Crimson Rises in National Ranking

Climbing up the national charts, the No. 7-ranked Harvard men’s soccer team is well on its way to putting Crimson soccer permanently on the map.

Throughout the past year Harvard has been showered with accolades, both individual and team-wide. Sophomore Andre Akpan, who established himself as a national contender for the FIFA U-20 team with a hat trick in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament against Haiti last winter, returned to the FIFA scene once again this summer.

Akpan made the final cut for the U-20 World Cup team, and helped supply the pressure that caused an own-goal against Uruguay in their Round of Sixteen game.

The Grand Prairie native also helped his club team, the Dallas Texans 88 Red, to earn the youth national championship, and was recently selected as Ivy League Player of the Week.

This season has also seen other Crimson players in the national spotlight. Junior Michael Fucito was named to Top Drawer Soccer’s Team of the Week, as well as the Ivy League Honor Roll along with his teammate, senior co-captain Matt Hoff.

Hoff was also selected to the College Soccer News National Team of the Week, and freshman Alex Chi was honored as the Ivy League Rookie of the Week.

“It’s great that our guys are getting recognized for their strong play. It only adds to the quality on the field,” senior co-captain Adam Hahn said. “It also gives the team a bit more confidence.”

The Harvard team as a whole has been showered with well-deserved praise.

Starting the season with a No. 15 ranking, key wins over tough east-coast opponents and an untarnished record have continually lifted Harvard up in the polls to its final resting spot at an impressive No. 7.

“It’s a great start,” Hoff said. “People look at that record and they’re going to try to take us off of our pedestal. It’s going to make each and every game that much harder.”

Hahn, who has delivered many miraculous saves throughout the course of the season, agreed with Hoff on the desire of opposing teams to dethrone the Crimson.

“Every game we kind of have a target on our chest,” Hahn said. “It kind of raises the bar a bit, so we have to come out every day and play really well.”

So far, Harvard has risen to the challenge, but this weekend brings a new type of opponent to the field during the Loyola Marymount Invitational. There, the Crimson will not only face the host school, but also the reigning national champions, No. 14 UC Santa Barbara.

“In our eyes, these teams are some of the best teams in the country,” Fucito said. “We definitely can win these games, and are expecting to win these games, so now it’s just a matter of showing up and executing.”

Harvard’s west coast debut will also test the program and the national opinion of the team. Not only could two wins move the Crimson further up in the polls, but it could also help solidify Harvard as a legitimate soccer powerhouse.

“The last year and a half, we’ve been trying to establish Harvard as one of the big names in college soccer,” Hahn said. “These two games are critical in trying to get that respect.”

Though the increased national attention has its benefits—a heavier stake in recruiting key soccer players, to name just one—the Crimson is making sure to stay focused on the team’s mantra of “one game at a time,” instead of getting caught up in the hype.

“We need to keep focusing on making the Ivy League first because that’s our ticket into the playoffs,” Hoff said. “Secondary is our ranking at the end of the year.”

Hahn agreed with his co-captain about the importance of the Ivy League season.

“Those games really are life or death,” Hahn said.

The Crimson will use this weekend’s trip to Los Angeles to fine-tune its skills and develop as a team before kicking off its Ivy season in early October.

—Staff writer Alexandra J. Mihalek can be reached at amihalek@fas.harvard.edu.