Own-Goal to Start, 5-1 Loss to Finish

Even the most punctual of fans arriving at Columbia Soccer Stadium on Saturday might not have seen the Lions discover yet another way to shoot themselves in the foot, as a freak own-goal in the first minute opened up the floodgates and helped Harvard dismantle a shell-shocked Columbia side, 5-1.

The loss only adds to the woes of an already reeling Lions team (3-11-1, 0-5 Ivy) that has given up 16 goals in five winless games in the Ivy League. The Lions’ comatose play in the first half against Harvard prompted head coach Leo Chappel, for the first time all season, to question the heart of his squad.

“I got after them pretty good at halftime,” Chappel said. “It had nothing to do with soccer. It had nothing to do with Xs and Os. It had everything to do with character.”
Chappel was still just settling into his seat when Columbia gave up the first goal of the game. Just 22 seconds into the match, left back Patrick Huston played a routine back-pass to keeper Michael Testa, who stumbled—appearing to catch the studs of his right boot on the laces of his left—and allowed the ball to roll slowly under his foot and into the net.

“Instead of saying, ‘OK, now we have to pick it up, we spotted them one goal,’ we do just the opposite,” Chappel said. “The whole team went quiet, and we started giving up goals. There was a lack of intensity, and we just didn’t respond.”

With the Lions unable to get their bearings, the Crimson pressed forward in numbers and scored its second goal just four minutes later, when Harvard central defender Kwaku Nyamekye lifted his imposing frame over Columbia’s defense to head home a corner kick from the right side.

Harvard then put an exclamation point on a sparkling half in the 45th minute, when sophomore Brian Grimm laid off a bouncing ball to the top of the box and set up midfielder Chey Im to blast a one-time volley into the right corner of the net.

The Lions, meanwhile, looked dysfunctional from front to back. Harvard played angled balls easily through wide-open passing lanes, and its individual attackers took every opportunity for style points against their timid opposition.

There was a visible disconnect among the Columbia lines moving forward and not even a hint of the overlapping movement necessary to break down the rock-solid formation they faced.

“I thought the only guy ready to play in the first half was Chris Wales,” Chappel said of the senior midfielder who was playing in just his third game back from injury. The coach fiddled around with his defensive formation in the first half, initially starting co-captain Tom Heinbockel at center back before moving him back to his normal place in central midfield, but could not seem to make anything click.

“We just haven’t found our core in the back,” Heinbockel explained. “It’s a different unit from last year, and we just haven’t been able to get a solid string of games in.”

There was no relief to be found in the second half. Harvard’s Adam Rousmaniere scored a spectacular goal in the 54th minute, striking a clean volley straight off a deep corner kick by Allen Padua just inside the right post.

And just over 10 minutes later, Matt Hoff took advantage of Columbia’s poor marking to slip a perfect through-ball to Crimson forward André Akpan, who then applied a clinical finish to keeper Alex Contratto’s right to make it 5-0.

Consolation for the Lions finally came in the 85th minute, when Tom Davison ran down a lofted ball into the box from Wales on the right wing and scored with a header that arched over the onrushing keeper’s hands. But by then the sarcastic calls of “olé” were already raining down from Harvard’s traveling fans.

If the Lions players looked disoriented during the game, they seemed just as lost after it, and there were few answers to be found regarding a season that has most certainly gone awry.

“I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t think anyone does,” a dejected Heinbockel said. “I really think we have the heart. We’ve been playing hard. But sometimes it’s not just a matter of trying.”

Chappel insisted afterwards that there were no major tactical changes in store for the team’s final two games. The Lions will hope, then, that they can find their heart, and that it somehow leads them to the ever-elusive three points.