On Wednesday, November 21st, JCU Men’s Soccer, Women’s 5on5 Soccer, and Men’s 5on5 Soccer teams respectively took on Erasmus in Campus (EIC), and Link Campus Univesrity (LCU) at Trastevere Stadium.

All of our three teams ended up with three different results, pulling out one win, one tie, and one loss.

Our Men’s Soccer team tried to make up for their last-week defeat against Università Europea di Roma, by playing an overall good game against a rugged team such as EIC. Even though the opponents used a more bodily-aggresive attitude on the field – they received many yellow cards and a red card – our Gladiators were able to close the game with a 2-2 draw.

“The team played well, and I am quite satisfied. They showed once again to be very tough-minded, and they were not discouraged by the fact they were down by two scores, being able to perform a come back at the right moment,” coach Riccardo Concari commented.

Indeed, our Gladiators successfully tied the result once thanks to the new entry Giorgio Castellani‘s goal, and then, thanks to JCU Captain and striker Josè Pablo Ortega‘s score on a free kick during the final additional minutes of the game.

Josè Pablo Ortega #10 score on a free kick

Congratulations, Gladiators! And keep up with the good work!

MVP – Brooks Hoffman

JCU Women’s 5on5 Soccer team earned, instead, a significant victory against Link Campus. Our Lady Gladiators finally pulled out their swords and fought, closing the game 14-0.

The opposing team did not come really prepared, and they never put our ladies in any paricular difficult situation during the game even though JCU struggled a little bit to score in the first 10 minutes of the game. However, Lady Gladiators were able to unblock the situation soon after and crushed the opponents with a remarkable series of goals.

“It was an easy game for my girls, and each one of them gave a good performance,” coach Paolo Farina said. “I hope that this victory might represent a good omen for our future games.”

Wednesday night was the last official game for our Lady Gladiators in the first round of the Universities of Rome Championship. At the moment, JCU stands in second place behind Università degli Studi Foro Italico. But the tournament is still long, and we know that our ladies will come back much stronger for the second round.

Good job, ladies!

MVP – Catherine Latting

Not a really positive result for our JCU Men’s 5on5 Soccer team who stumbled 3-9 against LCU. Our Gladiators had to face a very strong and solid opponent who gave them a hard time since the first minutes of the game.

Ten minutes into the game, LCU had already took the lead, scoring one goal after another; while, JCU spent most of the match trying to catch up with the score, managing to kick the ball into the goalpost for three times thanks to Andrea Palazzi – two goals – and Fernado Royuela – one goal.

JCU Midfielder Fernando Royuela’s goal

“Unfortunately, we don’t have any excuse in this case. I know the abilities of my players, and they were not 100% focused on the game. They did not play at their best, and that’s the price we had to pay for it,” coach Manuel Franceschi commented.

Then, Manuel continued, “Despite we lost, this was an important lesson for the team. They learned from their respective errors, and now we start working again from here. I am pretty sure that we can do much better in the next game.”

If you want to be champion, you also need to learn how to lose! So don’t give up, Gladiators and keep it up! We know that you are a really strong team, and with more trainings, all the pieces of puzzle will fall in the right place, and you’ll become unstoppable!

MVP – Fernando Royuela

Next Soccer Appointments
MEN’S SOCCER: JCU vs LCU | 9:15 pm | Trastevere Stadium
MEN’S 5on5 SOCCER: JCU vs UFI | 9:30 pm | Trastevere Stadium