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By recent standards, the 2024 season was a tough pill to swallow for SU.
The Syracuse Orange men’s soccer team’s season (7-7-3, 2-4-2) ended against a strong Wake Forest side, knocking them out of the ACC Tournament.
So, what went wrong with the program this season? Coming off the back of two consecutive NCAA Tournament runs, including a National Championship in 2022, expectations seemed to outmatch the quality of the team, who finished with an exact 0.500 record.
According to Head Coach Ian McIntyre, the team knows that there are high expectations but embraced the challenge with open arms. Despite this, he explained that “we had a young group and a very new group, but we never looked for excuses. We didn’t set our standards any lower.”
The team started the campaign with tons of promise. Wins in the opening two fixtures and a draw against NCAA Tournament-bound Charlotte were met with strong and voracious support from the fans. Unfortunately, after this run to start the season, the cracks in the team started to show.
The team had a completely new look to it this season, with the only returning players to receive significant roles in the team being first-choice goalkeeper Tomas Hut, Andre Cutler-DeJesus, and Nick Kaloukian. Hut and Cutler-DeJesus played a combined one game in 2023, while Kaloukian was the team’s leading scorer.
The team lost well over 20 players from the 2023 season, including key cogs all across the team. The defensive core that had made the team elite in Gabi Mikina, Josh Belluz, Buster Sjoberg, and Olu Oyegunle was gone, all to the MLS or MLS Next. The team’s assist leader and heartbeat, Jeo Kocevski, was also gone to Orlando City. Key contributors like Nate Edwards, Lorenzo Boselli, and Mateo Leveque also all moved on.
In the place of these departed players who brought their team a 9-5-7 (2-1-5) record and an NCAA Tournament round-of-32 exit was a new cast of characters as Coach McIntyre was forced to almost entirely retool his squad.
Compared to recent years, Coach McIntyre gave many more chances to freshmen through this campaign as a talented class had arrived in the summer. This recruiting class was particularly deep at the center-back position as Garrett Holman, Dominic Bell, and, in particular, Chimere Omeze all look to be great prospects for the program.
Omeze, in particular, was one of the Orange’s most outstanding players this season as a freshman, ranking as TopDrawer Soccer’s 27th best freshman in the nation, and earning All-ACC Freshman Team honors. Omeze finished top-five in the team for minutes played and had moments of brilliance throughout the season to contribute to the Cuse defense. The trio of Holman, Bell, and Omeze look set to star for the Orange for the next few seasons and may even play as the back three next year.
Further up the field, Kelvin Da Costa shone as a holding midfielder in the team as a tenacious ball-winner who also looks set to start for the Orange in the years to come. Da Costa’s season was unfortunately hampered by injury, as was Bell’s.
Sachiel Ming and Braedon Smith also showed moments of brilliance for the Orange this season as rapid, tricky, and creative attacking players who will contribute to the Orange plenty in the coming years.
The highest-potential player of the bunch may just be Kristjan Fortier, who played a large chunk of the season only aged 17 and looks set to star in the future. Fortier is a natural technician with incredible gifts and an NCAA soccer-ready body. Using his technical ability, Fortier also scored probably the two best goals of the Orange’s season against Pitt and Charlotte.
Coach McIntyre was quick to praise his freshman for their performances this year, adding that they would have been nowhere near as successful without them. But the season was not easy, “we did throw a lot of young guys into the into the deep end, into the fire this year, but I’m proud of how they embraced those challenges.”
The slew of new transfer students also played a big contributing role this season in keeping the program competitive. Elton Chifamba was one of the team’s minute leaders playing in the midfield, transferring to SU after two National Championships with Clemson. Nathan Scott frequently partnered Chifamba in midfield and brought great calm and technical quality to the heart of the pitch.
Sam Layton earned himself the captaincy as a transfer and was the loudest voice on the pitch and a marshall of SU’s defense throughout the campaign, arguably making him the team’s most important player.
From wingback, Gabe Threadgold was another one of the team’s most consistent performers and led the program in goals and finished second in assists (4 and 3).
Up front, Daniel Burko and Michael Acquah arrived as relatively unknown quantities but proved their worth for the team and look set to feature in the years going forward. Acquah was one of the top assisters in the ACC with six, and Burko bagged three goals for himself in limited minutes.
With a few injuries making changes throughout the season, the Orange’s typical startling lineup looked something like the picture below.
The wingbacks, normally consisting of Threadgold and a partner, were tasked with giving the team width going forward and defensive coverage in the wide areas on defense.
The back three of Cutler-DeJesus, Layton, and Omeze was the most consistent part of the team throughout the season and established some natural chemistry.
Omeze’s athleticism and mobility allowed him to cover ground and space for his partners. Layton’s aerial ability, on-ball ability, and front-foot defending often lead him to step out of the back line to clean up messes in midfield to protect the defense. Cutler-DeJesus was Mr. Consistent for the Orange, finishing the season as the leader in minutes played for all outfield players.
A balanced midfield in front of them often saw one holding midfielder sit deeper with more defensive responsibilities, allowing the other two to get forward and support the pair of attackers.
In the attacking pair, Kaloukian or Burko would be tasked as the hold-up player, responsible for being an outlet for long balls and a physical presence to occupy the defenders. Acquah had a more flexible role, which allowed him to drift wide, drop deep, or run in behind the defense to find the best positions. This flexibility is what allowed him to lead the team in assists this year.
After their strong start to the season, the Orange’s first issues became apparent in their home loss against Le Moyne in the fourth match of the season. The Dolphins have only been a division-one program for two years but set the standard for the tactics a team ought to use to thwart SU best.
Le Moyne’s first advantage over SU was having a team full of strong and physical players that were able to out-muscle the Cuse team for loose balls and aerial duels. The Dolphins also sat back in numbers on defense, forcing SU to find creative ways to break them down, which never happened. Finally, the Dolphins did a masterful job of exploiting the space in-behind SU’s wingbacks, where they had time and freedom to advance toward the box.
This concoction of tactical successes is in large part what drove Le Moyne to their infamous 1-0 win at the SU Soccer Stadium in the proclaimed ‘Salt City Derby.’ Overall, this result was probably the worst of SU’s season and had a noticeable impact on the team’s psyche in the next few games.
After having their confidence rattled against Le Moyne, the Orange scraped by with a draw in the first ACC match against Boston College before picking up their first ACC loss as they conceded two late goals in two minutes against Virginia Tech to lose 2-0. This theme of late collapse would be one that haunted the young and inexperienced Orange team throughout the season.
The Orange throttled Canisius at home as expected in the rain before traveling down to Louisville. In a match that the Orange dominated for long spells, the team again took a 1-0 lead only to throw the result away in the literal last minute after conceding a dangerous free-kick that was expertly dispatched by Sander Roed.
The Orange then lost for the third straight season against Cornell in a match where they never got their attacking creativity going, making it impossible to break down a resolute Cornell defense. To be fair to the Orange, this was a very strong Cornell side that will almost certainly appear in the NCAA Tournament.
In the following match, the Orange again showed their inexperience with a late collapse against Wake Forest. While the Orange had the game well within their grasp, particularly after taking the lead in the 66th minute, another pair of late concessions in just two minutes saw the team drop the match in a 2-1 loss.
The lack of confidence and experience of the team was again on full show here as the side essentially imploded through the end of the game after first conceding in the 78th minute. Coach McIntyre explained that these late collapses were one of his biggest frustrations this year.
“I did think that we conceded too many goals, out teams over the last few years have had the ability to not concede a second goal,” he explained. “Those were moments this year that I was disappointed with, against Wake Forest, twice, against Virginia Tech, Clemson, where a first goal ended up with a second goal. That’s an area with a young team where we can grow and evolve for sure.”
SU finished this difficult period by going on its best run of the season, where the team earned wins at UAlbany, against Notre Dame, and at Providence. One key factor in this run was the extended playtime for Daniel Burko after a Nick Kaloukian injury.
Burko was on fire over this stretch, scoring once and providing the team with great hold-up play. The Orange even earned their best result of the season up to that point with a very convincing 2-1 win over Notre Dame, who played in the National Championship Game in 2023.
While it may have looked like the Orange had turned things around with this positive period, that was unfortunately not the case. The Orange were meant to play a game against Loyola a week after Providence which was canceled due to hurricane effects.
This shift in schedule saw the Orange go 11 days without playing a match, and the team looked rusty as they were trounced 3-0 in Virginia upon their return. The Orange then traveled further south to reigning National Champions, Clemson.
This Clemson match will go down in infamy for the Orange, who were absolutely dominated in a 6-1 loss. This result largely came due to an early red card for Michael Acquah, but the SU team still came off as unbothered and unmotivated, watching as the Tigers tore them to shreds. This match marked SU’s largest loss margin since a 5-0 loss at UConn in 1998. This means it was also SU’s largest-ever ACC loss and Coach McIntyre’s largest loss while at SU.
Coach McIntyre noted that this run was very difficult for the team, but will give them a platform and a reality check for what the young side needs to do going forward.
The team finished the season with a really positive result over #3 Pitt, but by this point in the season, even the most optimistic fan could see that the campaign was over. The Orange finished the regular season with a 7-6-3 record and would need a miracle run in the ACC Tournament to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament. As we now know, a 2-1 loss in the first round against Wake Forest meant that this run never materialized.
Though the Orange still finished the season with a 0.500 record, the tactical and strategic shortcomings of the team were clearly noticed even by casual fans in the stands.
The first and possibly most significant shortcoming this year was SU’s lack of size and aerial dominance. Through the last two campaigns, including the National Championship run, the Orange boasted a side that was not only strong but dominant in the air on both sides of the ball. This advantage meant that the SU defense won more duels on the defensive end to protect the goal and also scored more frequently from attacking set pieces to provide goals.
Thinking through the Orange roster over the last few seasons, the defensive lineup often featured some giants and aerial monsters. In 2022, the Orange defense boasted Christian Curti (6’3”), Abdi Salim (6’1”), Gavin Wigg (6’2”), Buster Sjoberg (6’5”), and Olu Oyegunle (6’3”). On top of some very tall players, Salim, Oyegunle, and Curti were great leapers and scored a few headed goals. Oyegunle and Salim were also exceptionally strong and resolute when holding off attackers.
In 2023, the team lost Salim and Curti, but added the 6’6” Josh Belluz and the 6’1” Gabriel Mikina, who was the most aerially dominant NCAA soccer player I have ever seen.
This is not to discount the strength, leaping, and aerial dominance of this year’s team as Bell, Omeze, Cutler-DeJesus, and Layton all have their qualities in this department. Despite this, they were unable to impose their sheer dominance and will on the game in the same way a back three of Oyegunle, Belluz, and Mikina or Salim, Sjoberg, and Curti did.
This lack of strength led to the team often being outmuscled by tall and bulky forwards. Matches against Wake Forest, Charlotte, Le Moyne, and Virginia Tech particularly come to mind when thinking about this issue, as the Orange defenders were dominated in the air and were outmuscled to the ball on a few occasions.
With the Orange most commonly defending with a back three this year, another issue they faced was finding wide midfielders who could successfully cover the spaces wide of the back three. In the 2023 campaign, this was a much easier problem for the Orange to solve.
On one side, the Orange boasted an absolute workhorse, Nate Edwards, who would always bust a gut for the team to provide defensive cover. On the other side, the Orange featured Noah Singelmann, who was a captain and defender by trade. This paring offered plenty of pace, effort, tenacity, and defensive cover in the wide areas for the team.
This year, the Orange never featured players in the wide areas who were so defensively inclined. Gabe Threadgold led the team in minutes at wingback this year and, while he was defensively solid, never had the defensive instincts expected in the position. After all, Threadgold is a wide midfielder by trade and was pushed further up the pitch as the season went on.
Coach McIntyre attempted to use Chimere Omeze in this role, where he did bring the defensive quality, but was eventually moved back to his preferred position in the middle.
The other players who frequently featured in wingback roles were Braedon Smith, Sachiel Ming, Ben Rosenblatt, and a few others. Again, none of these players except for Rosenblatt had defensive inclinations and were thus often playing in roles and positions that they were not familiar with, harming their performances.
This lack of defensive know-how in these critical areas often meant that SU was exploited by wide-attacking players bursting into space behind the wingbacks. This was a constant source of goals for SU’s opponents and an issue that they struggled to mitigate even through their season-ending loss against Wake Forest, where wingers driving into the box from wide areas set up both goals.
The most significant issue the Orange faced on the attacking end this year was a lack of creativity or truly outstanding creative players. This was a problem the team attempted to reconcile through a variety of methods and players but never seemed to find a consistent solution.
This was also an issue the Orange struggled with heavily last year. The gap in the team can best be perceived through the Nathaniel Opoku and Levonte Johnson-sized holes that the team suffered after the 2022 National Championship.
In terms of creativity and moments of brilliance, this pairing was second to none, a quality that is often demonstrated by the best teams in the nation in NCAA soccer. While Opoku up top could create an insane moment through a dribble or a high-quality finish, Johnson’s role seems to have been even more difficult for SU to replace.
Johnson’s primary role in 2022 was to link an isolated Opoku to the rest of the team. He did this through moments of brilliance, using his dribbling, strength, acceleration, passing, and creativity to break the defensive lines and involve other players in the game.
The absence of Jeo Kocevski has made this problem even worse this year, as the team seemed to lack any player who could provide the killer final ball. Nathan Scott and Elton Chifamba provided this quality on occasion but never came close to Kocevski’s 12 assists from 2023.
In the front line, players like Acquah, Smith, Ming, Ernest Bawa, and Carlos Zambrano can occasionally pull off a brilliant pass, quick burst of speed, or pretty skill move to beat a defender, but never can combine these qualities at the same consistent rate as a player like Johnson.
In the other attacking role, SU typically featured a big, strong, goal scoring forward like Kaloukian or Burko. However, with the creative players in the midfield and other forward positions behind them failing to provide satisfactory service, the target player was often forced to come short to contribute to buildup.
The issues with having a striker like Kaloukian drop deep are significant. Kaloukian is a natural target and predator in the box, meaning he likes to stay in that area to seize on loose chances or scraps to poke home. By having him come away from the box, SU lost this presence which was also able to occupy multiple defenders and keep them high and away from the midfield and instead in their own box.
With Kaloukian dropping deep, the defense was able to step, compress the midfield, and give less space to creative attackers and midfielders to dribble or pick out a good pass.
This struggle for space often just led to the Orange hoofing the ball long up the field. This strategy rarely proved fruitful and was an issue you could often hear fans complaining about in the stands.
In summary, because SU lacked attacking creative players to break through defenses in moments of brilliance, it forced the team to become more compact in possession to make passing and connecting easier. This issue made the team easier to defend against as defenses would have less space to defend and SU had to rely on long, speculative passes to create chances.
Looking at the numbers on the season does SU no solids in painting the campaign in a positive light. Looking at the team in comparison to their ACC foes, SU finished as the only team in the league that conceded more goals than they scored. The team finished 2nd-worst in goals conceded and 3rd-worst in goals scored.
Coach McIntyre noted that his favorite numbers to see were the distances covered of his players. “When I say our guys left everything out on the field, I mean it. We had guys running half-marathons out there for the team,” explained McIntyre.
One contributing factor to this issue was the fact that SU was very wasteful with the shooting opportunities they had. The team finished 39th of the 205 teams in the nation for shots on target per game this season but finished nearly 100th in goals per game, showing that they did not convert their plethora of chances at a reasonable rate.
This issue can be in part attributed to the aforementioned issue of creativity. Because SU benefitted from less brilliant moments of creativity from their players, they found fewer high-quality scoring opportunities and, therefore, converted the shots they did get at an underwhelming rate. This fact is further emphasized by the fact that the team finished 133rd in the nation for assists per game with 1.18.
Although fouls may not statistically correlate with losses, another interesting stat is that the Orange finished top-20 in the nation for most fouls per game. They also finished as one of the top teams in the nation for most yellow cards awarded. The Orange also saw two red cards this season which was above league average.
These numbers can certainly be seen to have hurt SU. There were two late free-kicks the Orange conceded this year in dangerous positions that resulted in a draw and a loss. Additionally, having players on yellow cards limits their ability to commit tactical fouls and, therefore, makes it easier for opposing players to break past them. The Orange also lost both games in which they received red cards.
When comparing the stats of the 2024 team to the 2023 and 2022 teams, there are a few glaring issues that stand out. The first and most obvious is that the Orange scored less and conceded more in 2024 than they did in 2023 or 2022.
The Orange scored 1.67 goals per game in 2023 and 1.92 per game in 2022. They only scored 1.47 in 2024. Similarly, SU conceded 0.72 goals per game in 2022, 1.24 per game in 2023, and 1.47 in 2024.
This trend manifests in the same way when looking at shots and shots conceded over the last three seasons. In both facets, the Orange were trending negatively this year. The Orange took 16.8 shots per game in 2022, and 13.7 in both 2023 and 2024. The Orange conceded 9.8 shots per game in 2022, 7.8 in 2023, and a much worse 12 in 2024.
Coach McIntyre noted that his biggest problem looking at the numbers for the season was how many goals the team conceded.
These shooting and goal scoring numbers show that the Orange are overall seeing fewer shots and fewer goal scoring opportunities while also giving their opponents more shots and more goal scoring opportunities. This trend is obviously unsustainable and would result in reduced wins.
While this piece may have painted a bleak picture for Orange fans, there are actually still tons of reasons to be hopeful for the next few years.
As mentioned before, SU featured an incredibly young roster this year, with most of the players having never played ACC-level soccer in their lives. There is a long list of players who will return next season with increased roles, more experience, and more maturity to improve their play. Of course, this is all barring that some of them don’t transfer away.
As already mentioned, the defensive trio of Omeze, Bell, and Holman looks set to make up Coach McIntyre’s unit for the next three years. Omeze and Bell already earned some significant minutes this year and look ready enough to lead the backline at the top level of NCAA Soccer.
In midfield, Kelvin Da Costa was one of the team’s best players before going down with injury, and also should comfortably start as one of the league’s best defensive midfielders going forward. Ezra Widman and Nate Scott will also be juniors next season and should have plenty to contribute in midfield.
The even younger Kristjan Fortier should also be a locked-on starter next year in an attempt to develop him further. Up front, the Orange will keep ahold of their pair of starting strikers as Nick Kaloukian will be a senior, and Michael Acquah will be a junior. Both of them may have had underwhelming seasons from a goal scoring standpoint but contributed in other ways to the team. If they can pair an increased volume of goals with their other qualities, there is potential for them to be a top-quality strike partnership.
In the creative areas, Carlos Zambrano will return with an increased role as he impressed the coach and the fans in the second half of the season with his passing range, skill, and technical ability. As mentioned, Sachiel Ming and Braedon Smith both have the potential to work their way into a Levonte Johnson-type mold, and should benefit over the offseason.
Coach McIntyre explained that over the offseason, his goal is to help each individual player by developing them to improve. He explained that his current group has a great work ethic, plenty of room for potential growth and that “I don’t need to overly rely on the portal or freshman recruitment unless they are truly the right fit.”
This core group of players will give SU a good base to build from, and the team should enjoy an enhanced coherency next season as a result. Of course, the team will be taking a break for now, but stay tuned for updates on recruitment, spring ball, and all things SU Soccer.
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