'Link' Hardy Is Soccer Key

The degree of success achieved by coach Bruce Munro's 4-2-4 varsity soccer lineup depends to a large extent upon the "link men," the two players who act as liasons between offense and defense.

As one of these link men, junior Richie Hardy must keep the opposition from penetrating into Harvard's territory and must also guide the ball into good field position for the Crimson. He does his job well.

"Hichie knows how to read the game," Munro says. "He anticipates the other team's moves," the coach continues, "and knows when a guy is going to pass before the pass is even made."

English Training

Hardy was born of English parents in the village of Ambala in Pakistan in 1946 but did not begin playing soccer until he entered school in London ten years later. "England is soccer-mad," he says, "and the professional games I saw in London inculcated a soccer sense in me."

It was on offense that Hardy opened his soccer career; he played center forward, then inside right, and finally right wing for Glengyle Preparatory School in London, which he attended from 1956 to 1960.

Hardy entered St. Paul's School in London in 1960 and stayed there until December 1965. St. Paul's was a "rugby school," fielding a rugby instead of a soccer team. Hardy played wing forward for the school rugby team and confined his soccer participation to playing link man for an unofficial team comprised of St. Paul's students.

He entered Harvard two years ago and started at center halfback for the freshman team and then for the varsity last fall. Though only a sophomore, he earned honorable mention in the Ivy League.

Although Hardy has started at the same position this year, the 4-2-4 lineup in which Munro, beginning with the Cornell game, has fielded the Crimson booters, converts the center halfback into a link man.

"I learned team soccer at Harvard," Hardy says. "For example, at Glengyle they put the big guys on defense to block the other team's advances, and the offense consisted of fast players who got the ball from the defenders, dribbled all the way upfield by themselves, and tried to score."

"Here, though," he says, "you must learn a game of give-and-go, of short on-the-ground passing, of making the ball do the work, with a minimum of dribbling.

Hardy calls this year's varsity "the best team I've ever played on," adding that its major problem is that "it has taken too long to adjust to its newcomers."

The booters at present have a 5-1-3 overall record and are 1-1-2 in the Ivy League, good for a fourth-place tie. They will visit Princeton next Saturday and will host Brown and Yale the following two weekends.

Switch For Tigers

Munro plans to switch his team back to a 5-3-2 lineup for the Princeton game. Hardy, who has recovered from the strep throat which bothered him last week against Penn, will thus resume his status as center halfback but will still serve, in effect, as a "link man" between offense and defense.

Hardy explains the difficulties the varsity has been having on the road this year by saying that "it is easy to lack confidence at the beginning of a soccer game, because the sport places more of a burden on the individual than, say, football does."

"If Harvard athletes had been brought up with more of a choice of sports," Hardy says, "I think most of them would have chosen to play soccer, because of this empasis on the individual."