Athlete of the Week: Sady Stars in Season Finale

The Harvard men’s soccer team’s season came to an end on Saturday, but not before the senior class left one last mark on the program. Netting the Crimson’s final four goals of 2015, the seniors stole the show at Jordan Field as Harvard steamrolled through Penn, 6-0.

But on a night devoted to the seniors, who also produced five assists in their final game, it was Harvard’s star underclassman who initiated the rout.

One season after lifting the Crimson (9-6-2, 5-2 Ivy) over the Quakers (3-11-2, 1-5-1) with his 89th-minute heroics, sophomore midfielder Christian Sady again proved too much for Penn to handle in the teams’ season finale. But this time, the North Andover, Mass., native did without the dramatics.

Sprinting up the left wing in his signature pink cleats, Sady fed senior forward Oliver White at the top of the box without breaking his stride, just eight minutes into the contest. After splitting two defenders without the ball on the 18-yard line, Sady immediately looked to White to complete the give-and-go.

White returned the ball to the sophomore with his first touch, but for a moment, the pass got away from Sady, shooting off his left foot in the direction of the goaltender. But in a two-man race against the charging keeper, the sophomore won the battle, getting his left foot under the ball with just enough space to get it over the head of Penn goalie Etan Mabourakh.

Three minutes later, Sady was at it again. After a Quaker defender knocked the ball away from the sophomore deep in the attacking zone, every member of the Penn defense retreated towards the box in preparation for a long ball from Harvard’s throw-in specialist, senior Michael Klain.

But the long ball never came. Instead, Klain gave the ball to Sady standing just a few yards away on the right wing. Taking advantage of the space in front of him, Sady inched towards the center of the field. And five yards beyond the edge of the penalty area, the midfielder dipped a cross towards the near post.

Making a run in that direction, senior forward Michael Innocenzi swung his right foot to blast a shot past Mabourakh. But the senior failed to connect. However, with Innocenzi blocking Mabourakh’s line of vision, the ball skipped its way into the side of the net, turning the senior’s swing-and-miss into strike number two for Sady.

Saturday marked the first multi-goal performance of Sady’s career, earning him the honor of Ivy League Co-Player of the Week alongside senior Jake Freeman, who also scored twice on Saturday.

Sady entered the weekend with just one goal to his name—an insurance marker in a 2-0 win over Cornell on Oct. 10, but after the sophomore recorded that first score, co-captain Andrew Wheeler-Omiunu knew that there would be more to come.

“It’s nice to see [Sady and classmate Sam Brown] score because it lessens the load a little bit,” said Wheeler-Omiunu after the Cornell win. “It’s more likely for them to score again because they have that extra bit of confidence.”

Despite the lack of goals prior to the season finale, Sady represented the offense’s driving force for the whole season. As the Crimson’s free-kick specialist, the midfielder tallied two assists off set pieces—three in total. As Harvard’s most skillful ball handler, Sady produced a number of other chances without getting his name on the stat sheet.

Sady played in all but one game for the Crimson in 2015 after breaking onto the scene with an impressive rookie campaign. As a freshman, he played in 12 of Harvard’s 17 contests, recording two goals and a team-high five assists.

“Christian is exceptional with his passing—he is a pro-level passer,” said Harvard coach Pieter Lehrer after the Crimson’s 2014 season finale. “Any freshman who can come in and have five assists, that’s a pretty significant impact.”

Next year, Sady’s role is expected to expand even more. With four of Harvard’s top five point-getters set to graduate in May, Lehrer will likely have to reshape his offense in order to compete for a conference title in 2016. And odds are, Sady will be right in the middle of it.

“Christian has been a huge asset and he is only going to get better,” Lehrer said last year. “As his defending improves, as his mentality of grittiness in how he defends improves, he is going to be one of the best players in the country.”

—Staff writer Jake T. Meagher can be reached at jake.meagher@thecrimson.com.