Rogers Cannot Do It Alone

I agree with Harvard men’s soccer coach Carl Junot when he says that the hardest thing to do in soccer is to score a goal.

I was charged with that task my senior year of high school, and I learned firsthand that finding the back of the net happens in the spur of the moment. It can stem from either a fantastic individual effort or a team-oriented possession. It can come from luck—when an opportune bounce allows the ball to evade the goalkeeper—or misfortune, exemplified when a player puts the ball in the goal that he or she is guarding by mistake. No one knows when that goal will come, but one can search for it.

That is sophomore forward Brian Rogers’ job on the team, to constantly seek that opportunity to strike. He inherited the job of being the main threat to the backline of the opposing team from Andre Akpan ’10.

Last year, Rogers’ job was a little easier.  Since Akpan was constantly double-teamed due to his high profile as one of the leading strikers in the country, all Rogers had to do was wait for his chance to score when the defense was paying little attention to him. He fulfilled his role by tallying six goals on the season, good for second on the team in goals scored. Akpan and Rogers became the one-two punch that the Crimson needed to advance far into postseason play.

But throughout this year’s campaign, the squad has been unable to reproduce that flair on the attacking end. Harvard has only three wins out of nine games, and the opposition has outscored the team, 11-10.

So far, junior goalkeeper Austin Harms owns a 1.18 goals-against average, a decent record for a goalie at the collegiate level. It is also a testament to the defense’s dedication to allow the fewest amount of goals (optimally zero) as possible. But if faced with the prospect of only having to deal with the opposing team scoring one goal per game, can the Crimson really not overcome that deficit?

Harvard has shown, especially in the beginning of the season against Stanford and UMass, that it can break the deadlock and shift the score to its favor. Yet, when the Crimson starts by falling behind, it is not able to fully recover, and that can be a dangerous thing.

Losses to UC Santa Barbara, Boston University, and Providence all demonstrate Harvard’s inability to overcome a deficit, and the draw against Stony Brook—when Rogers came up with the tying goal in the waning moments of the game, give the impression that there is an overreliance on Rogers to dig the Crimson out of its hole.

A team that formerly owned a No.10 ranking and then moved up to No. 6 is expected to provide the firepower to defeat unranked opponents on a consistent basis. This team has enough talent to do so, but the supporting cast around Rogers has not been able to do that thus far when it matters.

Defenders often tend to focus on Rogers, freeing up the wings to cause the damage. Yet, Rogers’ teammates have yet to take advantage of that opportunity.

Junior Jamie Rees tormented BU defenders with his quick pace two weeks ago, but didn’t have the luck to put the ball in, even when he had clear opportunities on goal.

The same went for junior midfielder Ben Tsuda, who controlled the ball well but could not come up with a dangerous shot. Sophomore Scott Prozeller, who has two goals on the season, is the type of midfielder that can control the rhythm of a game, but against the Terriers he was largely ineffective.

If that’s the case, then the midfielders need to step up to provide Rogers with the passes he needs to break free from the defense. If not, then the squad can only rely on the spectacular individual effort aforementioned, but like other team sports, that trend cannot become the norm for a team to be successful.

Let’s say we put the sub-par performance against crosstown-rival BU to the side. Harvard had Providence beat last Wednesday, outshooting the Friars, 18-8, five of which forced Friar goalkeeper Jhojan Obando to save. Providence was much more effective, converting two of its four shots on goal into scores.  The Friars were definitely not the better team, and that seems to be the case for the majority of the teams the Crimson have faced so far, but somehow those teams escape with draws or wins.

One can see the frustration in the eyes of the players, particularly Rogers, when Harvard fails to score enough goals to win.

Even though the team should play to its strengths, and rely on Rogers to score goals, the Crimson needs to provide backup when its strikers cannot deliver. Many teams have seen their sides fall due to a lack of supporting cast, and with the way the season has gone so far, Harvard will need to find a way to get productivity out of its attack soon.

—Staff writer Brian A. Campos can be reached at bcampos@fas.harvard.edu.