward to the Stanford right and the backside didn’t rotate back quickly enough. GCU player was wide open for a simple cross about 10 yds out.

Pretty chippy game. On the one hand, the referee let too much go and almost lost control a few times. On the other, it never completely spiraled into chaos. Living on a very thin line in this game.

Overall it’s a win against a ranked team filled with international pros; so definitely more good than bad. Grand Canyon is likely to be a lot tougher late in the season after they have had some time to jell.

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - BostonCard - 08-21-2026

The Frintu bicycle kick goal: https://x.com/stanfordmsoccer/status/2090650185173025072?s=61
Chow’s Messi-like goal: https://x.com/stanfordmsoccer/status/2090657683783184600?s=61. The buildup was almost better than the shot (which itself was quite nice). You can see how little he was bothered by the defender, who was a head taller, as he set up for his shot.

BC

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - Spiny_Norman - 08-25-2026

Stanford fell behind Denver 1-0 in the 1st half on Sunday, then stormed back to win 3-1 (not counting a late goal that was waved off). I really liked to see that Stanford kept the foot on the gas even after they took the lead.

The voters were impressed as well. Stanford is ranked #1 this week in the coach's poll. Stanford's opponent on Thursday, San Diego, is ranked #2.

If you are a soccer fan, Thursday is going to be an amazing double header at Laird Q Cagan Stadium with the #1 vs. #2 men's match only a warm-up for the main event in the evening when the #1 Stanford women take on UCLA.

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - Papa John - 08-27-2026

#1 Stanford takes down #2 U San Diego 1-0. The winning goal was scored with only 1:30 remaining in regulation when little-used freshman Calder Zirn blocked two USD attempts at clearing the ball in front of the USD goal. The second clearance attempt was by the USD goalkeeper, who had the ball passed back to him by his own teammate. Zirn deflected the keeper's clearing kick into the back of the net. There was a long review--for what I cannot tell you--that confirmed the goal.

Until the ACC Network posts the game highlights, here is the only video that I can find of the winning goal:

https://x.com/StanfordMSoccer/status/2093143615065444831

If you're wondering why the USD goalkeeper didn't pick up the ball, my former AYSO-assistant-referee self reminded me that when a teammate deliberately kicks the ball to his own goalkeeper, the GK cannot use his hands. If he does, it results in an indirect free kick for the attacking team. There are others on this board who know far more about soccer than I do, but I think this was the last defender's fault--he should have attempted to clear the ball to the touch line rather than put his GK in such a difficult position.

Still, great hustle by Zirn to force the mistake, and a great resume-building win for Stanford!

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - dabigv13 - 08-27-2026

Yup, the defender left his keeper out to dry with that pass. Not a pretty goal but very timely. The review took forever, and with no replay for the viewers or the announcers, was a big bummer.

Defense looked solid and I liked some moves from Chow, though at least in the second half when I was watching, the team didn't seem to keep possession well.

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - Papa John - 08-27-2026

(08-27-2026, 07:39 PM)dabigv13 Wrote: Defense looked solid and I liked some moves from Chow, though at least in the second half when I was watching, the team didn't seem to keep possession well.

I watched off-and-on throughout the game. Stanford had a lot of possession in the latter stages of the first half and more shots (albeit not on goal), but USD had some quality chances to score but, obviously, did not convert. Stanford GK Schnebly had a great save in the first half.

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - BostonCard - 08-27-2026

I have often wondered why teams don’t pressure the keeper when the ball is passed back to them. 99 out of 100 times its a routine pass out, but all it takes is one fumbled dribble or bad pass and its a wide open goal.

BC

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - DenverCard - 08-27-2026

Some observations, speculations, and opinions about SU-USD and men's soccer 2026.

Regarding the winning goal, I heard that Calder Zirn had played only about 3 minutes prior to coming on with about 3 1/2 minutes left, at which time Stanford had a corner kick. He's 6'5" and I said out loud (to myself), wouldn't it be something if he scored the winning goal (thinking header off the corner kick). And then a couple of minutes later he did score the winning way in a very unexpected way.

I have to believe the very long VAR was to check to see if the ball bounced up and hit his arm on either of the blocks he made that resulted in his goal. Watching on YouTube TV I could rewind and generate my own replays, and I was pretty confident the goal would stand. Especially since none of the USD players protested when the goal occurred, as they would have if anyone saw a hand ball.

So far this year Jeremy Gunn has been very uncharacteristic with his substitutions, both in terms of amount and timing. He's playing just about everyone, as if it pre-season. Only the goalie, Schnebly and defender/captain Groeneveld never come out. And small statured, big-hearted Alex Chow is high up in the minutes. Even star Jack Pymm comes out, and he was out at crunchtime against USD. But he has a knock (wrist injury) and had a yellow card today, so maybe those factors contributed. The other strange aspect of the subbing is that Gunn put a few sub defenders in late against Grand Canyon and they hadn't played at all up until that time. Highly unusual for Gunn, who is usually conservative in such situations. Presumably he's still sizing up who will get the minutes as the season progresses, but per my memory, even by this point early in a season he has his rotation of 4-5 subs, and it doesn't change much thereafter.

(Back, back, in the day I played very sporadically for Nelson Lodge at Stanford, and he was the anti--Gunn, insofar as he would make the most random and impulsive decisions about players and minutes in the game. A guy who hadn't played for 15 games would all of a sudden be a starter for three games, and then never play again. Drove the seniors on the team, including one Laird Q. Cagan, bonkers. They almost mutinied, to the extent that a college soccer team could back then. But I digress.)

As to Stanford's tactics, what is with all the high school soccer level panic boot it out of the back? It seems so unnecessary much of the time, as well as craven and usually ineffective. Stanford could, and at times did, play with possession today, and they were a match for USD when they did. But so often they just blasted it from the back, at times when the Stanford player doing the blasting was not under any threat. That #1 ranking is not only way too premature, but if they feel the need to play boot-and-hope much of the time, it very much belies such a ranking. They look very ordinary when they play that way.

And what is with the kickoff strategy in which the ball is blasted out of bounds in the opposing half of the field? I know they do it at the highest level of soccer, but it's completely illogical. If that is your best move at kickoff when under no pressure, would that not be the best strategy throughout the game? Every time you possess the ball in your own half, kick it out of bounds deep in the opponents half and play defense to try to win it back.

Absent today was Joshua Partal, who went off early against Denver with an injury and did not return. He was in street clothes today.

At the beginning of the game I listened to the broadcast for anything about Pymm's injury (his wrist was wrapped), about Partal's injury, or why the flag was at half-mast. (What did I miss in the news recently? Not for Dolly Parton's death...or could it be?) However, the announcers addressed none of those items; in fact, they failed to discuss the line-up at all. Instead, from the get-go they began their barrage of cliches, platitudes, and other completely tedious drivel...and they did not let up the entire game. I hate to be so critical, as they are probably announcing the game for nothing more than the experience of doing so but good God, man, can we have a) Some original thought? b) Analysis of the strategy, tactics, or perspective on the content of the game?, or c) Information that is not available on gostanford.com? I used to think that only hearing my brother eat caused misophonia in me, but the broadcasts of Stanford soccer are now a second stimuli I try to avoid, although I did turn the sound back on after the goal was scored.

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - rogpodge - 08-27-2026

(08-27-2026, 09:06 PM)DenverCard Wrote: Some observations, speculations, and opinions about SU-USD and men's soccer 2026.

Regarding the winning goal, I heard that Calder Zirn had played only about 3 minutes prior to coming on with about 3 1/2 minutes left, at which time Stanford had a corner kick. He's 6'5" and I said out loud (to myself), wouldn't it be something if he scored the winning goal (thinking header off the corner kick). And then a couple of minutes later he did score the winning way in a very unexpected way.

I have to believe the very long VAR was to check to see if the ball bounced up and hit his arm on either of the blocks he made that resulted in his goal. Watching on YouTube TV I could rewind and generate my own replays, and I was pretty confident the goal would stand. Especially since none of the USD players protested when the goal occurred, as they would have if anyone saw a hand ball.

So far this year Jeremy Gunn has been very uncharacteristic with his substitutions, both in terms of amount and timing. He's playing just about everyone, as if it pre-season. Only the goalie, Schnebly and defender/captain Groeneveld never come out. And small statured, big-hearted Alex Chow is high up in the minutes. Even star Jack Pymm comes out, and he was out at crunchtime against USD. But he has a knock (wrist injury) and had a yellow card today, so maybe those factors contributed. The other strange aspect of the subbing is that Gunn put a few sub defenders in late against Grand Canyon and they hadn't played at all up until that time. Highly unusual for Gunn, who is usually conservative in such situations. Presumably he's still sizing up who will get the minutes as the season progresses, but per my memory, even by this point early in a season he has his rotation of 4-5 subs, and it doesn't change much thereafter.

(Back, back, in the day I played very sporadically for Nelson Lodge at Stanford, and he was the anti--Gunn, insofar as he would make the most random and impulsive decisions about players and minutes in the game. A guy who hadn't played for 15 games would all of a sudden be a starter for three games, and then never play again. Drove the seniors on the team, including one Laird Q. Cagan, bonkers. They almost mutinied, to the extent that a college soccer team could back then. But I digress.)

As to Stanford's tactics, what is with all the high school soccer level panic boot it out of the back? It seems so unnecessary much of the time, as well as craven and usually ineffective. Stanford could, and at times did, play with possession today, and they were a match for USD when they did. But so often they just blasted it from the back, at times when the Stanford player doing the blasting was not under any threat. That #1 ranking is not only way too premature, but if they feel the need to play boot-and-hope much of the time, it very much belies such a ranking. They look very ordinary when they play that way.

And what is with the kickoff strategy in which the ball is blasted out of bounds in the opposing half of the field? I know they do it at the highest level of soccer, but it's completely illogical. If that is your best move at kickoff when under no pressure, would that not be the best strategy throughout the game? Every time you possess the ball in your own half, kick it out of bounds deep in the opponents half and play defense to try to win it back.

Absent today was Joshua Partal, who went off early against Denver with an injury and did not return. He was in street clothes today.

At the beginning of the game I listened to the broadcast for anything about Pymm's injury (his wrist was wrapped), about Partal's injury, or why the flag was at half-mast. (What did I miss in the news recently? Not for Dolly Parton's death...or could it be?) However, the announcers addressed none of those items; in fact, they failed to discuss the line-up at all. Instead, from the get-go they began their barrage of cliches, platitudes, and other completely tedious drivel...and they did not let up the entire game. I hate to be so critical, as they are probably announcing the game for nothing more than the experience of doing so but good God, man, can we have a) Some original thought? b) Analysis of the strategy, tactics, or perspective on the content of the game?, or c) Information that is not available on gostanford.com? I used to think that only hearing my brother eat caused misophonia in me, but the broadcasts of Stanford soccer are now a second stimuli I try to avoid, although I did turn the sound back on after the goal was scored.

Long goal kicks have been a trend since PSG used them to win back to back Champions League trophies. Arsenal used it a bit last season with David Raya spraying the ball long, and relying on a stout defense to get the ball back.

https://www.premierleague.com/en/news/4407434/analysis-four-tactical-trends-redefining-the-premier-league

We saw a bit of it from France in the World Cup. In short, if you believe that your midfielders are great at counterpressing, and winning balls, it is better to turn it over deep in your opponent's half, press and cause a turnover, and attack from a better position, than building from the back.

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - Spike - 08-28-2026

(08-27-2026, 09:06 PM)DenverCard Wrote: Some observations, speculations, and opinions about SU-USD and men's soccer 2026.

Regarding the winning goal, I heard that Calder Zirn had played only about 3 minutes prior to coming on with about 3 1/2 minutes left, at which time Stanford had a corner kick. He's 6'5" and I said out loud (to myself), wouldn't it be something if he scored the winning goal (thinking header off the corner kick). And then a couple of minutes later he did score the winning way in a very unexpected way.

I have to believe the very long VAR was to check to see if the ball bounced up and hit his arm on either of the blocks he made that resulted in his goal. Watching on YouTube TV I could rewind and generate my own replays, and I was pretty confident the goal would stand. Especially since none of the USD players protested when the goal occurred, as they would have if anyone saw a hand ball.

So far this year Jeremy Gunn has been very uncharacteristic with his substitutions, both in terms of amount and timing. He's playing just about everyone, as if it pre-season. Only the goalie, Schnebly and defender/captain Groeneveld never come out. And small statured, big-hearted Alex Chow is high up in the minutes. Even star Jack Pymm comes out, and he was out at crunchtime against USD. But he has a knock (wrist injury) and had a yellow card today, so maybe those factors contributed. The other strange aspect of the subbing is that Gunn put a few sub defenders in late against Grand Canyon and they hadn't played at all up until that time. Highly unusual for Gunn, who is usually conservative in such situations. Presumably he's still sizing up who will get the minutes as the season progresses, but per my memory, even by this point early in a season he has his rotation of 4-5 subs, and it doesn't change much thereafter.

(Back, back, in the day I played very sporadically for Nelson Lodge at Stanford, and he was the anti--Gunn, insofar as he would make the most random and impulsive decisions about players and minutes in the game. A guy who hadn't played for 15 games would all of a sudden be a starter for three games, and then never play again. Drove the seniors on the team, including one Laird Q. Cagan, bonkers. They almost mutinied, to the extent that a college soccer team could back then. But I digress.)

As to Stanford's tactics, what is with all the high school soccer level panic boot it out of the back? It seems so unnecessary much of the time, as well as craven and usually ineffective. Stanford could, and at times did, play with possession today, and they were a match for USD when they did. But so often they just blasted it from the back, at times when the Stanford player doing the blasting was not under any threat. That #1 ranking is not only way too premature, but if they feel the need to play boot-and-hope much of the time, it very much belies such a ranking. They look very ordinary when they play that way.

And what is with the kickoff strategy in which the ball is blasted out of bounds in the opposing half of the field? I know they do it at the highest level of soccer, but it's completely illogical. If that is your best move at kickoff when under no pressure, would that not be the best strategy throughout the game? Every time you possess the ball in your own half, kick it out of bounds deep in the opponents half and play defense to try to win it back.

Absent today was Joshua Partal, who went off early against Denver with an injury and did not return. He was in street clothes today.

At the beginning of the game I listened to the broadcast for anything about Pymm's injury (his wrist was wrapped), about Partal's injury, or why the flag was at half-mast. (What did I miss in the news recently? Not for Dolly Parton's death...or could it be?) However, the announcers addressed none of those items; in fact, they failed to discuss the line-up at all. Instead, from the get-go they began their barrage of cliches, platitudes, and other completely tedious drivel...and they did not let up the entire game. I hate to be so critical, as they are probably announcing the game for nothing more than the experience of doing so but good God, man, can we have a) Some original thought? b) Analysis of the strategy, tactics, or perspective on the content of the game?, or c) Information that is not available on gostanford.com? I used to think that only hearing my brother eat caused misophonia in me, but the broadcasts of Stanford soccer are now a second stimuli I try to avoid, although I did turn the sound back on after the goal was scored.

The tv announcers for men and women’s games did not announce the game. They rambled on and left it to us to guess which player even had possession of the ball.
The ESPN video quality sucks.
There are lots of new faces on the team. Hard to identify them with no help from the announcers.

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - ca245 - 08-28-2026

Quote:The tv announcers for men and women’s games did not announce the game. They rambled on and left it to us to guess which player even had possession of the ball.
The ESPN video quality sucks.
There are lots of new faces on the team. Hard to identify them with no help from the announcers.

I miss the PAC12-Net and PAC-12 Bay Area. You didn't have to stream the. games; you could see and tape them live.

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - Hieronymus - 08-29-2026

(08-28-2026, 12:18 PM)ca245 Wrote:
Quote:The tv announcers for men and women’s games did not announce the game. They rambled on and left it to us to guess which player even had possession of the ball.
The ESPN video quality sucks.
There are lots of new faces on the team. Hard to identify them with no help from the announcers.

I miss the PAC12-Net and PAC-12 Bay Area. You didn't have to stream the. games; you could see and tape them live.

Yeah all of the money the PAC12 dumped into the network did result in a solid TV product. The ACC stuff borders on high school level at times.

RE: LSJU M soccer 2026 - DenverCard - 08-31-2026

Another by-the-skin-of-its-teeth win for the Card last night v. UC Davis. As noted in another thread, 25 seconds in UC Davis scored on a shot from outside the box, and they almost scored again moments later. The rest of the first half brought to mind Mike Tyson's line about everyone having a plan until they get punched in the nose.

But the second half was vastly better. Joshua Partal returned from injury (sooner than expected, per what the announcer said in the first half) and he settled things down. Apart from taking free kicks and corners, which he does very well, I often wondered why he, rather than other players who seemed similar, played extended minutes. But his value was apparent to me against UC Davis, as to my eyes he made a brobdingnagian difference in helping to control the field. Also very impactful was Jack Pymm, who was in the middle of everything offensive and who hit a wicked shot that struck the crossbar at pace. He scored on a PK, the second in two games.

In accordance with my preference that Stanford live or die by the sword of possession, during last night's game they tended to build from the back during the second half and they dominated for all but brief periods.

Giving credit where it is due, last night's announcer flew solo, and I thought he did a very good job. At the outset he addressed Partal's injury, stating that he was expected back at the next game. The announcer commented on events in the game, with which the viewer could agree or disagree, but in either case it fostered engagement. He identified substitutions, and he pointed out how, in the second half, Gunn put two offensive-minded midfielders in the outside back positions (Jude Stone and Tim Fortier), which, along with bringing in Partal, juiced the attack, big time.

Next up: San Jose State Friday. Last year 2-2 in a game that San Jose State had the better chances, per my recollection.