Men's Soccer Welcomes Struggling Big Red

The Harvard men’s soccer team has a long road ahead of it before the Ivy champion is crowned, but if it can win the game against Cornell tomorrow it will be thrown right back into contention.

“It all has to start with Cornell,” said junior captain and defender Will Craig.

Having lost its first Ivy game 1-0 to Yale last Saturday the Crimson (4-5-0, 0-1-0 Ivy) needs to have to pull out a big win against the Big Red (1-7-0, 0-1-0) this weekend. Losing to the Bulldogs was not a monumental setback, assuming that Yale won’t win the rest of its games this season. But according to senior defender Sam Wiggin, the Cornell game “is a must-win for us.”

Typically a team can only absorb one Ivy League loss and still compete for the championship. The Big Red—who lost its own league opener to Penn—is probably a good place for the Crimson to start in hopes that a win here will give the team a boost in time for its next conference game against defending champions Brown on Oct. 17.

“The season hangs in the balance these next few games,” senior defender Jason Andersen said.

“It’s very important that we get a win against Cornell,” Harvard coach John Kerr said. “Because otherwise we might be out of it after only two games.”

And while the men’s soccer team may be struggling offensively as of late—only scoring two goals in its last four games—the defense has certainly been doing its job to keep the team alive. In those same four games the Harvard defense has only allowed three goals and have averaged just 8.25 shots against, while junior goalie Ryan Johnson is ranked sixth in the Ivies in saves.

Tomorrow, the Crimson defense runs into a Big Red team that has only scored one goal in its past four games.

The Harvard defense is led by Wiggin, Andersen and Craig, with the fourth member of the back line switching between several different players.

For most of the year, Kerr has used sophomores David Williams and Tom Stapleton for that last defensive spot. But most recently against Yale, Kerr substituted in Stapleton and junior Jeff Chivers for Williams and Andersen towards the end of the game. The formation change was made in order to put more players with attacking and offensive ability on the field.

“Stapleton gives us a different look,” Wiggin said. “We have also been having problems scoring.”

Considering that the defense on the Crimson is so strong, one might expect Kerr to move away from his regular 4-4-2 formation and to a 3-5-2 that would allow for an extra offensive position at midfield. Kerr said that he doesn’t think that they will make the switch quite yet as he is satisfied with how the team has been playing with the 4-4-2 formation.

“We will always have that 3-5-2 if we need it,” Kerr said.

And while Cornell may appear to be the weaker team on paper with a record of 1-7-0, win-loss columns can often be deceiving. The Bulldogs were just 1-6-0 heading into last Saturday’s game, but they beat the Crimson 1-0.

“We’ve played some [low] quality teams like Maine and Vermont and didn’t get the job done,” Andersen said.

But Andersen points out that the loss to Yale has sparked a fire in the team.

“Practices have been going a lot differently with a lot more enthusiasm and intensity,” Anderson said.

And if Harvard can translate that extra energy during the week into a couple of wins over the next two weeks, the options for postseason play should open up a lot.

“If we win [the game against Brown] we are right back in the race,” Craig said.

The Crimson takes on the Big Red at 3 p.m. tomorrow on Ohiri Field.