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In the opening minutes of the match, Syracuse head coach Ian McIntyre pleaded with his squad to create space. He yelled at them about how they should stop “watching the game” and drop into coverage in order to stop a Niagara counterattack. Eventually, he started telling specific SU midfielders — Colin Biros and Curt Calov — to move forward and find gaps in the Purple Eagles’ defense.

“I probably didn’t prepare our team as well as I should have,” McIntyre said. “Niagara has already played a couple different formations this year and the (open) spaces were out wide.”

In the 13th minute, Biros got enough space to send a short pass to forward Nathan Opoku. Opoku’s subsequent chip pass to Levonte Johnson gave the Orange a 1-0 they held onto for the rest of the match.

But Biros and No. 16 Syracuse (5-0-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) had a far more up-and-down performance in the team’s lone-goal victory over Niagara (1-4-1, 0-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic). Despite scoring early on, Niagara’s defense initially held SU back, preventing any close chances. Eventually Syracuse broke away. Through different combinations and Calov’s return to the starting lineup, the Orange were able to outshoot the Purple Eagles 19-5. 

“We’ve handled it better on other days,” Biros said. “But so far, we still have the quality to figure it out in the end, and just keep pushing (the defense).” 

Even from the start of the match, the makeup of SU’s squad looked different compared to prior matches. Aside from Calov making his first start, forward Lorenzo Boselli took the position of the slightly injured Noah Singelmann, who plays a self-described “joker” role in the lineup.

Similar to Singelmann, Boselli spent the night flanking the right side of the pitch, looking to find open looks amongst his teammates. With under 29 minutes left in the first half, Boselli streaked down the right side of the pitch, eventually taking a hard shot on Niagara keeper Josh Savoni. Opoku collected the rebound, but couldn’t create a shot, drawing a corner.

After a short break between this match and Saturday’s win over Notre Dame, McIntyre and his coaching staff also used a variety of forwards. Julius Rauch and Francesco Pagano, who have come in as backups to Johnson and Opoku before, once again replaced the two starters up front. 

But it was Calov, who was a focus of the offense last season, that got involved in much of the attack tonight. Less than 12 minutes into the match, Biros dumped down to Calov, now being flanked by Niagara’s Stephen Hasse. With a quick move to his left, though, the sophomore broke free of the defense and streaked into the box, looking to make a cross. The Purple Eagles’ defense had everyone locked up and Calov was tackled right at the goal line, generating back-to-back corner kicks that led to Johnson’s goal.

While Calov generated plays throughout the match, he also found play to be quite hectic. The midfielder lost some early one-on-one battles and eventually got physical with Hasse, as the two players started to shove each other and grab each other’s jerseys in the second half. Calov, who is returning from an injury that kept him out early on, still feels that he is getting better.

“I think I’m improving,” Calov said. “Fitness is definitely a main thing to harp, but I’ve been working on that.”

Despite some of the errors in play, Calov continued to set up chances for the Orange. With 19 minutes left in the first half, he sent a pass to Johnson, which eventually set up Opoku for a shot that went just wide left.

Before Johnson could get the ball to Opoku, Biros weaved through defenders to get it to the sophomore forward. Like Calov, Biros also felt the pressure from the Purple Eagles’ defense, which threw off the Orange, the fifth-highest scoring offense in the ACC. 

Biros found that creating attack chances was tough since Niagara was implementing a man-marking system in the midfield. With various Purple Eagles on him, the graduate student had many attempts fizzle out because passes from teammates would go too far or he would be forced to slide in order to save possession. 

Even when Biros broke free and got a shot off, it was punched out by Savoni. At the start of the second half, Biros had an attempt to set up Johnson for his second goal of the match. But he put too much power on the ball, and it was too far for Johnson. Eventually, Biros got subbed out by Boselli and watched as the Orange held on to victory. 

Biros did feel that there was offensive momentum in the latter stages of the match. With just over 10 minutes left, defensive midfielder Amferny Sinclair headed a ball to Calov, who then quickly got the ball to Johnson. While the play was called offside, the Orange started to take advantage of open spaces and kept the ball away from the Purple Eagles.

“(The midfield) is where you have to get rotations on the ball,” Biros said. “Toward the end of the game, they started to wear out, we started to find the spots and created more opportunities in the last 15 minutes.” 

Published on September 13, 2022 at 11:10 pm

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