Soccer

The Fordham Women’s soccer team has had a bumpy start to its year but as the old adage goes, once conference play starts it’s a new season.  The Lady Rams have momentum going into their A-10 opener against Duquesne tonight, winning their last two games against Fairfield and Loyola respectively. I talked to Head Coach Ness Selmani about the nature of his team, choosing captains, and the team’s new style of play.

As part of the relatively unknown World Football Challenge, two well-known European soccer giants, Real Madrid and A.C. Milan came to play on American soil. Although the friendly match may hold little significance, tell that to the sellout crowd of 49,474 strong, who filled Yankee Stadium with the raucous choir so reminiscent of the world’s biggest soccer arenas.

Spain vs. Italy

Winner: Italy  

Analysis: Although I’m sure there are others who have been as lucky as me to predict the correct outcomes of every match since the quarterfinals, I still maintain that I deserve a little credit…but not too much. Yes, I picked Italy to pull out a victory against a heavily favored German team, but no one, including me could have foretold a mesmerizing and supreme two-goal performance from Italy’s Mario Balotelli. Even if Balotelli doesn’t quite match his last-game heroics, which is very possible given Spain’s robust duo of Gerard Piquè and Sergio Ramos in the central defense, Italy can still pull off a title win against “La Roja”. But what Balotelli can most certainly do is win you the match. The reason is because clinical finishers like “Super Mario”, are the ones who land on the score sheet, without them it can be very hard to put away that final ball off a beautiful pass. 

 You wouldn’t expect the New York Red Bulls to have a commanding 3-2 victory over their opponents, having been scored upon 26 seconds into last Sunday’s game against the former conference leaders, D.C. United. But they did. However, before fans even had time to take a bite of their nachos, D.C. striker Chris Pontius headed the ball past a stunned Ryan Meara.  A record crowd of 25,187 “D.C. Haters” had all of sudden lost their voice.