Adjustments, tough losses for soccer

Brewers look to break league losing streak

Acacia O'Connor Sports Editor

You may think it’s superstition, but the men’s soccer team would say that they have been a bit unlucky so far this season. The team, whose full record is 3-5-1, is winless so far in Liberty League contests.

“For the amount of work that we do, we deserve some more luck,” said midfielder Kyle Denny ’07.

Even after an attitude adjustment and some tactical changes, the Brewers are finding it difficult to capitalize on. With precious few League contests remaining, the team looks to leave a string of tough losses behind.

The team started the season strongly, garnering wins in their first two matches against Keystone and Swarthmore. They then battled top-20 nationally ranked New Jersey City University only to come up short in a 3-0 loss.

The Brewers launched into league play on Sept. 23 and 24 in home matches against Skidmore and Union, respectively. Both losses were difficult to swallow for the team, though for disparate reasons.

On Friday, Vassar fans witnessed a lackluster performance from the otherwise visibly talented squad. The team’s play was wanting for intensity, allowing the Thoroughbreds to win balls on the ground and in the air. Most of the game was played in the midfield, the Brewers opting to try to string together short passes that did little to attack their opponents.

Vassar’s Nate Melinowski ’06 buried a rebound given up by the Skidmore keeper in the back of the net to mark the first goal of the game. For the rest of the match, however, the Thoroughbreds proved more effective, scoring three goals in only eight shots on goal.

“The Skidmore score was a lucky score,” said men’s soccer coach Andy Jennings. “We weren’t the better team that day.”

In preparation for the Union match the following afternoon, Jennings had a long talk with his players about the team’s attitude, intensity and what other adjustments needed to be made. Jennings decided to make a change—opting to start freshmen players in the places of five regular starters. The difference between the two games was marked.

The team played with a frantic and inspired intensity for both halves of the 90-minute match. With under a minute left in the first half, David Vernon ’06 found the top right corner of the Union goal off a header, putting the Brewers ahead. It was physical exhaustion that eventually gave Union the upper hand in the second half. Little by little, the Union team gained the advantage, converting opportunities into two goals to win the match.

“In the Union game, we were so intense that we couldn’t perform physically,” said Jennings. Fitness, he said, would be something the team would improve in the future.

Despite the result of the match, Jennings and his players went into the week feeling confident that the team had the tools it needed to win games, specifically this past Saturday’s game against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).

“It’s a matter of all of us being on the same page,” said Ben Fox ’08. “Once we do that, we can put a couple of wins together.”

The team’s confidence was also rooted in memories of last season, when the men lost their first two League matches and were still in the running for a playoff bid in their final game.
“We still have a chance, and that’s what matters,” said Denny.

The Brewers do still have a chance to make the Liberty League playoffs, but that task became all the more difficult after Saturday’s result against RPI.

Even with a dominating second half performance, and the Brewers command of the offensive play, the team was again unable to gain the lead. They out-shot the Big Red squad 12-6 in the second half alone. Many of those shots were frustratingly close, including a long lofting ball from Melinowski, that banged off the lower part of the cross-bar.

“We had a lot of chances and we didn’t finish those chances,” said Jennings of the match. “We outplayed them and didn’t score, and it was a tough loss.”
Jennings said the team will look to change their strategy a little more drastically, moving from a careful, short game to a more direct method of playing long balls.

“We’ve been trying to possess the ball—it’s a much harder way to play, but a more enjoyable way,” he said. “But if it’s not effective, we have to make changes.”

The team has four more league chances to be effective before the playoffs. This weekend they will match up against tough St. Lawrence and Clarkson squads. Both games will be a shot at redemption for the Brewers, who lostlast year to both the Saints and the Golden Knights by a score of 1-0 at home.

Last season’s Clarkson match was scoreless for most of the game and with the Brewers playing stronger offensively than their opponents. Yet the game went to the Knights after a goal in the seventy-eighth minute of play.

St. Lawrence also put down the Brewers after a second half goal and then went on to win the Liberty League season championship.

If they lose to either team, it will be nearly impossible to get a bid for the post-season.
What is the key to success for the rest of the season? “We need to come out in games where we’re the underdog,” said Fox. Then, shaking his head affirmatively, he added, “

We’ll make it up.”
For Jennings, it’s a matter of everyone on the team playing together, to their potential, every game.

“I tell these guys you make your own luck,” said Jennings. “It’s a game of fractions of seconds. It is a little bit of luck, but more it’s the things you do that can make that luck, or bad luck.”