Riverdale, NY — Manhattan is set to face Fordham in the annual Battle of the Bronx game on Monday night at Rose Hill. The Jaspers enter the match-up on a two game winning streak following home wins over LIU and Columbia. Fordham is ranked 18th in the country, marking the second time over the last six years in which the Rams enter this match-up ranked.
What You Should Know
-Manhattan has been hot since returning to the friendly confines of Gaelic Park. On 9/7, the Jaspers defeated LIU 2-1 in a game which was fully dictated by Manhattan until the Sharks got a late goal back in the 81st minute. Last Wednesday, Manhattan pounced on Columbia early with a first-minute goal from Sebastiano Musu which was all the Jaspers needed to beat the Lions for the first time in program history.
-Musu scored two goals during the homestand, including an 11th minute stunner from just outside the 18 against LIU which grazed the post and wrapped in. Musu continued his heroics with his opening strike versus Columbia, which started on a beautiful build-up by the Jaspers and ended with a one-time shot by Musu.
-Forward Ziv Dahan is authoring a breakout sophomore campaign in Riverdale. He has 2 goals and 1 thus far on the season including netting the second goal in the 2-1 win over LIU which proved to be the game winner. Dahan has played in 4 of Manhattan's 5 games after missing the season opener at FDU due to injury.
-Ludvig Målberg secured his first shutout for the Kelly Green and White during the two-game homestand. Målberg only needed to make 1 save in the 1-0 win over Columbia and did a good job of cutting out anything the Lions tried to do in the box.
-The last time the Jaspers met a ranked Fordham squad came in 2018, the same season the Jaspers posted a program-record 12 wins. Manhattan topped top No. 25 Fordham 1-0 at Gaelic Park on a game-winning header in the 90th minute by Adrien Awana and assisted by Jamie Cotter. With the win, the Jaspers improved to 7-1 on the season and rose to No. 47 in RPI.
-Manhattan has won 3 of the last 5 meetings versus Fordham, with the Rams taking the last 2. In 2019, the Jaspers extended their winning streak over Fordham to 2 games following a game-winning goal from Noah Amissah in the 93rd minute to clinch the 2-1 win at Rose Hill.
-The Jaspers rank 73 out of 211 D1 men's soccer teams in strength of schedule, having already played at No. 13 Seton Hall and St. John's. Manhattan saw two video reviews end up in the opposition's favor in both games, and the Jaspers ultimately couldn't recover from those.
-Manhattan will now lock horns with No. 18 Fordham—who are expected to fall out of the Top 25 following a 2-1 loss at Marist—and then at No. 15 Penn on Saturday.
The Opposition
Fordham dropped to 3-2-1 following consecutive losses to Penn and Marist. The Rams are led by junior midfielder Daniel D'Ippolito who has 5 goals on the young campaign, including a hat trick in Fordham's 4-0 win over Santa Clara (9/5). The Rams have had 6 other players score once this season. In goal, Fordham relies on graduate student Carter Abbott who has a 1.38 goals against average across 6 games. Fordham is guided by head coach Carlos Acquista.
How To Watch
Tonight's 7 p.m. ET kick-off will be available for viewing on ESPN+.
