Men’s Soccer Loses Finale with Lacksidaisical Play

The Columbia Lions Mens Soccer Team lost their final game of
the season on a cold Saturday afternoon in Ithaca, NY to the
Cornell Big Red. The final score was 3-1, with Cornell scoring the
last three goals of Columbia’s season. The difficult defeat brought
Columbia’s season record to 6-6-3 overall and 3-3-1 in Ivy League
play.

“It was an overall bad performance,” junior co-captain David Duffy
said. “ The game started off well, with us scoring early on, and
then all of a sudden what we thought was going to be a walkover
turned into a shellacking.”

Almost as soon as the match had begun, the Lions were on the
scoreboard thanks in large part to first-year forward Thorsteinn
Gestsson’s attentive and quick shot on goal immediately following
junior forward Craig Smart’s deflected shot.

“Gestsson’s shot was solid,” said Duffy. “But it wasn’t enough.
They quietly scored three goals on us and we couldn’t score in
return.”

Overall, the game was uneventful for the Lions. The offensive
strategy of the Lions’ shifted after they scored, as they relied on
schemes that relieved the defenders’ fatigue. However, as the
Lions were playing keep-away, their defense was being taken
advantage of by Cornell’s forwards.

“The marking was bad,” Duffy said. “Cornell got forward in
numbers while we didn’t match them – they had 5 on 4 or 4 on 3
and they just capitalized on their opportunities.”

Agreeing with teammate Duffy, sophomore midfielder Tommy
McMenemy said:

“We got the goal so early we just sat back and let them come at
us. So the offense’s real job was to hold the ball up and let the
defense recuperate. Our defenders were out of synch with our
midfielders, though, who were also miscommunicating with the
forwards. All in all, it was a generally disjointed performance.”

The Lions had comparatively less motivation to win the game than
their opponents. Cornell was winless in the Ivy League, so they
had a desire to erase the zero from their win column, while they
also will most likely be entertaining an at-large bid to the NCAA
tournament this week because of their non-league record. Cornell
has defeated many significant regional opponents and so they are
highly ranked both in the region and nationally. Columbia, on the
other hand, lost their edge on the Ivy-League berth to the
tournament two weeks ago, while they had squelched their hopes
for an at-large bid even earlier.

“They had more spirit, more will, more desire to win,” Duffy said,
“They hadn’t won an Ivy game all season and they came out really
determined. We came out knowing that there was no chance to
win the Ivies or get an at-large bid, so there wasn’t much for us to
play for.”

The Lions had a chance to end the season on a high-note, but
instead they too easily succumbed to a floating feeling of malaise
regarding their own team.

“We played with a complete lack of focus since there was nothing
to play for,” said McMenemy. “ At least, that was our approach. And
our approach was wrong, and it ended up being the difference
between having a winning record or not at the end of the season.
We let ourselves down.”