It's good to be healthy, and for the first time in a couple of weeks, the Penn men's soccer team is near 100 percent. Last week's games against Dartmouth and Rutgers saw a few key players either out or stuck with limited minutes because of injuries.
Senior defender and captain Keith Vereb played just 53 minutes against Dartmouth and only came on in the second half against Rutgers on Wednesday. Classmate Derek Hobson saw just 34 minutes of action off the bench that game.
Missing from action against the Scarlet Knights were junior midfielder Alex Grendi and freshman forward Tobi Olopade. While not a starter, Olopade can usually be counted on to see his fair share of minutes in games.
Coach Rudy Fuller attributed the injuries to the usual wear and tear of the season. He added that "because Rutgers was our last nonconference game of the season, we saw it as an opportunity to rest some guys who were a little banged-up."
After the home win against Yale on Saturday, Fuller also decided to skip practice yesterday to help the team rest for this Saturday's tough road matchup at Brown.
Help from the bench. Saturday's game against Yale had Mike Klein, Andrew Ferry and Jeff Livingston all playing in reduced time. Fuller said he is "lucky to have such depth on the team" that he can afford to rest players.
Freshman Loukas Tasigianis has been a great spark, and he now leads the team with four goals on the year. His stellar play as of late (three goals in his last four games) earned him a starting spot on Saturday.
But Fuller also has solid options up front with Richard Frank, Klein, Ferry, Olopade and Omid Shokoufandeh.
In particular, Shokoufandeh has seen his minutes and contributions steadily increase from the beginning of this season.
And Lee Rubenstein, who barely played at all last year, is making an impact off the bench on defense and also as a spot starter.
With all of these options and possible lineups, Fuller is very optimistic that his team will be able to stay fresh and healthy through its final four contests.
Just win, baby. If the Quakers wants to capture the Ivy title and the playoff berth that eluded it last year, it looks like winning out may be the only good chance.
At this point, it's a four-horse race - through three Ivy games, Brown is in the driver's seat with nine points while Dartmouth has seven. Penn and Harvard are tied with six.
But Harvard's loss came to Brown, and its two toughest remaining games (Penn and Dartmouth) are at home. It seems very likely that both the Bears and the Crimson will win out (sorry, Dartmouth).
So right now, it looks like the Quakers can't afford not to win and need Brown to drop one for a shot at the title.
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