Under foreboding New England skies, a busload of soccer players set off yesterday morning for Ithaca, New York. The Crimson "international" opens today its eighth season of Ivy League play against Cornell.

Very little information about the Cornell eleven has sifted down to Cambridge, but the rumor is that they're not much better than last year's team--sixth place, two wins, four losses, one tie, and victim to a 9-1 Harvard shellacking. Cornell has played only one game so far, a not-very-indicative 1-1 tie with Ithaca College.

The Crimson left in full strength after a 4-0 mastery of Tufts Wednesday. Chris Ohiri, still uninjured, will be starting at center forward to plague the Ithacans again; last year Ohiri scored five times against them.

The rest of the squad is strong and deep. Right behind Ohiri is captain Tony Davies, the center half, who can score if Ohiri is covered. Flanking him are four good halfbacks in Dave Clapp, Larry Coburn, Sam Thompson, and Emmanuel Boye. Versatile Lou Williams is big enough and quick enough to stop most anything at the fullback line. He will be assisted by Terry Winslow, a promising sophomore.

The team's chief problem is developing a forward line that will score, and not pass off to Ohiri, wherever he may be. In the Tufts game, Ohiri was responsible for 11 of the 13 shots at the goal in the first half. The second half wasn't much better.

Thirteen goal shots is not a lot for half a game, especially if the shots don't come near the two posts. Tufts put a four-man box around Ohiri and limited him to wild boots that roamed all over the out-of-bounds line.

But more significant was the fact that time and again, Crimson forwards had clear shots and forsook them to pass off into the Ohiri area. The varsity's offense was paralysed, and at the end of the half, there had been no score. Tufts began to tire in the second period, and the Crimson finally came through--still, three of the four tallies were Ohiri's.

Tufts was previewed as a pushover. Cornell, nominally stronger than Tufts, could drop the net around Ohiri, and probably score at the same time. So, the Crimson will have to look for markers from Mike Kramer, Al Chang, John Thorndike, and Eb Kluflo. And throw in understudies Sam Rodd, George Draper, and Steve Sewall.

But, give or take one, spot the Crimson a three-goal margin today.