On May 15, former DC United defender Robbie Russell announced his retirement and that he’d be taking a very different post-career path than most athletes. Russell is coming to Georgetown to pursue a career in medicine.

“I’m really excited about going back to school, opening up the mind again, and learning,” Russell said in a phone interview with Vox. 

Russell leaves behind an impressive professional playing career spanning two continents and six teams.

He began at Icelandic club Breiðablik before moving to Norway to ply his trade with Sogndal Fotball. His outstanding performances there earned him a transfer to Norwegian powerhouse Rosenborg BK. Russell was an integral part of the side that brought home the club’s nineteenth Norwegian title.

After one more stint in a different Scandinavian league, playing for Vibrog FF in the Danish Superligaen, Russell began a new chapter of his career upon being transferred to Utah’s Real Salt Lake. He proved the deciding factor in securing Real Salt Lake’s 2009 MLS Cup after scoring the winning penalty kick in the seventh round of the shootout against the Los Angeles Galaxy.

After several successful years with Real Salt Lake, Russell asked for a transfer to DC United to be closer to his wife. His wish was granted and he was transferred to United in exchange for a first-round pick in the MLS Supplemental Draft. He played at United until the recent end of his career.

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Last year, the women’s soccer team had its most successful season in the history of the program. They finished with 15 wins, good for their most ever, and made it to the semifinals of the Big East Tournament.

This season, the team sports a much younger look, but is still strong, having won their first six games in a slate that included Columbia, Cornell, and Delaware. Though the 2011 team lost many players to graduation, the new team is fully capable of repeating last year’s feats, and is gifted with decreased pressure and expectations.

Last year, then-senior Ingrid Wells played an enormous role on the team and was one of three players named to the All-Big East Team. Coach Dave Nolan realizes the enormity of her loss but remains confident in the players stepping up in her stead.

“Good players come and go, and you have to think down the line on how you have to replace players,” Nolan said. “Ingrid was a very special player, but there are other special players as well.”

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Recently, in an effort to make North Kehoe a better environment for athletic competitions, the field was decorated with new banners. However, just two weeks after the banners were put up, three of them have been stolen. Brian Wiese and Dave Nolan, the coaches for the Men’s and Women’s Soccer teams respectively, are pretty upset about the theft.

Both their teams play on the field and helped raise money for the banners. The coaches are so irritated that they have released the following open letter to the Georgetown community:

Dave and I write to you today with a real sense of disappointment. I’ve coached the men’s soccer program here at Georgetown for the past four years, Dave has coached the women’s soccer program for six years and we’ve always appreciated the support shown for our teams. The Georgetown students have been great – vocal, enthusiastic and involved and it has been a major factor in the success we’ve enjoyed. So why are we disappointed?

Within two weeks of decorating the field, three banners have been stolen from North Kehoe. Two 6X10 banners (Jack and the Georgetown G) as well as an 8×68 foot windscreen proclaiming “North Kehoe Field, Home of the Hoyas”.

Dave and I and the members of both our teams were involved in fundraising to pay for those banners in order to dress up our home field, hoping to both make a better environment for competition and to give recruits a better impression of Georgetown. We hoped to capitalize upon and add to student spirit as they root for the Hoyas. Now somebody has taken them. I don’t know if it was a joke, but nobody’s laughing. I don’t know if it was a prank, but nobody here is enjoying it. I don’t know if it was supposed to be cool, but it is not.

Read the rest of the letter after the jump!

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This is what a happy soccer player looks like

Men’s Soccer

Georgetown (1-1-1) split two games against ranked California opponents this weekend at Kehoe. On Friday No. 8 Cal got the better of the Hoyas 2-0, marking the second game in a row where Georgetown was held scoreless. But the team bounced back on Sunday, walking away with a 2-0 victory over No. 19 UCLA. The win, played in front of a near-capacity crowd, was head coach Brian Wiese’s first over a ranked opponent.

Women’s Soccer

Coming off a 4-0 drubbing of James Madison on Wednesday, the Hoyas (4-1-0) had momentum on their side heading into Sunday’s matchup with No. 22 Santa Clara. But the team suffered its first loss of the season, dropping a 2-1 heartbreaker in overtime. Santa Clara struck first in the 43rd minute, when Anessa Patton got one by Georgetown keeper Jackie DesJardin. It was the first goal allowed by the Hoyas all season. Sara Jordan scored the equalizer in the 73rd minute, but despite some good looks for the Hoyas in overtime, the visitors scored the decisive goal in the closing minute of the first extra period.

Football

Alcantara (right)

Last Thursday, when the Cuban soccer team was in town to play the US team for a World Cup qualifier, Cuban player Reinier Alcantar thought, “Thanks but no thanks on the health care and repression” and bolted from his hotel (emphasis added):

Alcantara got up from a sofa, walked down a hallway, found a service door, checked over his shoulder, stepped outside and sprinted toward freedom.

He ran, and ran, and ran. Six to eight blocks. At full speed, looking over his shoulder the whole way, worried that someone would snag him and deliver him back to the Cuban delegation. Finally, when he realized nobody was chasing him, Alcantara stopped at a corner, caught his breath, and flagged down a taxi.

He speaks very little English, but he used what he knew when he got into the taxi cab. ”Drive me far,” he told the driver, motioning with his hand. “Go far, far, far.”

His teammate Pedro Faife also ran away from the hotel Thursday. It’s a charming and exciting story, even if you think the US hates Cuba more than we need to. After the jump, Alcantara struggles not to be a fatty and discusses the world’s greatest city.
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Due to the outbreak of the norovirus on campus, athletic director Bernard Muir has postponed or cancelled most events scheduled for this weekend, including women’s soccer home games Syracuse and St. John’s, football away at Colgate, and swimming away at American. Muir said games were delayed because of sick players:

“Because several members of the team have been infected and others have been exposed, and because the infection is contagious, after discussion between medical personnel at both universities and with Syracuse’s and St. John’s athletic administration and the BIG EAST, the decision has been made not to play the games. Make-up dates have not been reached at this time.”