KANSAS CITY, Kan. — At least one more game as a Stanford Cardinal awaits Jordan Morris.
Morris and Stanford parlayed a scoreless 110-minute regular and double overtime period Friday night against Akron into penalties, where the Cardinal survived a 10-round marathon to emerge 8-7 winners. That put Stanford into its first NCAA title game since 2002 and on the precipice of its first ever national title in men’s soccer.
Stanford faces Clemson, which beat Syracuse in penalties after another scoreless draw in the other semifinal, at 12 p.m. PT on Sunday on ESPNU.
Morris’s future as a potential Seattle Sounder next season hung in the balance on Friday. Had Stanford lost, Morris would have immediately been launched into a world of speculation about his future. Seattle reportedly lobbed the highest Homegrown contract in MLS history at Morris earlier this year, and Morris won’t make his decision about whether he’ll return for his senior season or go pro public until after the season. That could’ve begun on Friday night.
But it didn’t. Thanks in large part to a gutsy defensive performance and one of the wildest shootouts you’re likely to see.
“You try and set goals you want to have, and this group was flat out, let’s play as many games as we can together,” Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn said. “We’ve done that. Now we’re in the final. I guess we want to get greedy and win it.”
After a helter-skelter game that didn’t pick up its full momentum until the two extra times, the hinge point of the shootout was in the seventh round. Akron had the last kick, and the shootout was tied at 5-5 with Goncalo Soares stepping up to the spot following a steely save from Jake Fenlason.
All Soares had to do was make the shot and Akron was in the College Cup final. He beat Stanford keeper Andrew Epstein to his left, and the ball rolled toward the corner. But it swerved late and clanged off the post, and it rolled back out on that diagonal that indicated how close it was to shading into the net.
“We got a lucky break there, it hit the post,” midfielder Corey Baird said. “I just told my team that given that opportunity, we were going to make it through.”
And indeed they did.
After that missed kick, Stanford made each of its last three kicks from Brian Nana-Sinkam, Sam Werner and, finally, Baird, to send Stanford through. For his part, Morris drilled his kick - Stanford’s fourth - high and to the right and sent the keeper the wrong way.
The root cause of Akron’s struggles going forward found its genesis in the central midfield. Akron’s central combination of Adam Najem, Victor Souto and Richie Laryea has no equal in college soccer for possession play, but Stanford had a plan. Ty Thompson and Slater Meehan stacked deep on top of center backs Tomas Hilliard-Arce and Brian Nana-Sinkham, which effectively kept everything to their front.
The Zips couldn’t find a way through Stanford’s mine-strewn spine. Unfortunately for the Cardinal, they couldn’t do much with the calm in the storm in an attacking sense.
Everything Stanford does revolves around Morris, and the junior relies heavily on direct service to feed his charging off-shoulder runs. Akron did good work squeezing Morris’s available space and pushing the line high enough that the Sounders Academy product had little space to work with. As a result, the attack couldn’t funnel itself through its most reliably dangerous outlet.
In fact, Morris was caught offside by Akron’s back line five times over the course of the match. He was limited to just three shots, none of which were on goal.
Even still, now Morris has another crack at a national title trophy. Will it be his last act at Stanford? That’ll have to wait until after Sunday.
