Recap: No. 3 Stanford Men’s Soccer forces late tie at San Jose State
On Wednesday, No. 3 Stanford men’s soccer tied San Jose State on the road by a final score of 2-2. Stanford center back Alfonso Tenconi-Gradillas got a brace, scoring both goals for the Cardinal at 2:42 and 89:23 while San Jose State forward Arnold Matshazi got a brace as well, scoring both goals for the Spartans at 23:44 and 53:16. Stanford is now 6-1-1 on the season while San Jose State is now 4-1-2.
BOX SCORE: Stanford at San Jose State-Wednesday, September 17th
“Yeah, I mean look, from the kickoff San Jose just looked a bit sharper than us,” Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn said after the match. “It’s a college season, we’ve played more games than anybody, we’ve done more travel, but these are all excuses. We’ve got to perform at the kickoff and they were just a little bit livelier, a little bit sharper overall. Now we score a great corner, that’s a great goal, great execution, but we were second best too much tonight.
“They are a very good team. They are very sharp team, but we have to be more assertive, we’ve got to be sharper, we’ve got to have our intensity with what we’re doing and so it was a tough night for us but at 1-1 you know neither team really was carving out too many chances, but then they get the go ahead goal against a tired team and that’s tough. And so yet again the mentality of the team, the drive of the team, the fight of the team, the fitness of the team comes through because even though that was a tough tough night for us we still fought our way into creating chances late and getting a tying goal. And so, you know I’m so proud of how we fought back on a night where it wasn’t quite there for us and so well done for the comeback, but we’ve gotta rest up and we’ve gotta be sharper come Sunday.”
Stanford came out aggressively, getting corner kicks at the 39th second of the match and again at 2:11. At 2:42, shortly after that second corner kick, Tenconi-Gradillas found the top left of the goal off an assist from Joshua Partal. That gave Stanford a 1-0 lead.
“Yeah, very early in the match, very similar set piece and just it’s all about winning that first post zone and we’ve been working on that a lot of this year and just again managed to get off my marker and get a nice flick and I mean yeah the rest is good,” Tenconi-Gradillas said of his first goal. “Yeah, if you can get a flick on target, it’s super hard to defend against those balls. So again, happy to help out.”
Over the next 20 minutes, things would get chippy as San Jose State had two yellow cards while Stanford had one. There were also multiple fouls called in addition to those yellow cards. At 23:44, Matshazi scored his first goal of the match, finding the bottom left of the goal off his right foot off an assist from Ruben Flores-Thompson. It was now tied up 1-1.
Stanford would get a corner kick at 30:54 but wouldn’t score off that chance and San Jose State didn’t get another corner kick the rest of the half. As a result of a lack of quality chances, it was tied up 1-1 at halftime. Stanford was out-shooting San Jose State 6-2 and was up 3-0 on corner kicks.
In the second half, Stanford was the first team to get a corner kick at 49:20. However, San Jose State would soon find the back of the net at 53:16 as Matshazi scored his second goal of the night off an assist from Cameron Cook. The goal would go to the bottom center of the goal off Matshazi’s right foot.
Down 2-1, Stanford needed to find a way to even things up. They would get corner kicks at 76:36, 78:16, and 78:38, but none of these chances led to a goal. San Jose State would then get a corner kick at 79:25, but Stanford was able to prevent them from scoring.
Over the next few minutes, it looked like we would be heading towards a San Jose State victory as Stanford was unable to get any good looks at the goal. Stanford finally found daylight by getting a corner kick at 89:08. Off that kick, Partal was able to get another assist to Tenconi-Gradillas, who found the bottom left of the goal. That tied it up 2-2.
“Yeah, I mean we, I think it was like a minute to go and we were just sort of saying let’s try and get one more ball in the box and see what happens, and we’ve been dangerous all year with the set pieces,” Tenconi-Gradillas recalled. “So it was a big chance for us and just happy to be able to get it in. It was great ball from Josh. Happy to just have helped the team, man.”
“No, and it’s great, you know, and he’s doing wonderful with that, you know,” Gunn said of Tenconi-Gradillas. “But he’s playing incredible at center back and he’s taking care of business on set pieces so well done.”
San Jose State would get one final possession and chance to win the match with a corner kick at 89:36, but they weren’t able to score, making it a 2-2 final score. Stanford was able to avoid the loss.
For Stanford, they should be feeling relieved they escaped with a tie as opposed to picking up a loss. While a tie wasn’t the goal they had coming into the match, to keep fighting and find the back of the net in the 90th minute speaks to their resolve and determination. They didn’t give up and were hell bent on making sure they didn’t lose the match. As a result, they preserve their 19-year unbeaten streak against the Spartans.
This match held some personal connection for both programs as San Jose State head coach Simon Tobin and Jeremy Gunn go way back. Tobin coached Gunn at Cal State Bakersfield and got Gunn his first break in coaching. This is Tobin’s last year coaching, so it meant a lot for Gunn to face off against his old coach one final time.
“Look, I owe everything in my career to Simon,” Gunn said of Tobin. “He supported me, he gave me the opportunity as a player, he gave me the opportunity as an assistant coach and he’s been there as a mentor my entire career. And so I owe everything to him and everything I learned as a player and then everything I learned as a coach has always been carried with me and we’ve had the most incredible memories together and we’ve competed against each other for a number of years; and so a great coach and a great man and I wish him all the best and hopefully they have a tremendous season for him in his last year.”
Up next for Stanford is their ACC home opener against Virginia Tech on Sunday, September 21st at 7:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
“We get our rest, we regroup, and I think we’ll be really energetic, really excited to be playing at home in front of the students that will be back and in full force,” Gunn said looking ahead to Sunday. “So can we get everybody out there cheering us on and we can make can we make it a super exciting home opener for conference.”
“Yeah, we’re super excited,” Tenconi-Gradillas echoed. “It’s always a challenge. First ACC home game. Hopefully it’ll be a big crowd, have a lot of supporters out there. It’s what we love to play with our fans. And yeah, I mean the team is buzzing. Get us started off hopefully with a home win in the ACC and fingers crossed. We’ll see what happens.”
CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), & Bluesky: @StanfordRivals
Ben Parker on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), YouTube, & Bluesky: @slamdunk406
Email: [email protected]
