Men’s Soccer: Virginia comes up short, 1-0, against No. 2 Stanford

By Colin Moore
JerryRatcliffe.com correspondent

Virginia fell 1-0 to No. 2 Stanford by a free kick in the second half of Friday night’s match at Klöckner Stadium. Both teams played extremely hard despite some crazy weather conditions all night.

The Cavaliers (2-3-3, 0-2-2 ACC) battled to a 0-0 scoreline in the first half. Early on, the Cardinal seemed to start out more aggressive, forcing the Hoos into conceding a few early corners.

UVA’s best chance of the first half came in the 14th minute when Paul Wiese found Albin Gashi in the middle of the field. Gashi was able to draw a defender and lay the ball off to his left, where Luke Burns took the shot that was blocked by a Stanford defender.

The Cardinal (8-1-1, 3-0-1) had a lot of possession, which led to them leading in shots (10-4) in the first half. The Cardinal led the corner stat as well, with 4 to UVA’s 1.

The Cavaliers’ defense played extremely well, as they had pressure most of the half. Keeper Joey Batrouni made some amazing saves, keeping the Hoos in the match. He had two huge saves, one in the 24th minute when he stepped up big and punched away a great one-on-one opportunity for the Cardinal.

His second save was in the 36th minute, when he had some assistance from his crossbar to keep the ball out of his net.

The second half was also full of action, and that’s when the rain really picked up. The Cavaliers came out of halftime energized and aggressive, leading to a great second-half start. Triton Beauvois was very dangerous on the left flank, having a few early chances by creating some opportunities.

The Hoos had several chances this half, as they were the aggressor. There were multiple set pieces from Cardinal fouls that the Cavaliers just weren’t able to capitalize on. A great opportunity came early on when Wiese made a great run by overlapping Daniel Mangarov, forcing the Cardinal defense scrambling to clear the ball.

With 16:26 remaining in the match, Stanford capitalized on a hard UVA foul, which resulted in the red card of Gashi. Initially, he was issued a yellow card, but after review, the official decided on red.

Gashi made a decision to take out a Cardinal attacker, as the UVA defense lost the ball in its own defensive third. Stanford’s Zach Bohane capitalized, striking a great free kick from right outside the box in the middle of the field. He shot a skipping ball that was just snuck by Batrouni, who was huge all night.

Even after going down a man and playing with 10 men, the Hoos were able to generate more opportunities, but unfortunately just couldn’t put any away.

UVA’s Nick Dang was tremendous, making numerous defensive plays throughout the night. Late in the match, Dang made a full-out sprint, recovering from over 10 yards behind a Cardinal attacker. He was able to slide to make the crucial block on the shot attempt.

GOALS
Stanford: 73’ – Zach Bohane (free kick)

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• It was the fourth all-time meeting between the Hoos and the Cardinal
• Only ACC team coming off back-to-back 5-win seasons
• Bruce Arena was in attendance for this magnificent game

UP NEXT

The Hoos face UNC Greensboro Monday night at 7 p.m. It’ll be Alliance Night, so come out and support your local youth travel teams.