Nyal Higgins knows it happened to him once, but he doesn’t remember when. In Ian McIntyre’s 10 years in Syracuse, the Orange’s head coach has never seen his team concede seven goals in a match. And when junior defender Sondre Norheim was asked postgame the last time he’d allowed seven goals in 90 minutes, he didn’t hesitate when he answered. 

“It’s never happened to me,” Norheim said. 

As Clemson poured in goal after goal, each seemingly coming easier than the last, the Orange offered less and less resistance. McIntyre said he got the team’s formation and tactics wrong. He took the blame for Syracuse’s 7-4 loss on Saturday night at SU Soccer Stadium. But individual mistakes, poor team defending and Clemson’s adept finishing led to Syracuse’s (5-4-4, 1-3-2 Atlantic Coast) capitulation against No. 8 Clemson (11-1-1, 4-1-1). Higgins, Norheim and McIntrye all said the Orange were “embarrassed” on Saturday night. 

Clemson’s quality — in the open field, on set pieces and in transition — separated a top-10 team from a middling ACC unit.

A fourth-minute set piece goal opened the onslaught, and an 86th-minute top corner finish completed it. The Tigers scored in just about every way a soccer team can: headers, set pieces, counterattacks, 20-yard strikes into the top corner and one-on-one finishes while lying on the ground. Clemson’s attack didn’t make a mistake seemingly the entire night, as the Orange’s defense got repeatedly sliced open with ease. 

“Everybody played bad. The whole team did,” Higgins said. “It wasn’t individually, it was collectively. We all defended badly, we all played like garbage, all of us … It’s the worst feeling.”

After Syracuse’s 1-0 win against Connecticut on Tuesday, when the Orange smothered the Huskies, McIntyre opted to start the same starting lineup and play similarly. They pressed high, won balls in dangerous areas and created plenty of chances, outshooting Clemson 12 to eight. 

It took just four minutes for the Orange to fall behind. The Tigers’ first counterattacking chance forced the Orange into a foul just outside the 18-yard box. Felipe Fernandez whipped a ball to the far post, and while Justin Malou could have headed the ball on target himself from a few yards out, he spotted Robbie Robinson racing toward the opposite post, unmarked.

Malou headed to Robinson, who tapped the ball in with his own head. As the Orange chased shadows defensively on the set piece, Clemson turned a play they practice on the training ground into an easy opening goal in an ACC road game.

The Tigers added a second, then a third, inside 30 minutes. Syracuse had its chances to equalize, as its attack on corners was successful the entire night. John-Austin Ricks provided SU’s best early chance when his near-post header was saved off the corner.

Clemson knew the Orange were vulnerable on the counter, and its second goal again came from Robinson, this time running at McDonald until he slipped and lost his balance. Robinson then ripped a left-footed shot past Christian Miesch. 

Three minutes later, Grayson Barber scored the third goal while laying on the ground, effectively ending the game before halftime. As Miesch scampered out for a ground cross with Barber on the ground, though, Barber flicked the ball up into the air, scooping it away with his right foot and into the now-empty goal.

“I thought Christian had the ball in his hands, that was a weird goal,” Higgins said. “I thought he grabbed it,  and when I saw his leg come up at the last second, I was like, ‘Oh man.’”  

Syracuse’s bad defending night could have ended there. The Orange settled into the final 15 minutes of the first half and even nicked a goal back before halftime. For the second consecutive game, the Orange scored a goal off a corner, this time Higgins’ near post header nestled into the bottom corner of the goal with six seconds remaining in the opening frame.

The Orange had their consolation goal, a moment of hope that, with better finishing and defense, they could work their way back into the game in the second half: if they could grab the opening goal.

But Clemson tore apart Syracuse’s defense for four more in the second. 

“You would think scoring four goals at home would be enough to win the game, but when you concede like this, I would just say embarrassing,” Norheim said.

Fifteen minutes later, Clemson doubled its lead from two to four. Syracuse’s defense surrendered on two separate attacks, leaving Miesch exposed and with little chance of making any saves at all. 3-1 became 5-1, and despite the Orange’s offense scoring three consolation goals, SU never came within a goal. 

As the Tigers’ poured in their fifth goal with 30 minutes remaining, Clemson’s goalie shouted “let’s keep going,” to his outfield players, as Miesch stood at the edge of his penalty area and looked across the pitch in silence. 

“They dominated us,” Higgins said. “After looking at it, I’m probably going to watch that game five times and figure out what went wrong. It was a good lesson. It was mistakes we made, lack of communication between our team, that has to get better.”

The fans who hadn’t left when SU was down 5-1 were treated to a Ryan Raposo counterattacking finish and two Norheim header goals that were sandwiched between Norheim’s individual mistake that allowed the Tigers to nab their sixth goal. Any hopes of a wild comeback ceased when Robinson bookended the match with his third goal.

The Orange scored three goals off set pieces on Saturday, and have five in three games. SU will move on, but McIntyre wants to make sure they don’t forget what happened. 

“It would be unforgivable for us to just move on,” McIntyre said.  “It should hurt, it does hurt. This is unacceptable.”

Published on October 19, 2019 at 9:27 pm

Contact Anthony: amdabbun@syr.edu | @AnthonyDabbundo