By Federica Malpeso
ROME, March 1 - The JCU Gladiators battled to a 1-1 tie against league leader and perennial powerhouse I.U.S.M. on Wednesday night.
The tie places the Gladiators
in second place in the Roman University Championship League. I.U.S.M has a strong athletic program, consistently finishing first in the soccer league, often with an un undefeated season.
Consequently, this
game was certainly an impressive tie for the JCU Gladiators, particularly as it comes after a tough 5-1 loss to Louiss on Feb. 22.
(Pictured: JCU goal tender Patrick Cullerot and coach Massiliano Di Genaro)
I.U.S.M scored their first goal in the first half. It was a nice shot, although study-aboard goalie, Patrick Cullerot, was unable to save it due to his partially distorted vision. Moments earlier, he had lost one of his contact lenses.
Thirty minutes into the first half, one of the defenders of I.U.S.M had a hand ball in the box. The coach had Davide Lelli take the penalty kick because of his usual consistent ball placement skills. Unfortunately, Lelli didn’t score, as he kicked it low and hard into the goal keeper's hands.
In the second half, the team’s
“Speedy Gonzales” Dean Torosiam received a great assist from Dejan
Vukoje and was able to shoot into the bottom left side of the goal, evening the score at 1-1. It was Torosiam’s first game this season, coming back from knee
surgery last year.
The Gladiators really came together well considering that this was only the fourth game they played together as a new team this season. The team practiced for less than two months in comparison. Conversely, most teams in the League have been practicing together for at least a year.
Goalie John Stratton came out
strong and shutout I.U.M.S in the second half, preserving the tie.
Anthony Vercellone was the
game's MVP because of his unrelenting energy and stamina as he beat every
opponent to the ball with his outstanding ball skills. “He covered
every inch of the field, which sometimes can be dangerous when you find
yourself stepping on your teammates’ toes. But it was what we needed
tonight and his effort was very motivating” said Torosiam.
Other great performances came from Lelli, despite his missed penalty kick, and from Vukoje.
The
Gladiators stayed strong throughout the game and definitely did not
let last week’s loss in the first round of the playoffs against the fourth-place team, Louiss, dampen their spirits.
The Gladiators were overall satisfied with this tie, and look forward to next week’s game on March 8 against Cattolica Sacro Cuore at 9 p.m.
Hi there,
it is impressive to see what happend with JCU and the Gladiators!
My name is Valerio Morisi and I have graduated from JCU in May 2004. As the adminitration will remember I am the "creator" of the JCU Gladiator and former Goaly of the Team.
Its awesome that all the fights we have had in the past in order to establish the JCU Soccer programm in mid 2003 has become a success. Probably most of the current players dont know me, but if i see names as Valerio Patrizi as the Team Captain i am sure a lot of water has passed since then :-)
Its also great to see that the JCU Newspaper has evolved and is stated in the net.
Reading the article I noticed that Federica Malpeso is somehow the reporter of the team and with this few lines I wanted to underline your efforts for the team!! During my time the players wrote the articles themselfes in order to promote this activity ;-)
If case you wanna hear more about the story of the gladiators and how they have started (I can promise you its a very profound and interesting story) just contact me and I can give detailed infos on that, not to forget all the photo and written material I d have in case you wanna write something about that :-)
I ll leav a great CIAO to all of the players who still know me and hope you guys will keep the JCU Gladiators alive! :-)
Ciao from Germany
Valerio
Posted by: Valerio Morisi | March 23, 2007 at 09:47 AM
this is alessandro's dad writing
do you have any decent picture of alessandro playing any game?
please send it to me
thank's
marcello mioni
Posted by: marcello mioni | February 16, 2008 at 06:31 PM
buy contact lenses online at http://contactlensesmall.com/
Posted by: bob | February 03, 2011 at 07:02 AM