Hope Still Alive in Up-and-Down Year

The season had a dream start. A brand new stadium, a home crowd of over 3,000 fans, and a thrilling night-game victory over then-No.13 Stanford. The Harvard men’s soccer team had a ranking back then—No. 10, according to the National Soccer Coaches Association. This high ranking signaled optimism about Harvard’s chances to defend its Ivy League title and maybe have another deep run in the NCAA tournament.

Most people shared this sentiment. After all, seven starters, including last year’s Ivy League Rookie of the Year Brian Rogers, returned for another shot at the title. There was a new coach too, one that knew the team very well from his experience as assistant coach over the past two years.

Fifty-four days have passed since that opening evening at Soldiers Field, and both the Crimson and the Cardinal have lost their spots in the top 25 and sit below .500 overall.

At least Harvard lived up to the hype at the start of the season by winning its first two games in dramatic fashion. Stanford, on the other hand, had to live through a nightmarish loss in its first game of the season to Vermont—a team that had won only one game all of last year. The subsequent loss to the Crimson did nothing to help its cause. That result helped Harvard move up to No. 6—its highest spot from last year—while the Cardinal was dismissed from the rankings. From there, Stanford’s slump continued. It lost two more games against Californian schools before bouncing back by winning four in a row and rediscovering its scoring prowess. They even beat then-No. 13 UCLA—the highlight of a season full of ups and downs.

The Crimson? It took the team nearly a month to notch another “W”, which came against Yale in its first conference matchup. Before this, Harvard faced a slew of respectable nonconference opponents, but the results were troubling. Three draws and three loses weren’t appropriate for a sixth-ranked squad. As a result, by the end of September, the Crimson said goodbye to the national polls.

And now, both Harvard and the Cardinal are riding two-game losing streaks, stuck somewhere in the middle of their respective conference standings.

The Crimson’s fairy tale-turned-average season came to an end in a 2-1 loss last Sunday on the road against No. 20 Princeton, a disastrous blow to the team’s title dreams.

Or so it seems. Looking at the three teams above the Crimson in the standings—all of whom are ranked—there is still a possibility for a share of the title. Even so, it’s pretty farfetched. Harvard, of course, would have to win all of its remaining games. Princeton would have to lose two out of its three remaining games and tie No. 14 Penn. The Quakers have to also tie No. 13 Brown and then lose to Harvard in the final game of the season. And, finally, the Bears will have to lose to Yale and Dartmouth, two teams with .250 records.

Likely, huh?

Well, crazier things have happened, like the 2005 Champions League final in which Liverpool came back from a 3-0 deficit against AC Milan to win it all in a penalty shootout (a concept I don’t really like, but a soccer game must end somehow, right?). Or Andres Iniesta’s goal in the 93rd minute for Barcelona against Chelsea that propelled the Catalan team to the Champions League final and ultimately the title.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that if these things happened, then the Crimson still has a chance to salvage its season by sharing the title, no matter how small the probability may be. But that will only happen if the team steps it up.

Losing to the Tigers on ESPNU was disappointing, but Harvard will have to take away some positives. Sophomore Scott Prozeller scored off a well-taken free kick to put the visiting team ahead. The goals scored by Princeton were off set pieces as well, an aspect the Crimson defense will need to continue to work on. What the defense did well was contain the potent Tiger offense from scoring its usual three goals—its average output over the previous seven games.

What desperately needs to be addressed, though, is the recent trend of collapsing after going up on the scoreboard. It happened against Cornell, Boston College, and Princeton. In those games, Harvard went ahead but was unable to finish on top.

At the very least, the Crimson will have to score more than one goal in a game, a feat it has not accomplished since its televised matchup against UMass on Sept. 6. Harvard has enough talent on the attack to do so and now needs to put it to use.

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