After upsetting star goalkeeper Andre Blake and No. 12 Connecticut on Tuesday night, Syracuse continues with a game against another one of the nation’s top players.

On Friday night, the Orange (4-2-0, 0-2 Atlantic Coast) travels to Durham, N.C., to play Duke (3-1-2, 0-1-1) at Koskinen Stadium. A matchup with the Blue Devils means facing 6-foot-1 defender Sebastien Ibeagha, who Topdrawersoccer.com ranked as the country’s sixth-best player overall and third best defender.

“I’ve heard he’s a really great defender,” SU midfielder Stefanos Stamoulacatos said. “But that doesn’t mean anything to us. We just play our game. If we move the ball fast around him, I think we can get by him.

“We have one of the best attacks in the country. Our personnel is great and I think that just one guy won’t be able to stop us.”

Ibeagha, who leads a Duke defense that has posted two shutouts so far this year, is the reigning ACC Defender of the Year. Ibeagha is a member of the U-20 U.S. Men’s national team, and this summer, was highly pursued by the Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer.

SU head coach Ian McIntyre said Monday that he’d watched one Duke game at that point, but planned to watch several more Tuesday afternoon. Despite having watched just 90 minutes of Duke tape, he already knew the skill level of Ibeagha.

“I’ve got a lot of game tape,” McIntyre said. “He’s 6-1, but the guy alongside of him is 6-3 and the guy up front is 6-3. And the guy they bring off the bench is 6-3. We’ll come up with a game plan to help us.”

Regardless of Ibeagha’s accolades and accomplishments, the Syracuse players who will be held responsible for going against him said they don’t really care whom they face. And for the players on the SU offense who knew specifically about Ibeagha, they feel SU has what it takes to face him.

Midfielder Juuso Pasanen said the team will focus on keeping the ball on the ground, a theory echoed by Stamoulacatos and Emil Ekblom. Keeping the ball on the ground will prevent Ibeagha from out jumping them for headers, and will allow them to use their speed to move around him.

Ibeagha said although he may be a step slower, he feels his ability to control his center of gravity helps with defending shorter, quicker players.

“I have to be decently fast myself,” Ibeagha said. “With a smaller guy it’s hard because they are quicker and they do have that pace. It really just comes down to moving my feet and making sure that I have them in front of me at all times.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Ibeagha admitted he doesn’t know much about the Syracuse program because of the conference realignment.

“They made the Sweet 16 last year,” he said, “that’s pretty much all we need to know and all I need to know that they’re a good squad.”

Most of the SU players said the matchup against Duke, while with a tough opponent, is just another game.

“Personally, I don’t really think about that that much,” Pasanen said. “Every game is a new game and I don’t really think about who we play. Just another game, another day at the office.”

Same goes for the Duke defender.

“We’re looking forward to another hard ACC battle,” Ibeagha said. “To us it’s just another ACC game and we have to go out and perform to get the win.”

Published on September 19, 2013 at 12:55 am

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu