Men’s Soccer Prepares for First Away Slate of the Season

In what could be its toughest stretch of the season, Harvard men’s soccer (2-1-1) heads to California this weekend to play No. 25 Stanford (1-1-3) on Friday and The University of California (1-2-1) on Sunday.

This road trip is of importance not only because it’s the team’s first of the season, but also because the trip kicks off with the Crimson facing its toughest opponents, which includes Stanford, the 2015 NCAA Champions. Harvard’s last game against Stanford was in 2011, with the Cardinals ultimately prevailing 1-0 in a highly defensive contest. Going into the weekend’s clash, Stanford holds a 6-1 lead in the series between the two squads.

“It’ll be a great opportunity to play against the national champions of last year, we’re excited for the challenge,” senior forward Jake Freeman said. “We know we can beat any team in the nation and feel that way and just want to get the chance to go out there and show that. It’ll be fun to see where we stand against one of the top teams in the nation.”

After several tests at home, including wins at home against Villanova and its most recent against Washington, the Crimson is more than confident in its ability to handle any opponent and is carrying its momentum into these next few away games.

Stanford will be no easy test, however. Despite starting the season with a rather pedestrian 1-1-3 record after four double-overtime matches, the team still poses a dangerous threat. The potential of the team was seen in its last game, in which four players contributed to its dominant 4-1 victory over San Jose State.

Despite the opponent, Harvard doesn’t plan on going into its matchup with Stanford with any different mindset than it had going into any other game this season.

“We go in every game and we just want to compete for each other” senior midfielder Dan Smith said. “Be it against UW (University of Washington) Hofstra or even Stanford, the defending national champion, we just want to go out and compete.”

Less than 48 hours after its clash with Stanford, the Crimson will turn its attention to its other West Coast opponent: the University of California Golden Bears. This matchup is of note because it is the first time these two teams have faced against each other in almost 17 years, last playing in October of 1999.

Similarly to Stanford, Cal hasn’t gotten off to the strongest of starts this season, most recently losing 5-0 to now No.1 Notre Dame. However, the Golden Bears finished last season with a 9-6-2 record, including a very strong 7-1-2 record at home, and has not lost at home this season. Dating back to 2010-2011 season, Cal has compiled a .623 winning percentage at home compared to a .426 winning percentage on the road, suggesting that it plays significantly better in front of its home crowd.

Despite facing a tough back to back set of games this weekend, Harvard is focused on approaching its opponents one at a time. On the offensive side, the team will look to continue to improve its chemistry to create more chances in is attacking third, and therefore more goals. To do this, it will depend on the efforts of its seniors, who have carried the offense thus far. Defensively, junior goalie Kyle Parks and Smith will need to bring the defense together to keep Stanford and Cal off the scoreboard.

“We just look ahead to the next game on the schedule, which in this case is Friday and we’ll prepare like we have to for that game,” Freeman said. “Once that game is over we’ll prepare for Cal. We’ll have Saturday during the trip to scout them and think about what we want to do for Sunday. But for right now we’re just thinking about Friday for Stanford”.

For this road trip, the team will look to echo Harvard coach Pieter Lehrer’s philosophy of taking on each challenge one at a time, starting with the matchup against the Cardinal.

“I think right now the only game we’re approaching is Stanford and once we’re done with that game the only game we’ll be approaching is Cal.” Smith said.

After its games in California this weekend, the Crimson will play its next game on the road at Iona before returning home on September 27, when it faces off against BU.