The Syracuse Orange men’s soccer team travels to Cary, NC to face SMU in the ACC tournament semifinal tonight at 8:30 pm. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network.
The Orange reached the semifinal round after a 2-1 win over Stanford in double overtime. The game started out very slow, as there were no goals for the first 85 minutes of the match. Then, late fireworks came with a Syracuse corner, which, after a shot from Kristjan Fortier was parried by the keeper, Jordan Grey was able to tap in to put
the Orange up 1-0 with five minutes to play. The excitement was short-lived, however, as an incredible outside-the-box strike from Stanford would level the match just a minute later. It would take two overtime periods to decide this one, however, as Jordan Grey would get the ball around midfield, fend off two defenders on a solo run to goal, and place the ball just under the arm of Stanford’s keeper to move the Orange on to Cary for the fourth time in five seasons.
Awaiting them is the SMU Mustangs, who have been by far the ACC’s best this season. The Mustangs are currently ranked as the #1 team in the nation and have not lost a game so far, although they do have three draws. To get here, they battered Virginia 6-0, which is a team the Orange drew 1-1. SMU is a great team that is seemingly heating up at the right time, and the Orange will certainly have their work cut out for them if they want to make the ACC Final.
Syracuse’s defense has continued to be the star of the show during the Orange’s surprise ACC tournament run. They’ve held both opponents they’ve faced to only one goal, and against Stanford, the Cardinal were only able to get six total shots off, with the only one they had on goal being the one they scored from, as well as only getting a single shot off in both overtime periods. The Orange attack, which is a unit that has struggled this season, has not had to do much; however, they have scored in their last four games. If you take out these last four matches, the Orange have only scored twice all season. Their three tournament goals are also dangerously close to their four regular-season ACC goals this season.
SMU as a team is good at everything; They are second in the conference in goals scored with 18 in the regular season, and have given up the fewest goals in the conference with two. In terms of the entire country, SMU is fourth in total goals scored, with at least one fewer game played than all the teams ahead of them, and ranks first in the entire country in fewest goals allowed, with six total in 16 matches. There’s a reason why this team is the number one team in the entire nation, and Syracuse will have to try to break through that if they want to make the final.
The good news is Syracuse might have already saved their season. According to RPI, the Orange are the last team in the NCAA tournament, with the three teams below them already knocked out of their conference tournaments. Avoiding any potential bid stealers, the Orange could find themselves sneaking into the NCAA field, although it’s far from a sure thing. A shock win against SMU would likely cement the Orange’s place in the tournament.
North Carolina and NC State face each other in the other ACC semifinal with the winners facing off on Sunday afternoon at 4:00 on ESPNU.
