Change for the Better

In a fall of stellar performances by Harvard sports teams, the men's soccer team enjoyed one of the best seasons. It's just a shame nobody ever made the trip down to the Business School field to watch.

If anybody but the 50 or so diehard fans had ambled over the river, they would have seen one of the most profound turnarounds in recent Crimson sports history.

About a year ago, when the booters trudged off the field for the last time, they were the sheepish owners of an eminently mediocre 6-7-2 record. A quick glance at the game-by-game results showed the problem.

No offense. As in none. Those 1979 booters had been shut out in each of the last five games, and as any casual soccer fan will tell you, you can't win games without goals.

All that changed this season. The offense virtually exploded over the 15-game slate, and the squad finished the year with a much-improved 10-4-1 mark. "We (the coaches) predicted it would be a good season," head coach George Ford said yesterday, "but I don't know if we expected it would be as good as it turned out."

He had good reason to be surprised--and pleased--with the team's performance. With just one freshman--Leo Lanzillo--making the final varsity cuts, the squad returned to Cambridge with roughly the same cast of key players, or so Ford thought.

But what he didn't count on was the play of a few newcomers. These guys weren't freshmen, so Ford might have been able to predict their contribution to the team. "John Lyons, Richard Berkman, Lance Ayrault, and Leighton Welch gave the program a zing, they were very gung ho. That in itself was a surprise. But I didn't think those four would make the step up and do so well," Ford said. Even off the field it was apparent that they were live wires."

Of the four, Ayrault had the most current running through him. The sophomore connected for 12 goals and three assists on the year, giving him 15 points and the team scoring lead. His sense of position and intelligence on the field always put him in position for the score, and, more often than not, he converted on the chances he had.

Veterans Mauro Keller-Sarmiento and team captain Michael Smith developed as expected into the squad's other offensive standouts. Keller-Sarmiento's stats don't tell even a fraction of the story. The team's third-leading scorer with two goals and six assists for eight points, the Argentinian junior sparked the Crimson attack from his forward position. His speed on the wings would open up the center of the field, and take the pressure off Ayrault, who would position himself out in front of the net.

If Keller-Sarmiento moved the offense, Smith gave it stability and experience. Alternating between forward and midfield slots, the Leverett House senior picked up seven goals and six assists on the way to a 13 point season. A magician with the ball, Smith will be sorely missed next season, particularly in the halfback position.

But perhaps Smith's most valuable contribution to the team was his leadership. A large part of the dramatic improvement in the squad's performance can be traced to a big change for the better in overall team attitude, and Smith deserves a lot of the credit for that.

"We seemed a lot more like a team this year than last," said fullback Peter Sergienko. "Everyone is a lot more dedicated to the program and the team."

"The team as a whole has been very much into being a team," Smith said, adding, "Before this year the team was fragmented into different groups. This year, everyone was into working really hard."

The change in attitude may be credited to Ford as well. Several players, particularly those who have been on the team for more than one year, noted a change in the coach's attitude toward his team. In contrast to past years, Ford seemed more relaxed, but still as concerned about the squad. Because of Ford's changed attitude toward training, "we came to the games with a more creative, loose attitude, and that helped our game. There was more of a balance this year between training and having fun. George has more confidence in us as players," senior Don Rung said yesterday.

Although the offensive improvement and the transformation in attitude are the most obvious reasons for the squad's change of fortune, the consistently brilliant defensive play must be given equal citation. A star-studded back line and a pair of high-caliber goalies limited opponents to 20 goals over the 15-game campaign.