Syracuse Men's Soccer is College Cup Bound
The Orange are going to the College Cup for the second time under Head Coach Ian McIntyre.
Throughout the season this Syracuse men’s soccer team has been compared to the 2015. This was the first conference title team and the best NCAA Tournament run that Coach McIntyre had led his team to before this year. A few months later this side now sit with an 8-1 record against ranked opponents, 10-1 if you only look at the Coaches Poll instead of tournament seeding. Vermont and Penn were both ranked at the end of the season sitting at #8 and T-23.
Going up against the Catamounts was never going to be an easy task considering the quality that would be on the other side. These two teams played to start the month of September in a 1-1 draw at Virtue Field in Vermont. The Orange were outshot 10-7 in that game while both sides only put one shot on target. Each of those shots turned into goals with Levonte Johnson scoring off a pass from Nathan Opoku in the 10th minute and Yaniv Bazini equalizing in the 21st.
Syracuse was able to learn a lot from that first meeting with Vermont and honestly can credit that early challenge that the Catamounts provided them with for allowing this team to have a wakeup call. This Syracuse team wasn’t one that anyone looked at in August or September and saw making a trip to North Carolina at the end of the year. This game showed them what a top caliber team is going to look like, where they need to get and the fact that they have the quality to compete with a team like that despite just three games as a group. Fast forward to the beginning of December and this team’s growth showed.
“I think both teams have grown and got better,” Coach McIntyre said when talking about their first meeting with Vermont to their second. “They were missing a couple of their players. Look, Alex Nagy is a difference maker for them. And in college soccer he is terrific. He caused us problems today. I thought Amferny got around the ball and tried to make life difficult for him. But it's the same for us as well. We had some guys. I think we've got better that was a third game of the season but like that game, same to this one, it could have gone either way and we knew when the bracket dropped that we had some really tough teams in this bracket, and we didn't look past Vermont. We knew that they were a wonderful group.”
Syracuse got the brunt of the chances in the beginning with their first one coming in the 5th minute. Leibold was in the corner, trapped by a few defenders but worked his way out, got into space and connected with Sinclair at the top of the box. Sinclair then found Boselli to his right who dumped it off in the path of Calov who’s strike hit the side of the net. Curt Calov wouldn’t find the back of the net with that attempt but would find the first goal. You might credit the wind, you might credit the class of Calov, or maybe a touch of both. Regardless Calov found a way to bend his in-swinging corner into the top right corner of the goal. Vermont keeper Nathan Silveira played the corner shaded towards the close post and as the ball continued to carry towards the opposite side of the goal, he had little chance to make a play on it.
When asked about taking the corner in the conditions yesterday Calov said that “nothing really changed. In practice we go over set pieces a lot and it's windy at practice and I didn't think too much of it. Put everyone on the goal line and I was fortunate enough for it to go in.”
Those first 11 minutes were dominated by Syracuse who seemed to get a little too comfortable following the goal. They weren’t quite as aggressive and as the trend of play swung towards Vermont Curti made a tackle to get the ball away from the box, but Daniel Pacella was on the other end of it and delivered a rocket from well outside the box. A wall of players in front of him made it difficult for Russell Shealy to see or react to the shot. In all honesty, even if Shealy had seen it coming it was a serious strike from Pacella that would have still been tough to stop.
The Orange went to work to regain control of what was a very back and forth contest. A 26th minute look from Levonte Johnson was saved and a corner from Biros was put just wide left by Nathan Opoku in the 38th minute.
Syracuse would grab the lead and ultimately the winning goal in the 42nd minute. Opoku won the ball, played a little give and go with Biros just outside their attacking third as the pass back to Opoku led him into space between two defenders. He was met in the box, made a quick move towards the end line and crossed it low towards Levonte Johnson who was able to tap it towards the right side of the net.
The Orange went into the break having put 4 of their 6 shots on frame and holding Vermont to 1 of their 5 shots on target. Out of the break there was a stalemate that lasted for a majority of the 2nd half. The first shot of the 2nd half wasn’t registered until the 84th minute by Opoku. Boselli brought the ball forward on a break and set up Opoku perfectly. He had the time to take another touch, but all that open space seemed to make his eyes light up and he sent it a touch high and wide as a result.
Opoku may not have got himself a goal but he was all over the field and you can tell he plays with a massive amount of joy.
“Everything, I enjoy every moment,” Opoku said. “Being away from family, this is the only thing that keeps me going, makes me happy. So, when I'm on the field, I enjoy every moment and make the best out of it.”
The joy continues for Syracuse who now move on to play Creighton on Friday at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, NC. The Orange also played the ACC tournament final there in their 2-0 win over Clemson so they should be fairly familiar with the field having already lifted a trophy on that field. The Blue Jays will be one of their toughest opponents yet. Creighton is led by Duncan McGuire, the nation’s leading goal scorer (22 goals), who is at the head of the nation’s highest scoring team with 63 goals this season, 7 more than 2nd best. They are a fantastic squad, so it is hard to call it a Cinderella run, but this unseeded Blue Jay squad has had the toughest road to Cary. After beating T-23 ranked Missouri State in the first round they beat #1 ranked and #2 seeded Washington to hand them just their 2nd loss of the year. After beating Tulsa in the 3rd round they went to #4 ranked and #7 seeded Duke and stole a 3-2 win. They were outshot 19-8 by the Blue Devils and conceded 22 corners but their immense quality up front brought them goals and their defense did just enough behind Paul Kruse’s 8 saves. Eliot Hamill, top 3 in the country in both save percentage and goals against average, was saveless against Creighton who turned all 3 shots on frame into goals. The quality of Creighton’s attack means that they don’t need to dominate possession or have more shots on target. From the touch until the final whistle this team is a threat to score.
On the other side of the bracket brings two more teams that weren’t expected to make it to Cary. Syracuse is the only single digit seed left and the only ranked team still remaining. Indiana emerged from their region having entered the tournament seeded #13 and unranked, but receiving votes, after losing to Rutgers in the Big Ten Tournament finals. They then won two 1-0 contests against Saint Louis and Marshall, who had eliminated #4 seed Virginia in the previous round in penalties. They comfortably, in their most convincing game thus far, beat #12 seed UNC Greensboro who knocked off the 5th seeded Stanford Cardinals. This side is led going forward by Ryan Wittenbrink who has 9 goals and 9 assists this year. This Indiana team won’t be an easy out due to their ability to put shots on goal. They won’t overwhelm you with chances but put 45% of them on frame. Aside from that Marshall game, though, it has been a fairly easy road to final four for the Hoosiers who will square off with Pitt.
From the start of the season Pitt and Duke were two teams I kept my eye on knowing that they would be dangerous ACC sides that the Orange wouldn’t see during the regular season. Pitt has been one of those sides where they always showed a ton of quality and potential but didn’t always get the results you’d expect. 5 draws and surprise losses to Louisville and UVA in the middle of the season seemed to lower expectations. They finished the season with two of those draws against Duke and Notre Dame before scoring 3 overtime goals against NC State in the first round of the ACC Tournament. They outplayed Virginia in the 2nd round of the tournament but conceded an early goal which allowed UVA to play their style and sit behind the ball to play defensively. It would be the 9 saves from Holden Brown that saved the day and prevented the Panthers from traveling to Syracuse in the next round. Their NCAA Tournament run has been fairly comfortable with a 2-1 win over Cleveland St where they didn’t concede until the 89th minute and a 3-0 win over Akron. It was their 2-1 win over #1 seed and #2 ranked Kentucky that seemed to indicate that this team coming into their true form. They beat the Wildcats despite two ejections and scored the winning goal down a man in the 87th minute. Portland was another comfortable game that should have never seen overtime. Pitt registered 28 shots in regulation to Portland’s 5 and finished the game with 32 shots. Noel Valentin found the winner in the 104th minute but 10 saves from George Tasouris was the only reason it took that long. Valentin leads the team in points this season having scored 11 goals and logged 3 assists. Bertin Jacquesson is another threat with 8 goals and 5 assists while Filip Mirkovic is a dangerous facilitator with 12 assists on the year.
Friday will bring two very exciting matchups and it's tough to say who will go through. I feel confident in Pitt with how they performed this tournament and how dominant they were against Portland, while Indiana has been good and done their job, but have not quite been as convincing thus far in the tournament. Syracuse by most measures should be an easy choice to win but this Creighton side has made a habit of defying the odds in this tournament. It’ll be a shootout as Duncan Maguire and this Creighton side will likely take multiple goals from Syracuse to beat. My expectation, despite the challenge Creighton may provide, to see the Orange square off with their ACC foe Pitt in the final.