Syracuse men’s soccer: Orange lose at home again as Wake Forest comes back to win 2-1

The Orange have now lost the same amount of games at home this year as the 2022 and 2023 campaigns combined.

The Syracuse Orange men’s soccer team (3-4-3, 0-2-2 ACC) suffered another disappointing loss, 2-1, to Wake Forest on Friday night at the SU Soccer Stadium. The Orange looked second best for most of the game, and two late strikes sealed their fate as they couldn’t withstand the Deacon’s firepower.

With this result, the Orange have now only won one of their last eight games including four home losses. In the 2023 campaign, the Orange only lost two home games. In 2022, they lost two, and in 2021, they lost only three.

“It’s the nature of playing a tough schedule,” explained Head Coach Ian McIntyre. “I think physically, emotionally, mentally, we need to take a breather.”

SU was unable to breach a leaky Wake back line that has conceded in each match bar one this season. The Deacs were spearheaded by Senior Babacar Niang, who scored four in seven coming into this match.

The game started in an end-to-end fashion, with neither side possessing the ball for extended periods. As players started to tire, the game began to open up for the Orange.

The Deacons adopted a press high up the field through the early phases of the game. With their 4-3-3 formation against the 5-3-2 of Cuse, the Wake full-backs were often pressing up as high as the SU wing-backs to minimize their time on the ball. This left buckets of space in behind the wide areas of Wake’s defense.

Cuse attempted to exploit these areas through runs from central to wide from the forward pair of Daniel Burko and Nick Kaloukian, and later on, Michael Acquah and Ernest Bawa.

“It’s the job of the forward, being able to see on the fly, where the space is,” Kaloukian explained. “I noticed those pockets on the left side. I tried to utilize that and get in that space. I was able to create a few chances tonight, so it was good.”

This method of attack began to pay off 10 minutes in, as Chimere Omeze went marauding down the wing on the fast break, sliding the ball through to Kaloukian, who was unlucky to see his shot saved from a tight angle.

Shortly after, the Deacons got a good shot on goal after an extended bit of possession, but as he often does, Tomas Hut came to the rescue for the Orange. Niang, the dangerous man for the Deacons, was a constant threat behind the Syracuse backline as they attempted to play long and quickly and catch the Orange out on the break.

As Threadgold would press high to join the Cuse attack, Omeze was often left isolated against Niang, allowing him to create some dangerous moments.

Omeze had one excellent block on a shot about halfway through the first half from Niang where he isolated 1-on-1, but was unable to bypass the nimble and athletic defender.

As the Deacons continued this pressure, the Orange were put further on the back foot, losing confidence as they had ten bodies behind the ball at almost all times.

The Deacon’s press minimized the time Orange players could spend on the ball, meaning that they were often forced to play long, not allowing them to generate many strong or convincing chances. By the end of the first half, the visitors had generated double the amount of shots and shots on target.

With just over four minutes left, the Deacons had another easy chance, which probably should have been a goal, but the shot went directly to Hut.

By the last few minutes of the half, the Deacon’s team had lost some of their energy, giving the Orange more space and time on the ball. With this opportunity, the Orange had a few more dangerous opportunities before the end of the half, but were unable to get the go-ahead.

Right at the start of the second half, Sachiel Ming made some magic happen for Cuse, stringing together a series of passes with his teammates before Kaloukian sent him through on goal. Ming appeared to be taken down in the box, but the Orange ended up losing on their second penalty appeal of the game.

The second half continued on in the same vein as the end of the first. The Orange saw increased chances as the Wake team looked more tired and stretched. Their press was less effective overall, and SU saw more dangerous opportunities in the opening phases.

The game continued on in a pretty end-to-end manner, with both teams seeing some opportunities on goal. Kaloukian has some potential chances from distance to get a goal for himself for the Orange, but he was unable to generate a high probability.

The Orange were able to impose their will more and more as the match went on, seeing longer stints of possession and an uptick in quality chances. Bawa, Ming, Scott and Kaloukian were making things happen in the final third, giving hope to Orange fans that a goal was coming.

Despite not securing a goal, Kaloukian had an excellent day, demonstrating his physicality and hold-up play to bring his teammates into the game.

“If you notice in a lot of these games, they throw two, three guys at me. I have to be able to use my body, I think that’s one of my strengths that I do well, and i just have to keep building on it going forward,” said Kaloukian.

It was in the 67th minute when the Orange generated another dangerous opportunity and secured themselves a corner kick. The initial ball was in a great area but batted away by the Deacs defense. Braedon Smith had a shot, which was again deflected. Sam Layton arrived on the end of the airborne ball and smashed home emphatically, giving the Orange the lead as the crowd went wild.

The game took on more of a physical and chippy nature after the goal as both the WF and SU players began to get more stuck in on each tackle. A huge tackle from a Wake player into the back of Braedon Smith threatened to blow the lid off the game as Cuse players nearly emptied off the bench onto the field.

About 10 minutes later, with the clock ticking down, Dylan Borso took Ben Rosenblatt on one-on-one down the line, shook the defender, and smashed into the bottom corner past Hut.

The Orange tried to go more attacking with their lineup to find the winner, which saw Smith now playing in Rosenblatt’s role at wing-back. Borso, bursting with confidence, decided he would take the sword to the Cuse defense again as he derived at the player whose natural position is in the attack.

It was in the 80th minute, just moments after the first goal, when Borso was able to isolate against Smith again, beat him, and put a ball into the box, which was punched home by Basit Umar.

This collapse within moments was quite reminiscent of the Virginia Tech game, where the Orange conceded twice in quick succession to lose the game. Like in the VT matchup, the Orange were unable to fight back to find a winner, and the match ended 2-1 in favor of the Demon Deacons.

“I’m not trying to ‘coach speak’ and soften it. This is pretty tough and emotional,” said McIntyre after the match. “I do think we gave the fans a lot of positives to take away.”

Following this difficult result, the Orange will hit the road for a matchup with the nearby Albany Great Danes. The Orange won last year’s contest between the two schools and will be hoping to repeat that feat to get their season back on schedule. After this matchup on Tuesday night, the Orange will play four of their final six matches against ACC opponents, including a trip to reigning National Champions Clemson.