Soccer Team Will Face Columbia Missing Ohiri

Playing without Chris Ohiri, the varsity soccer team will take on Columbia this morning at 11 a.m. on the Business School field. The contest, Harvard's Ivy opener, will be crucial for Crimson title hopes.

Ohiri's absence will not be the Crimson's only problem. Louis Willams and Tony Davies may both sit out the game with injuries also.

Columbia, though not the Crimson's most formidable competition in the race for the League championship, is not a bad team by any means. Two weeks ago the Lions tied a highly touted Princeton eleven after mashing Fordham, and last Saturday Columbia looked impressive even though loosing to Yale, 5 to 2 in New Heaven.

Columbia Game Crucial

The point is that if the Crimson can't beat Columbia, i will already be a game behind Yale and Frinceton. Even with Ohiri playing late in the season, this deficit could be difficult to overcome. However, there is no real doubt that Harvard--with or without Ohiri--will be the favored team this morning.

Ohiri's absence is virtually certain, though coach J. Bruce Munro said last night that there was still some chance doctors might reverse their position this morning before the game. Munro added that he "didn't think" this would happen.

Munro was also reasonably sure Williams wouldn't play, and described the possibility of using Davies as "very doubtful." John Thorndike, another man on the injured list, might have to miss the game too, though Munro felt this was unlikely.

Defense Weakened

Losing Williams and Davies is particularly bad for the Crimson, since these two men form the core of the defensive unit on the left side, where the majority of teams attack most consistently. Soccer teams prefer to attack from their own right because most of the players are right-footed.

Wihout Ohiri, the Crimson had to alter its usual offensive pattern, and it was a lack of familiarity with the new pattern that proved disastrous in the 3-2 loss to Williams this week. Normally, the varsity capitalizes on Ohiri's strength at center forward and moves the ball up the middle of the field. The strategy against Williams was to have emphasized going around the opposition more, but without enough time to practice this kind of attack, the team was unable to set it up during the game.

Munro said that he hopes the new pattern will work better against Columbia, now that the Crimson has had more chance to practice.

Watch Krupa

One of the men o watch on the Lion varsity will be goalie Tim Krupa, who kept the defeat at New Haven from turning into a minor rout by an excellent performance in the first half. Other standouts are chuck Kleinhaus and Bob Contiguglia, both hold-overs from last year's team. The third Lion who might break into the scoring column this morning is Sampson Jemie, who scored Columbia's second goal in the game with Yale.

If the Crimson can win this important contest without Ohiri, the chances for a highly successful season should be very good.