For those of you unfamiliar with the game of soccer, it is a sport full of clichés. Perhaps the most well known of these commonly used phrases would be “take each game as it comes”, or, “It’s a game of two halves”. For myself and my teammates on the men’s team at QC, this week has taught us that these clichés exist for a reason.

After over a month of hard work and preparation, our season began very successfully on September 1st with a 5-1 home victory against Wilmington University of Delaware. While our performance was far from perfect, the scoreline did not flatter us at all as we fought hard and showed glimpses of our full potential as a team throughout the ninety minutes of play. It was especially rewarding to win in front of our home crowd, on a day that marked a new era not just for our team, but for the whole of the Queens College Athletic Department as we welcomed our new Athletic Director, China Jude, to the school’s first competitive game of the Fall season.

The following day we left for New Hampshire in high spirits, as we looked to pick up where we left off against Wilmington in our second match of the season, a tough fixture versus the Penmen of USNH, a team ranked 14th in this year’s NCAA Division II poll. In this matchup we saw both the opportunity to test ourselves against one of the top soccer programs in the country, and to cause an upset in their own back yard that may well have turned some heads in our direction.

What followed can only be described as a lesson, as we succumbed to a 3-0 defeat on a scorching afternoon in front of a lively crowd (which, I would like to add, included one of our own dedicated fans who made the five-hour journey up to watch us play).

Two goals inside the first half-hour saw our hosts take full control of the game, as we struggled against their physicality and pace, and both teams slowed in the late afternoon sun.

The second half began at the same frantic pace as the first, however the next forty-five minutes showed a marked improvement in our performance. We began to play our own game rather than theirs, and could well have scored on a number of occasions, only to be thwarted by some fine saves by the opposing goalkeeper and some rather questionable decisions by the referee.

Although we were by no means outclassed, we were beaten on the day by a team superior to us both physically and mentally, who showed discipline and executed their game-plan to perfection.

A lesson learned is wisdom gained, however, and we will take these experiences into our next game this coming Thursday against American International College, as we hope put the clichés to one side and rebuild some momentum going forward into the rest of our season.
Please visit www.queensknights.com for any match reports, statistics and schedules for both the men’s soccer team and any other of QC’s athletic teams competing this Fall.