Syracuse Wins 2022 NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship

Syracuse Wins 2022 NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship

CARY, N.C. (theACC.com) – Syracuse won the first NCAA men’s soccer national championship in program history on Monday evening in the NCAA Men’s College Cup at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina. Following 110 minutes and a 2-2 draw, the No. 3 seed Orange outlasted No. 13 Indiana, 7-6, in a penalty-kick shootout.

ACC teams have now won 19 NCAA men’s soccer championships, including back-to-back (Clemson, 2021). The ACC has won three team national championships this fall – men's soccer (Syracuse), field hockey (North Carolina) and women's cross country (NC State) – with an opportunity to win another this weekend in women's volleyball (Louisville and Pitt).

Making the second College Cup appearance in program history, Syracuse (19-2-4) becomes the seventh current ACC program to win a national championship, the most of any conference, finishing the season on a 14-match unbeaten streak.

Syracuse is the fourth team in ACC men’s soccer history to win an ACC regular-season title, ACC Championship and NCAA Championship in the same season, joining Virginia (1991, 1992) and North Carolina (2011).

Syracuse struck first in the 24th minute on Nathan Opoku’s 11th goal of the season, as he dodged defenders and sent a curling shot just inside the far post.

The Hoosiers (14-5-6) equalized in the 32nd minute following a corner kick, as Patrick McDonald corralled the loose ball and ripped to the far side of the net. The Orange promptly responded less than a minute and a half later as Opoku sent a cross deep into the box to find Curt Calov, who deftly directed it just inside the near post for his third goal of the season.

Indiana squared the game at 2-2 in the 80th minute on Herbert Endeley’s strike from just outside the top of the box. The teams then played through two scoreless overtime periods to force the shootout.

Both teams then converted on six of their first seven penalty attempts. Syracuse goalkeeper Russell Shealy stopped IU’s Maouloune Goumballe on the eighth attempt, and the Orange’s Amferny Sinclair stepped to the spot and buried his attempt to clinch the championship.

Shealy was named the College Cup’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player, while Opoku was named Most Outstanding Offensive Player. They were joined on the All-Tournament Team by teammates Levonte Johnson, Curt Calov, Christian Curti and Jeorgio Kocevski as well as Pitt’s Filip Mirkovic.

This marks the fourth straight season in which two ACC teams advanced to the NCAA Men’s College Cup. The ACC has had at least one conference team in the NCAA Men’s College Cup in 21 of the last 22 seasons. Sixty-three ACC teams have now reached the Men's College Cup all-time.

In World Cup Soccer Action, after Brazil's defeat Friday, Argentina is the new favorite at +240, according to Fanduel.