Published: April 22, 2010

It took almost two years, but Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC)’s first-place soccer team finally lost a game, dropping a 4-3 match to second-place Brooklyn FC 2 on April 11. A listless first half put Fordham behind early, and a second half comeback attempt fell short.

“We didn’t play very well,” said team captain Luiz Lourez, FCLC ’11. “We were a little overconfident coming into the game.”

The game’s 11 a.m. start time clearly had an effect on the team, which not only played sluggishly but was missing a number of players who have difficulty attending games starting early.  Brooklyn FC 2 capitalized on Fordham’s early struggles setting up the minor upset by scoring goals on very close shots, including one that hit the crossbar and fell in.

“They scored a few fluke goals early,” Lourez said. “They weren’t great goals, just a few lucky shots that bounced the right way.”

It took the team a while to finally sync up and get back into the flow of the game, but FCLC eventually woke up a bit in the second half, regaining their usual lockdown defense and sparking their dormant offense.

“I really liked our effort in the second half,” Lourez said. “We came out with a lot more energy.”

The team scored three goals in the second half, but it wasn’t enough as Brooklyn FC 2’s early lead proved to be too big a hurdle to overcome.

Going into Sunday’s game Fordham was not only undefeated this season, but had also gone undefeated last season. In fact, the team hadn’t lost a game since early in the 2008 season.

“I was really mad about breaking the streak,” Lourez said. “But we just didn’t play well enough in the first half.”

The loss drops Fordham to third in the league standings with a record of 3-1-1, behind Brooklyn FC 2 and rivals Gotham Wed, who won last season’s championship over Fordham on tiebreakers. Despite the loss, Lourez is still confident that the team will be able to recover its early momentum in time for the playoffs.

“Oh yeah, we’ll make the playoffs,” Lourez said. “I think we still have a good shot to win the championship.”

Barring a late season collapse, Fordham should get a chance to avenge this loss and more importantly, the championship loss from last year.  With two regular season games left, Fordham has the second biggest point differential, the tiebreaker used to determine the championship if the game ends in a tie, one point behind Gotham Wed. If the team plays well in its next two games, they can take over the lead in point differential, giving them a huge advantage in the playoffs. If FCLC has the advantage in point differential, it can maximize its excellent defense to force a tie instead of being forced to go on the offensive to avoid a loss on tiebreaker.