Men's Soccer Falls Twice on Trip to California

In its first pair of road clashes, the Harvard men’s soccer team traveled to the Bay Area to face off against perennial powerhouses No. 25 Stanford and California, returning home with a pair of defeats at the hands of the Pac-12 schools.

After opening with a 3-1 loss to the defending national champion Cardinal (3-1-3) on Friday, the Crimson (2-3-1) was unable to respond against the Golden Bears (3-2-1), falling to a 6-2 loss. Though the results were not the ones the team was looking for, the experience gained from this weekend could prove to be a pivotal turning point going into Ivy play.

“I think two months from now...we’re going to look back at this week pretty fondly,” senior defender Dan Smith said. “The strength of our team is we have these games and these weekends and we bounce back and get better for it... this will be the point where we got better.”

CALIFORNIA 6, HARVARD 2

Five goals from Cal senior forward Christian Thierjung doomed Harvard to a 6-2 loss in the latter game of its California road trip, as Thierjung managed to get off eight shots on goal, the same as the entire Crimson squad.

After Cal’s attack failed to break through for the first 25 minutes, Thierjung opened the scoring after beating the offside trap and poking the ball past Harvard junior keeper Kyle Parks before sophomore forward Spencer Held doubled the advantage just ten minutes later.

In the second half, it was the Thierjung show, as the forward demonstrated his instinct for goal by finding the back of the net four times in the span of 26 minutes to secure the 6-2 scoreline. Despite the final score, it wasn’t all bad news for the Crimson.

Harvard sophomore forward Cesar Farias tallied his first career goal in the 50th minute to cut the deficit to 3-1 while freshman forward Philip Hausen set up classmate Matthew Glass for the second Crimson goal.

The team fired 16 shots at the Cal goal, eight of them on target, while Parks made a season-high six saves.

Though the Harvard defense was challenged constantly throughout the road trip, co-captain Andrew Wheeler-Omiunu emphasized the team will continue to stick to its defensive approach and adjust accordingly for each opponent.

“Every team presents a new challenge that you have to prepare for,” Wheeler-Omiunu said. “In terms of tightening up, we’ll stay in our defensive principles… outside of that it will be depending on the scout.”

STANFORD 3, HARVARD 1

The first nine minutes of the game was all Stanford needed as the Cardinal scored three goals in that span en route to a 3-1 victory over Harvard.

While the Crimson contained the Stanford offense for the remainder of the game, it was unable to find the goals it needed to get back in the game,getting off only three shots on goal.

“[We need] to be more patient with the ball in the attacking third,” senior forward Jake Freeman said. “When we’re more patient, really get setup possession wise we can be dangerous…. Secondly it’s about commitment getting to the box to score goal whether it’s on set pieces or the run of play.”

Less than a minute into the game, Cardinal freshman Tanner Beason converted from the penalty spot after teammate Foster Langsdorf was brought down in the box by Harvard junior Tyler Savitsky.

A few minutes later, Langsdorf slotted a shot past Parks after the Crimson goalie was caught off guard while attempting to distribute the ball from within his box.

Just before the 10 minute mark, Harvard conceded another penalty after Parks crashed into Langsdorf in the corner of the box.

Though the junior keeper guessed the right way, Langsdorf shot was too powerful to stop as the Cardinal took a three goal lead.

From there, the Crimson defense began to click as Parks and the backline withheld the Stanford attack for the remainder of the game.

While the Cardinal managed to get two more shots to hit the crossbar, it was unable to penetrate the Harvard backline as the Crimson fought to get back into the game.

“We did a really good job of continuing to do what we do and continuing to push even when results weren’t going our way,” Smith said. “The fighting reaction we had was really good.”

Harvard’s lone consolation goal came in the 80th minute, after a cross hit the arm of a Stanford player to give the Crimson a penalty that Freeman cooly slotted into the back of the net.

Stanford stymied any attempt at a late flurry of goals from the Crimson, as Harvard was unable to register a shot on goal for the remainder of the contest.

–Staff writer Julio Fierro can be reached at julio.fierro@thecrimson.com