Tigers top Cardinal, advance to 10th College Cup

Clemson advanced to its 10th Men's College Cup. (Clemson athletics photo)

by Brooks Thomason - Correspondent - Sat Dec 02 21:37:55 GMT-04:00 2023

Ninth-seeded Clemson men’s soccer was victorious against sixteenth-seeded Stanford 2-0 at a packed Historic Riggs Field on Saturday to advance to its 10th College Cup.

Clemson (13-3-5) moves onto Louisville, Kentucky, for the national semifinals. They will take on West Virginia on Friday, December 8th, to see who advances to the national championship.

The game kicked off with an early Clemson corner in the second minute. A flick on by Pape Mar Boye wasn’t met, and the Stanford defense was scrambling early to clear it.

With a corner in the seventh minute, a beautiful cross whipped into the middle of the box found Gael Gibert, and he slotted it bottom right corner. A beautiful cross by Joran Gerbet straight onto the head of Gibert.

The next ten minutes of the match was a stalemate in the midfield. Both teams couldn’t string passes into the final third. Many clears by Clemson’s goalkeeper Joseph Andema.

Midway through the first half, there were no changes for the pace of play for the game. Clemson sat at two shots while Stanford was still at zero. Clemson’s defenders in Boye and Adam Lundegard made brilliant tackles to stop Stanford chances.

In the 35th minute, beautiful link-up passes between Clemson’s attackers gave Sylla a one-on-one with the goalkeeper, he scooped it around the keeper, but Stanford cleared the ball off the line.

Two minutes later, Arthur Duquenne came blazing down the left side of the field wide open. He ripped a shot, and the keeper saved it, but Tyler Trimnal was there to clean up the rebound. VAR reviewed the goal for offside, but the goal stood for the Tigers.

At the end of the first half, Clemson’s backline held Stanford to zero shots total. Meanwhile, Clemson has attempted six shots at half, with five coming on target.

In the 53rd minute, Stanford (11-4-5) earned their first corner of the match. The Cardinal’s cross to the back post was shot by Ryan Dunn and barely missed wide of the far post. Stanford’s first shot gives Clemson a small scare.

In the 80th minute, Stanford shot a free kick from the right side, and Andema made a great save on Zach Bohane’s powerful shot. That was Stanford’s first shot on target of the night. A corner kick from Stanford in the 86th minute was wonderful, but Andema made an excellent stretch save to keep the Cardinal from scoring. An emotional roar from Andema and the Clemson fanbase cheered in support of a fantastic save.

After the game, Coach Noonan spoke about the crowd and the environment brought into the stands, “It’s the best place to play college soccer, as you saw tonight.” Noonan also emphasized the importance of the team, “Everyone has a job they have to do.”

The win marked the first-ever win over future ACC member Stanford and allowed the Tigers to avenge the 2019 heartbreak when Stanford advanced to the College Cup from Historic Riggs Field, defeating Clemson in PKs.

The French Connection! 🇫🇷 ➡️ 🇫🇷

📺 ESPN+ | #ClemsonUnited pic.twitter.com/9e3kyB9iis
— Clemson Men's Soccer (@ClemsonMSoccer) December 2, 2023

Trimnal with the rebound‼️

📺 ESPN+ | #ClemsonUnited pic.twitter.com/9max9DCXpy
— Clemson Men's Soccer (@ClemsonMSoccer) December 2, 2023

Dominant performance from the lads!

Job’s not finished… 🐅 ⚽️ https://t.co/xAFy5f4Vuh
— Graham Neff (@GrahamNeff) December 3, 2023

We couldn't have said it better ourselves@ClemsonMSoccer | @ClemsonWSoccer pic.twitter.com/00YHsxUkIE
— Clemson Athletics (@ClemsonTigers) December 3, 2023