After the Syracuse Orange’s first round loss to Hofstra in the 2025 NCAA tournament, it has now been three years since the Orange’s magical run in the 2022 NCAA tournament. Is there a path for the program
to get back to the top?
They’ve continued to have moderate success in the years since the championship; they’ve consistently been one of the top teams in the ACC, making the tournament semifinals in both 2023 and 2025. However, since 2022, they have still been unable to win the tournament or finish at the top of the conference in the regular season. Over the last three years, Syracuse Soccer seems to be at a lull, not quite being good enough to be a real contender, while still being solid enough to not want to make any massive changes.
That 2022 team was something magical. An incredible defense led by MLS draft picks Abdi Salim and Buster Sjoberg, a midfield with plenty of talent such as Amferny Sinclair and Jeorgio Kocevski, and of course, the attacking threats of Nathan Opoku and Levonte Johnson, one of the best duos in Syracuse history. This team had extreme amounts of talent from top to bottom, and it was no wonder that they were able to become so successful.
However, after this season, the Orange lost a lot of talent, either due to graduation, getting drafted, or leaving for the pros. The next season, while still a solid team, Syracuse clearly missed some of the talent that from the title team. Syracuse added two players who had strong Syracuse careers in Gabriel Mikina and Tomas Hut, but were unable to replicate the previous season’s success (9-5-7), and lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
In the last two seasons, Ian McIntyre and his staff continued to get good players, such as Carlos Zambrano, Daniel Burko, and Tim Brdaric, however the results have been mixed. In 2024 the Orange missed the tournament entirely after posting a 7-7-3 record (just 2-4-2 in ACC play), and in 2025 Syracuse improved to a 9-8-3 record and a strong run in the ACC post-seson, but still couldn’t get it done in the NCAA tournament.
Syracuse now looks towards their fourth year since that 2022 title, with the dream of hoisting the College Cup remaining. It’s hard to suggest how Syracuse can change this and get back to winning ways. In many ways, 2022 was a perfect storm, the combination of some of the greatest players in Syracuse history all coming at the same time. However, that team had certain things that our modern teams lack, and that could be replicated going into the future
In the modern era of college soccer, like any other college sport, the transfer portal has become one of the most important teambuilding resources for every single team. Out of the last three offensive Most Outstanding Players, two were transfers in their first season with their new team, including Nathan Opoku. While developing talent is still important, Syracuse also must hit the transfer portal extremely hard going into future years. While the Orange have been able to get a few very good players from the portal since 2022, such as Gabriel Mikina and Carlos Zambrano, however they have been unable to find those gems that lift the team up as we saw in 2022.
This is extremely difficult to do; however, there is also something to be said about having that one guy that you can go to and you know will get the job done. In 2022, Coach Mac had two of these guys- Nathan Opoku and Levonte Johnson. Out of our four games in the 2022 NCAA tournament that were decided by one goal, Opoku or Johnson were involved in three of the four winners, and for two of them, it was Opoku assisting Johnson. Having players that can be counted on in moments like this is invaluable, and while you can make an argument for a couple of players, there really isn’t a player that you could count on as much as them for our recent teams.
While it is important to recognize what could be improved for future seasons, it is also just as important not to overreact. Syracuse still has a lot of talent on the roster, one of the best coaches in the nation, and plays in one of the best conferences in college soccer. This season was one that can be built upon, and while it is important to look at how we can be better, we must not give up on this team and trust that next year, Ian McIntyre will put out a squad ready to compete and get back to the top level of NCAA soccer
Of course, these are all just my opinions, so what do you think? How can we return Syracuse soccer to the success it achieved in 2022?
