Head coach John Kerr had a simple message after the ACC quarterfinal. "Soccer's a cruel game, isn't it?" he asked. "The best team doesn't always win."
After an own goal in the second minute of play put Duke down 1-0, the Blue Devils were never able to fight their way back. No. 3-seed Duke fell 2-0 to No. 11-seed Cal in Durham Sunday evening, ending its ACC tournament progression as the Golden Bears advanced to the conference semifinals.
"We had a lot of half chances, for sure, and some scrambles in and around the goal," Kerr said. "If you just knock one of those in, the momentum then changes. But [Cal] survived, and they had a good tactical plan after going up."
Put simply, the Golden Bears capitalized on their opportunities in Koskinen Stadium. Even with only five shots total and a single one on net, Cal was able to force two goals past Duke goalkeeper Wessel Speel and hold its hosts scoreless.
For Duke (11-3-4, 4-1-3 in the ACC), the weeks leading up to the ACC quarterfinals felt like a dream. At No. 4 in the nation, Duke had not trailed in a match since early October and was playing through an eight-game undefeated streak, outscoring its opponents 28-2 through those games. So by the time the Cal cross was unintentionally headed into the Blue Devil net by junior midfielder Kenan Hot for the own-goal, it was time for Kerr's squad to wake up.
"When you go down a goal so early, you know we weren't prepared," Kerr said. "Nobody's prepared for that."
Duke responded in the only way it knew how, sending through balls to its forwards and playing crosses across the Golden Bear backline. None of these chances earned the Blue Devils a goal.
And just as it felt as if Duke could fight its way back into the match, disaster struck once again. In the 17th minute, Cal freshman midfielder Kieran Bracken Serra chipped the ball perfectly through to 6-foot-4 forward Arik Duncan, who smashed it past Speel. Cal (8-7-2, 2-4-2 in the ACC) was suddenly up 2-0 over the second-ranked team in the nation.
That confidence started to die down as more opportunities came and went. Corner after corner was awarded to Duke to no avail. In fact, around a third of the match's play took place in the Blue Devil attacking fourth, and not a single goal came out of it.
A 71st-minute pass to sophomore forward Ulfur Bjornsson gave the Icelandic striker a clear shot on net, but it was saved by the keeper.
"We were off just a little bit tonight," Kerr said. "We weren't our normal, sharp selves."
With 15 minutes left in the game, Koskinen's jumbotron flashed the words "missed opportunities" and played through clips of all the chances Duke had and gave away. The display was quite the brutal reminder of how lopsided the match had been up to that point, goals scored ignored.
Duke tallied 67% of the match's possession, recorded three times as many shots as its opposition and five times as many shots on net. The Blue Devils' 10 corners largely outshone the Golden Bears' three, and only 30% of the game was played in Duke's defensive half.
But at the end of the day, the only stat that gets recorded on the schedule is the number of goals that go in.
Kerr was right. Soccer is a cruel game.
Duke will be back in action later this month after its NCAA tournament draw is announced.