Eighteen fouls were called against Stanford on Sunday night compared to just five against the Hoosiers. However, IU was hurt the most.
Junior defender Grant Lillard, an MAC Hermann watch list player and arguably the top defender in college soccer, was issued a yellow card in the 17th minute of the game. Two minutes before halftime, he faced his second yellow of the match, resulting in a red card and his disqualification from the game.
IU was down to 10 men with 45 minutes remaining in a scoreless game.
“It’s unsaid with our team that when something like that happens it almost picks up the team,” senior defender Derek Creviston said. “We know we had to do that much more work and I think that it kind of helped us get through that 70 minutes without him.”
The Hoosiers were resilient on the pitch in their time without Lillard. They not only had to play the next 45 minutes with a man down but also an extra 20 minutes in overtime and were able to walk away with a 0-0 draw.
The match was very physical from the start, with Stanford recording 10 team fouls in the first half while IU had just two, the cards from Lillard. IU Coach Todd Yeagley said he was displeased with the way that the defending national champions of Stanford played and apologized to the fans postgame for seeing a soccer game that didn’t live up to its potential for greatness.
“I thought our team stayed very disciplined in a game that could have potentially been out of hand and didn’t retaliate on some things that were done off the ball,” Yeagley said. “To play 70 minutes a man down is difficult, especially for us where we want to have the ball, typically not the ones that are defending it.”
One of those off-the-ball plays that Yeagley’s team didn’t react to came after the whistle was blown. Senior defender Billy McConnell took a shot below the belt from a Stanford player that sent him to the turf and resulted in no repercussions.
The Cardinal were awarded four yellow cards in the match after earning a red card in each of the prior two matches.
The physicality on the pitch Sunday night was not unexpected for a Big Ten match. IU will face off against No. 7 Maryland next Friday in the conference opener.
Unfortunately for IU, they will be without Lillard, as his red card against Stanford automatically rules him out for the next match.
At 6-foot-4, Lillard is four inches taller than any other IU defender, causing a major loss for the Hoosiers on plays that need to be made in the air.
He has started in every game of his IU career and has already contributed with a goal in the first four games of the year.
“Grant is a big loss because of what he brings and certainly is an aerial presence,” Yeagley said. “We didn’t have a red card, I don’t think, in the last two years, so it says a lot about our discipline in our team. We can play tough, but we know where to stay in bounds.”
