This weekend the men’s soccer team will continue their tough tournament schedule as they travel to Berkley, California to compete in the Cal Legacy Classic. The tournament will feature powerhouses Cornell, Stanford and No. 11 California.
The Mustangs will get their weekend started in a game against Stanford on Friday. Stanford comes into the weekend with a 0-0-1 record, their only game being against San Jose State.
The Cardinals do posses experience as they return four all-conference players. They also return the reigning PAC-10 freshman of the year and the teams leading scorer Bobby Warshaw.
The corner stone of this Stanford team though is its defense. As a team, the Cardinals allowed the fewest goals in the Pac-10 last year. They have a very experienced back line led by Ryan Imamura, who was granted a sixth-year of eligibility, and Tim Jones, who entered the season with 46 consecutive starts. This game is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. on Friday.
The Mustang’s continue their busy schedule with a game Sunday against host Cal. The Golden Bears come into the weekend 2-0-0 with their most impressive coming over then #3 Maryland.
Cal holds an impressive ranking themselves after their hot start. Collegesoccernews.com ranks them number eight while NSCAA ranks them No. 11.
The Golden Bears came into the season having won back-to-back Pac-10 conference championships. Cal returned all but four players from last year’s team including a sophomore class that was ranked as the No. 16 freshman class last year by collegesoccernews.com.
Goalkeeper Stefan Frei could be the most notable returning player for the Golden Bears. Frei was a first team All-American pick and played every minute of every game last season. He also led the PAC-10 in shutouts, with nine and saves, with 91. This battle of top 10 teams will take place at 4:30 p.m. (central time) on Sunday.
Also, after a strong performance last week in the University of Virginia tournament, the Mustangs have moved up in all of the polls. The NSCAA moved the Ponies up from No. 17 to No. 6.
After this weekend’s games, the Mustangs will finally get open their home portion of their schedule when they host the SMU Classic Tournament.
