The Harvard soccer team opens its Ivy League season at Columbia today in the final appearance of the 4-3-3 in a Crimson uniform.

Coach Bruce Munro told his players at practice yesterday that Harvard would revert to the familiar 5-3-2 alignment Monday, regardless of the outcome of today's encounter in New York.

Munro deployed his teams in a 5-3-2 all of his previous 18 years at Harvard, but abandoned it with hesitation this fall to experiment with the three-back defense which is most common in the college ranks today.

A short preseason and an unsettled personnel situation have handicapped Munro's efforts to install the new style of play, and Wednesday's uninspired loss at Williams convinced the Crimson coach to halt the experiment.

Munro concluded that this year's Harvard team hasn't the appropriate material for the freelancing style of play called for in the comparatively sophisticated 4-3-3. He also felt his players' basic skills and enjoyment of the game were suffering as they struggled with the unfamiliar patterns.

One day of practice isn't sufficient to change a system, so the Crimson will be in a 4-3-3 today. It is not their lineup, however, that will determine Harvard's changes against an undefeated Lion squad that has already beaten Princeton, 4-3, and against a Colgate squad that upset Cornell, 4-0, last Saturday.

The Harvard spirits are down after tough losses to Amherst and Williams. Injuries to Dave Wright, Joe Gould, and Ken Mallory, which leave the defense depthless, add to the depression.

In the fast, skilled, but equally depthless Lions get off to an early lead it will be all over for the Crimson. But if someone like Scott Robertson were to break away for a leadoff goal for Harvard, the Cantabridgians would forget about their troubles and their changing systems and wallop Columbia.