By Andrew Parente

The men’s soccer team features two brothers, Ahmed and Mahmoud Talaat, who both start for the team and who are having a great 2007 campaign sofar.

Originally from Alexandria, Egypt, senior Ahmed starts at forward while Mahmoud, a sophomore, is the starting goalie on the team.

For Mahmoud, making the transition to playing college soccer in America was helped along by his older brother, he said.

“Coming last year, me being a freshman and him being a junior, it was much easier for him to introduce me to the team and everything that comes along with playing here,” Mahmoud said.

Ahmed said he intentionally helped make it a smooth transition.

“Being here two years before him, I was able to tell him how things are here and help explain some things about the team,” he said.

But both brothers said being on the same team with a family member could potentially lead to extra pressure.

“We always try to be critical of each other on the field,” Ahmed said. “When we know that one of us is doing something wrong, we always try to help out each other.”

Playing on the same team is not something new to the brothers. They played soccer together their entire lives, both overseas in Egypt and in Boston.

“We really don’t know what it’s like to not be playing together,” Ahmed said. “Being here and playing two years before he was here was something different in itself.”

The style of the game varies from the United States to Egypt, and both players notice the differences.

“Soccer here is much more physical and the pace of the game is much faster,” Ahmed said.

Mahmoud said the differences can be found in every aspect of the game.

“In Egypt it’s more about skills and technical work, while here it’s more about fitness and being able to keep up with the fast pace,” Mahmoud said.

Ahmed, who started his college career in Chestnut Hill with Boston College, transferred to Northeastern in 2005, and currently leads the Huskies in goals with three on the season. That also puts him in a tie for third place overall in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA).

He scored game-winning goals for the Huskies in wins this season against Maine and Columbia.

Both games also featured shutouts from Mahmoud as he made three and two saves in the contests, respectively.

“Our jobs are different on the field; I’m trying to save the ball while he is trying to score,” Mahmoud said. “However, in the big picture, we’re all trying to do the same thing, and that’s win.”

To the Talaat brothers, nothing is better than when they both play well during the same game.

“It’s always a perfect moment when I score the game-winning goal, and he has a clean sheet,” Ahmed said. “It happened this year and once or twice last year and it’s always something special.”

Last season, in a game played at Parsons Field against Delaware, this was accomplished in a big way.

The Huskies and Blue Hens played a scoreless first half in a back and forth game. In the game’s 67th minute, Ahmed got the Huskies on the board when he received a pass from then-junior forward Greg Kilkenny and beat the Blue Hens goalie, putting NU on top 1-0.

The game would end that way, earning Mahmoud a shutout and extending his shutout streak at the time to 253:19 minutes. The win was also the fourth consecutive for Northeastern as it ended the season with six straight wins before heading into the CAA tournament.

“Games like that are really special moments for us,” Mahmoud said.

Northeastern has concluded the out-of-conference portion of its schedule for this season and now begins CAA play. The Talaat brothers will be key players as the team attempts to qualify for the CAA tournament for the second consecutive year.