“Not that Liza, Fisher and Cozz hadn’t done outstanding the [past] two years, but playing with three up top and then just playing with three central midfielders, you really need to have more width across the back to be in behind and recover,” Hodel said.

And Harvard will likely need every bit of that width against the Cardinal (1-2), which entered last season’s NCAA Tournament as the top-ranked team in the country before being upset by eventual national champion Portland on penalty kicks in the quarterfinal. Just last month, Stanford was ranked No. 4 by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America in preseason polls.

The Cardinal has since stumbled slightly—but only slightly, as its two losses have come to No. 17 Portland and No. 9 Pepperdine.

The game marks the Crimson’s second of three contests against ranked opponents over the first three weeks of the season. Harvard fell 2-1 to No. 7 Penn State last Friday and takes on No. 18 Virginia a week from Sunday. Clearly, Wheaton intentionally decided to test his team early.

“We don’t want our Ivy League games—the ones that mean so much to us—to be our toughest, most difficult opponents of the year,” he said.

The Crimson also takes on Maine on Sunday at 1:30.

Against any level of opponent, the new system gives the Crimson greater flexibility, making it more unpredictable offensively, but it can only succeed if the entire team defends as a unit.

“It takes all four backs talking to each other and maintaining shape, it takes all three of the central midfielders getting hard pressure on the ball in the midfield and it takes our forwards giving us shape wide,” Hodel said.

If that all happens, someone watching the Harvard players leave Ohiri Field Friday afternoon might notice the width of their smiles. Naturally, the team will be happy about its depth.

—Staff writer Alan G. Ginsberg can be reached at aginsber@fas.harvard.edu.