If the men’s soccer team is to have any chance of accomplishing its goal of making the NCAA tournament, it will almost certainly have to finish first in the Ivy League. That quest begins tomorrow night, as Cornell hosts Penn at Berman Field in the Red’s first Ivy game of the year.

“It is our first Ivy League game, and these are the games that really make or break our season,” said senior defender Dana Flanders. “We will be playing against a bunch of good teams, and it will be a good test for us. We didn’t start the season as well as we would have liked to but this is our opportunity, this game this weekend against Penn, to turn things around. So this is really important, our most important game so far.”

Though the men’s soccer team lost Friday at Berman Field, 1-0, this was the real home opener for the Red.

The contest between Cornell (1-6) and in-state rival Binghamton (5-1-3) — decided by only one goal and featuring strong performances on both ends of the field — was the type of game the Red wished it had as its home opener two weeks ago, when visiting Albany crushed a demoralized Cornell, 4-0.

It came at the perfect time, as the Red will open Ivy play this coming weekend.

Mine: Scott Brody battled with his Bearcat counterpart.

The players emphasized the clear differences between the two home outings.

After registering its first victory of the season on the road last weekend, the men’s soccer team returns to Berman Field tonight looking to build on that success. Standing in the Red’s way are the Binghamton Bearcats (4-1-3, 1-0 America East), who are currently riding a seven-game unbeaten streak.

Cornell knows that Binghamton will be a formidable opponent and is preparing for a tightly contested matchup.

“It is going to be a tough game for us,” said assistant coach Joe Schneck. “Binghamton is a very good team. It will be a fight for us, and it will be a good test given that it is our last game before Ivy play. It will be good for our guys. It will hopefully be a game where we can match the intensity and hopefully sneak a goal and just let the game play out.”

A little over 10 minutes into Sunday’s matchup at Lafayette, junior forward Matt Bouraee gave the men’s soccer team a one-goal lead. The speedy forward, whose natural skills tend to make him a breakaway machine, had to work for it, using several fakeouts and having the good luck of a defender slipping and falling to the ground in his wake.

Bouraee’s first thought after scoring the goal: “Finally.”

It was his first goal of the 2008 season, a season in which Bouraee is expected to build on a standout sophomore season that saw the Manasquan, N.J., import become Cornell’s leading scorer for the year.

After five losses in a row to start the season, the men’s soccer team finally got in the win column with a victory yesterday over Lafayette. The Red made the most of its trip to Easton, Penn., beating Lafayette by a score of 2-1 and putting an end to its losing streak.

Senior co-captain Joe Yonga explained that his team finally played as a cohesive unit and started firing on all cylinders with a new attacking attitude.

“I think today one of the main differences was that all the guys were working hard for each other for 90 minutes,” Yonga said. “There was an aggression and a mentality that we had been lacking in the previous five games.”

Sophomore goalkeeper Scott Brody explained that his squad got an all-around effort from every position on the field.

After a disappointing 0-5 start to the season, the men’s soccer team hopes to gain some confidence and pride by coming together as unit this Sunday in Easton, Penn. The Red will take on the Lafayette Leopards in what the it hopes to be a turning point for a squad frustrated by a lack of continuity on offense and execution on defense.

Yesterday, head coach Bryan Scales called a team meeting to discuss what must be done to right the path of the 2008 season.

“We have to do a lot of soul-searching, figure out why we’re making the same mistakes day-in and day-out,” said junior forward Matt Bouraee. “No one wants to continue like this. At this point, we can only improve, and we won’t give up as a team.”

Berman Field was a somber place to be last night. After the men’s soccer team dropped its home opener to visiting Albany — giving up three second-half goals in the 4-0 loss — the shell-shocked squad leaned on each other in the post-game huddle.

“[We talked about how] we’ve got to keep our heads in it,” said senior co-captain Joe Yonga. “We’ve got to start taking pride in ourselves and in each other, and when we get back in practice we’re starting over from Day 1. It’s going to be a new season from here on out.”

Outscored, outshot, multiple-game losing streak, only played on the road so far. Each one of these things currently applies to both the Cornell and Albany men’s soccer teams. Tonight, however, the Red returns home for its first tilt of the season on Berman field against the still-vagabond Great Danes.

“As a team, we’re obviously not doing very well this season,” said junior forward Matt Bouraee. “This season really sucks so far actually.”

A hard statement to dispute after the Red has dropped its first four games against some tough competition by and average of 2.75 goals per game.

“Albany, though, they’re no Berkeley,” Bouraee pointed out, referring to Cornell’s 5-0 loss to the No. 3-ranked Golden Bears.

The men’s soccer team has reached a turning point. While the Red is winless after two weeks of play — dropping its weekend matchups with Bucknell Friday night, 3-0, and New Hampshire yesterday afternoon, 2-1 — the struggling offense showed signs of life in controlling the first halves of both contests.

“It’s difficult to understand if you weren’t there,” said junior defender Brian Donovan. “Especially in the second game [of the weekend], we kept the ball for long periods of time but we were never able to make that final pass and put the ball in the net. We were making them run and possessing the ball … sometimes for six minutes at a time.”

When you fall off of a horse, common wisdom says to get right back on. After two shutout losses to open the season in California last weekend, the men’s soccer team got right on a plane back to Ithaca and is preparing for its next challenge. The Red arrived in Lewisburg, Penn., last night, set to take on host Bucknell tonight and the University of New Hampshire Sunday afternoon in the Days Inn Invitational.

“During [last] weekend, we weren’t communicating as much,” said senior defender Kevin Vieira. “But during practice [head coach Bryan Scales] has been going over film, and we’ve been doing all the right things to get better.”

In contrast to the Red’s rocky season-opening weekend, both Bucknell and New Hampshire have had strong starts.