Bronx, N.Y. – The Fordham University men's soccer squad will kick off its 2026 season with a trip west, playing at Gonzaga on Thursday, August 20, at 10:00 p.m. and at Santa Clara on Sunday, August 23, at 10:15 p.m. Both times are EST.
 
Notes
 
• Fordham enters the season after going 8-6-4 overall last year, 5-1-2 in the Atlantic 10, while Gonzaga is coming off a 5-8-3 2025 season, 2-5-2 in the West Coast Conference (WCC).
 
• The Bulldogs are playing their first year as a member of the Pac 12.
 
• Santa Clara enters its season opener on Thursday at home against Cleveland State after going 6-5-7 overall last year, 3-3-3 in the WCC.
 
• This will be the first meeting between Fordham and Gonzaga on the pitch.
 
• The Bulldogs are playing their first year as a member of the Pac 12 Conference.
 
• It will be Fordham's first match against a team from the Pac 12
 
• The Rams have played twice against WCC schools, defeating Santa Clara, 4-0, in 2024 in the Bronx, and a 1-0 loss to San Francisco at the 1989 Budweiser Loyola Invitational at Loyola Maryland.
 
• The Rams are 3-3-1 in season openers under head coach Carlo Acquista, 2-0-1 over the past three years.
 
• The game at Gonzaga on Thursday will mark the furthest west a Fordham men's soccer squad has played.
 
• But that record will be broken a few days later when Fordham plays at Santa Clara on August 23.
 
• Last fall Fordham opened the season with a 1-0 win at James Madison.
 
• Fordham was picked to finish fourth in the Atlantic 10 in a vote of the conference coaches.