Over 4,300 miles away from his home in Budapest, Hungary, sophomore András Breuer is off to a great start this soccer season.
Despite it being his second year at Queens College, the midfielder is still adjusting to life at QC and in New York City.
“If there wasn’t Google Maps I’d be lost all the time, especially in New York City,” Breuer said.
When Breuer came to Flushing for the first time he was intimidated by living in a new country with new people. He credits the international student population and his teammates for helping him adjust to his new life as a college student in the United States.
“It was really easy for me to become friends with the international students and they helped me interact with everyone else on campus,” Breuer said.
As a freshman, he faced difficulties moving into his dormitory. With preseason right around the corner, he was concerned. Luckily, he was able to reach out to his teammates and arranged to stay with some players off campus.
The first teammate he met was goalkeeper Robbie Webster.
“My mom was with me and I just saw the house and said wow this is a nice house,” Breuer said, “and a huge 6-foot-4 guy answers the door. It was Robbie.”
From the outside, the house looked nice but once he saw the inside of the house Breuer was skeptical of his future standard of living in America, something he laughs about now as he recalls his first day.
“The whole house was a mess and the first question I asked was, is this how it’s going to be in just your house or is the whole country this way?” Breuer said.
Breuer’s transition to the American style of playing soccer has translated well. In his freshman season he scored two goals and had three assists for a total of seven points.
This season those numbers have increased in half the time.
So far, he’s scored four goals and two assists amassing 10 points through eight games. His season highlights include scoring twice against Saint Michaels at home on Sept. 10 and scoring the game-winning goal against Holy Family in Philadelphia on Sept. 13.
Despite these accomplishments, Breuer refuses to say he’s satisfied with his individual performance.
His focus is not on winning Conference Player of the Year for the East Coast Conference, or how many goals he hopes to score. Rather, his focus is to help the team succeed and perform better than last year.
“Personally I surprised myself with the good start of the season,” Breuer said, “But right now I’m lacking and I need to pick it up.”
Men’s soccer assistant coach Chris Grenzig believes that Breuer has absorbed a leadership role as well, even though he’s only a sophomore.
“He’s surpassed expectations, not just play wise but as a character and a leader,” Grenzig said. “He’s taken on a big responsible role and he’s been a tremendous help.”
As a student-athlete, Breuer finds it is very important to balance his studies with soccer and his social life and wants to be able to enjoy success in all areas of his QC career.
He plans to declare his major in international business next year and when he discusses his goals off the field his priorities are academics and building team unity.
“My mom said to study a lot, so I get good grades,” Breuer said. “So that is definitely one of my goals off the field.”
