Virginia men\u2019s soccer entered Saturday\u2019s match against Syracuse needing a win or a draw to move into the top half of the ACC table and tentatively position themselves for a home game in the first round of the ACC Tournament, and, to an extent, they did their job.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Virginia (7-6-2, 3-3-1 ACC) battled to a 1-1 draw with Syracuse (7-6-2, 1-4-2 ACC) in New York. Injuries and suspensions forced Coach George Gelnovatch to rethink his lineup, with multiple players who typically see only rotational minutes stepping up into huge starting roles for this match.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Cavaliers drew first blood in the 18th minute. Following a progressive Syracuse attack where the Orange put seven players into aggressive positions, fourth-year Brendan Lambe\u2019s clearance left fourth-year AJ Smith all alone with three defenders in front of him going to goal. But he wasn\u2019t alone. He found second-year forward Samuel Oulouheu streaking down the field, and Oulouheu beat one Syracuse defender onto his left foot before lacing a beautiful finish into the bottom right corner. For a Virginia team that was 6-1-0 coming into the game when scoring first, it was perfect.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Following the goal, the game settled in. Possession was being established for both teams, but Syracuse looked more comfortable, especially after making multiple substitutions in the first half. They were able to attack aggressively and create solid chances, like a hard shot from the edge of the box off the foot of Syracuse junior forward Sachiel Ming, which was knocked over the bar by Cavalier fourth-year goalkeeper Caleb Tunks. Just minutes later, a corner kick led to another Syracuse shot that went over the crossbar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the 35th minute, Oulouheu almost struck again, in very similar fashion. Receiving a field-switching pass, beating a defender and taking a shot on his left foot, Virginia was in a great place to double its lead. But the outstretched hand of sophomore goalkeeper Juan Martinez-Bastidas deflected the shot off the post, and the Orange breathed a huge sigh of relief.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After this save, Syracuse turned up the pressure. A long winding cross from the right sideline played by freshman defender Gabriel Oksanen floated into the center of the box, and after some jostling for position, the ball found the foot of graduate forward Pedro Gulli, only to be caught safely by Tunks. Both players started the game on the bench for the Orange.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These substitutions proved to be a problem for much of the game for Virginia. Down two key rotational players in first-years Chase Duke and Isaac Mwakutuya, who were suspended after red cards in the previous match, the Cavaliers used only 12 players in the first 78 minutes of the game and 13 in the entire match. Syracuse played 17. These substitutes accounted for seven of Syracuse\u2019s nine shots, and four of their five shots on goal, in addition to the goal and the assist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With four and a half minutes left in the first half, Syracuse equalized. A Cavalier pass was intercepted in stride by Oksanen, who played the ball out to the left wing, before receiving it back on the right side and whipping in another cross. His pass struck the head of sophomore midfielder Bryson Rodriguez, cutting the ball back across the face of Tunks and into the bottom right corner of the net.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second half, while uneventful on the scoresheet, saw plenty of action. Early in the half, a hard Syracuse foul against Lambe drew outrage from the Cavalier sideline, and the foul was reviewed for a potential red card, but the call on the field was confirmed and no card was given. Physicality developed into chippiness, and four yellow cards were given in the second period, three to the Cavaliers and one to the Orange.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both defenses stayed solid in this scoreless second half. Tunks was able to knock away a nifty backheel shot from Gulli, and Martinez-Bastida caught a rocket of a left-footed volley from Oulouheu. Syracuse did well in limiting the star Cavalier trio of Lambe, Smith and fourth-year forward Marco Dos Santos, holding them to a combined one shot in the match.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the second half continued and time dwindled, strategies began to change. Syracuse entered this match at the bottom of the ACC, needing a win to stay in contention for home-field advantage in the postseason. The Orange began to dial up the heat, swapping a few of their defenders for extra attackers, trying to generate as many chances as possible. This meant the Cavaliers, led in defense by fifth-year centerback Sebastian Pop, needed to dig their heels into the ground and stand strong. After a couple more shots from the home side, the referee blew the final whistle, with the score still deadlocked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In NCAA soccer, there are draws you earn, and draws you settle for. Virginia earned this result, and it will set them up well going forward, with Duke and Mwakutuya regaining availability. With one game left in the regular season, the Cavaliers will return to Kl\u00f6ckner Stadium on Friday to conclude the regular season against Pittsburgh. That game will start at 6 p.m. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Virginia men\u2019s soccer entered Saturday\u2019s match against Syracuse needing a win or a draw to move into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-946696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}