Syracuse Men's Soccer is One Win Away From Program's First National Title
No Syracuse athletic team has been able to capture a national championship since 2015 when both the field hockey and cross country teams were able to accomplish that feat. The Men’s soccer ended up finishing 2015 by losing in the Semifinals to Clemson on penalties. That 16 win team was the strongest season Coach McIntyre has had since taking over the program. This season has eclipsed that in every way. Not only did Syracuse already win the ACC title, they also broke a program record in wins and have secured the first title game for Syracuse soccer ever.
The Orange have also collected an array of awards during their post season run. The first being the South region staff of the year form the United Soccer Coaches. A program record five players were also recognized by the USC as All-South region players. Levonte Johnson and Nathan Opoku got first team recognition, Christian Curti was named to the second team while both Russell Shealy and Jeorgio Kocevski were named to the All-South third team. Johnson was also named a Semifinalist for the MAC Hermann Trophy and is a first team All-American. Finally, Nathan Opoku was added to the list of All-Americans as he received third team honors.
To get to the national championship game the Orange had to go through Creighton. The Blue Jays were bringing the highest scoring offense in the country with them to Cary, including Duncan McGuire who led the national in scoring and was also a Semifinalist for the MAC Hermann Trophy as well as a second team All-American. Creighton started out hot and created a lot of changes early. McGuire tested the Orange and forced them to tactically switch to a back four which the Orange don’t do often. McGuire beat the whole backline and took Curti on one v one and still won the foot race to test Shealy in the 8th minute. Dominic Briggs was on the end line a few minutes later, played a ball into McGuire who beat Shealy, but Amferny Sinclair was there to save the day, clearing it from the goal.
The first real menacing chance came for Syracuse with just over 10 minutes left in the first half when Johnson set up Kocevski just outside the box and he struck it very well, but Paul Kruse made a great save. In the 37th minute the Orange broke the deadlock as Curt Calov took the corner. His inswinger went off the hands of Kruse and fell to Curti who buried it in the back of the net. Creighton nearly had an answer when Briggs played the ball to McGuire in the box again, Salim couldn’t stay in front of McGuire, but Shealy dove to his right to make an incredible save.
At the half Syracuse led 1-0 despite being outshot 9-5 and conceding 6 corners. McGuire could only be contained so long and in the 50th minute he collected the ball in the penalty area, held off both Curti and Salim and got just enough of a touch with his left foot to beat Shealy far post. Just over a minute later Kocevski gained control in their attacking half, saw Opoku making a run and led him into space. Opoku wouldn’t waste the chance as he finished with his right to make it 2-1.
The lead only held into the 64th minute when Callum Watson took the throw in, Luke Mitchell flicked it towards Alfie Pope who buried it inside 6-yards. In the 77th minute Lorenzo Boselli took a strong free kick that force Kruse to dive to his left that deflected towards Salim but was cleared by Miguel Ventura. The moment of magic Syracuse needed came in the 86th minute. Jackson Glenn had the ball near the right sideline, played it forward to an Opoko who was onside thanks to a defend on the far side of the field. Opoko brought the ball into the box, drew the attention of the defenders and Levonte Johnson was waiting far post to finish Opoko’s cross and seal their spot in the national title game.
The Orange square off with the 8x national champion Indiana Hoosiers on Monday at 6:00 p.m. Despite my expectations for Pitt, the Hoosiers delivered a clean sheet to advance. Ryan Wittenbrink scored the first for Indiana. He took a penalty shot that was saved by Joe van der Sar but took a favorable deflection back to him and from there the finish was easy. The 2nd goal from Tommy Mihalic was incredible. Herbert Endeley put the ball into open space in the right side of the box and Mihalic came on to it, recognized that he had a lot of space behind him and let it rip from an impossible angle. The space and odd angle that clearly caught van der Sarr off guard allowed for the goal and what was the game sealing score.
Indiana has flown under the radar coming into the tournament after a 3-1-4 record in conference and just a 4-3-3 record on the road. A loss in the middle of the season to Ohio State as well as odd draws to Michigan State, Michigan and non-conference opponent Evansville led to some question marks. The Hoosier gained a bit of momentum with two wins in the Big Ten tournament before truly hitting their stride. They beat Saint Louis, the only program with more national titles, in the first round before knocking off Marshall who finished the last USC poll ranked 9th. They then collected two more clean sheets against #12 seed UNC Greensboro and then Pitt in the Semifinals. Their defense has been the story of their tournament run having made it all the way to the championship game without conceding a goal. They are led by third team All-American Daniel Munie on that backline.
The list of 205 NCAA D1 soccer teams have been cut down to just two. The Orange and the Hoosiers. The 3 seed and the 13 seed. The College Cup’s first two matches certain haven’t disappointed and this title matchup will be much of the same.