Wednesday, October 24 was a very busy day for most of our JCU varsity teams. Our Men’s Soccer, Basketball, Men’s 5vs5 Soccer, and Volleyball had their respective weekly scrimmage games.

The Universities of Rome Championship is about to begin on November 5th, and our Gladiators have to play as much as possible in order to come prepared for the next big events of the 2018/2019 Season. The more we play, the more we improve!

Let’s try to take a closer look now at what happened during the different games.

MEN’S SOCCER
JCU played against the Unversity of Foro Italico (UFI) and lost 5-2, despite an overall decent performance of our players. UFI showed clear superiority in terms of technical and tactical skills on the field. However, our Gladiators were able to contain the opponents for the most part during the first half the game, playing well in defence and trying to push forward, also wasting a few chances to score.

“We played well tonight, but we can definitely improve a lot more in order to make that qualitative leap that we need to win,” JCU coach Riccardo Concari said at the end of the game. “I think we need to work a lot more on the resistance, and we have to try to be more confident in front of the opposing goal post.”

Don’t give up, Gladiators! Keep working hard because this is just the beginning!

BASKETBALL
JCU Basketball team got ahold of Sr Virtus Basket last night with one point difference, winning 52-51. Our Gladiators have pretty much become unstoppable, winning one game after the other.

“The match was quite difficult and intense, but our players were able to handle it really well even in the hardest situations,” JCU Athletics Assistant Massimiliano Menculini commented.

In the first quarter, JCU dominated the game, gaining a good advantage over the opposing team. However, in the second quarter, our players lost the right concentration, and the opponents exploited the situation to their advantage by closing the gap in the result. In the third and fourth quarters, both teams played in a balanced way, but JCU gained the upper hand thanks to our players’ excellent skills.

Congratulations, Gladiators! And special thanks to the Captain of the team Patrick Gilmore who is doing a great job by helping the team in the current absence of the coach.

MEN’S 5vs5 SOCCER
Scrimmage game for our Men’s 5vs5 Soccer team, which played against Keyhouse Futsal and won 6-5.

JCU played a really good match, and all the players showed great improvement on the field. First half of the game, JCU played more in defence and did not attack much. On the contrary, second half of the game, JCU tried to push forward, attacking and scoring more, but also losing some cohesion in defence and let the opponents score, too. However, in the end, JCU brought home the victory by also proving good teamwork and determination.

“I think that this semester, our team is really strong, and I am confident enough that we can do really well when the Season starts,” Ricardo Solano, Men’s 5vs5 Soccer player said. “One thing that we should improve, though, is to be more attentive about what the opponents are doing during the game in order to better anticipate and guard them.”

Coach Manuel Franceschi, then, added, “I am satisfied with the performance of my players. I think they are all making progress, and now we need to keep working hard. These last few trainings will be fundamental before we leave for Barcelona in mid-November.”

Good job, Gladiators! Keep it up because the World InterUniversities Championship is really close!

VOLLEYBALL
We can’t really say the same thing for our Volleyball team that, this semester, seems to be in a more difficult situation compared to all of our teams to get into the action. However, last night was only the second scrimmage game for our team, and all the players probably need a little bit more time to warm up the engine.

JCU played against Oroverde B and lost 4-0. Although the result per se was not positive, JCU proved to be a very determined and cohesive team that always fights for every ball and strives to do the best in order to win.

“In this very first period, we are focusing more on team building and on each player’s technical and tactical growth,” JCU Coach Stefano Papari commented. “Beyond the result, I am happy with the way my team played last night. Except for the second set, I saw great teamwork in all of the other sets, and all the players always tried to give their best for the team, and I think for now this is the most important result.”

Then Stefano continued, “We can’t expect to win immediately. We still need to improve on different aspects, but we are working on it, and the good results will be a natural consequence of the significant work we are doing now.”

Good job, Gladiators! Don’t lose faith, and keep pushing because all the hard work will soon pay off!