Back home in Norway, one of Oyvind Alseth’s coaches used to tell him that midfield players needed to possess a certain “bit of crazy.”

On Tuesday night at SU Soccer Stadium in Syracuse’s 2-1 overtime victory over Binghamton (2-6-2), Alseth joined that craze.

Instead of starting in his customary right back position, as he had done in each of Syracuse’s first nine games this season, the freshman Alseth started alongside Nick Perea as a central midfielder. In the 105th minute, Alseth capped a spectacular performance with a 30-yard strike that set up Alex Halis’ game-winning goal.

“He balled out,” Perea said. “He did great. I think he’s one of the best soccer players on our team, so he fit the role pretty well.”

Alseth said SU head coach Ian McIntyre informed him of the position change before the Orange’s Monday walkthrough. Juuso Pasanen, who had started every game in that position this season, was given the night off to rest.

Alseth said he was comfortable with the position switch because he has played midfield before. He also said that playing in the midfield gives him more of a chance to showcase his skills.

“There’s more of a war in there,” Alseth said. “You always have to have the attitude that you want to impress, you want to dominate the game, and you want to help your team win, so that’s the same wherever you’re playing.”

Against Binghamton, Alseth displayed his offensive skill throughout the match with a nice arsenal of moves in the open field. But he also stayed true to his defensive roots, slide tackled Bearcat ball handlers and intercepted a few Binghamton passing attempts.

Five minutes into the match, the Norwegian showcased his offensive skill with a slick sidestep of a Bearcat defender and slid a pass to Perea. In the last minute of the first half, Alseth secured the ball and danced around a defender by tapping the ball with his right foot around his back to his left foot.

“We linked up great,” Perea said. “We knew where each other was on the field at all times. I liked it a lot.”

Throughout the match, Alseth was near the landing spot of goalkeeper Alex Bono’s free kicks. He got his head on a handful of free kicks, and several times collided with Bearcat midfielders Marts Reid-Warden and Logan Roberts. Alseth fell to the ground three times, but got back up and rejoined the action right away.

In the 56th minute, Alseth came back and took the ball off the foot of Reid-Warden on the defensive end.

Toward the end of the second half and into the overtime periods, Alseth asserted himself offensively. With 15 minutes left in the game, he ran for 30 yards through the middle of the field. He found Stefanos Stamoulacatos, but the sophomore’s pass to Emil Ekblom was too long.

Just as time was running out, Alseth had the ball on his foot in the middle of the field with a head of steam.

“The ball came out to me and I thought, ‘This is my chance,’” he said. “I striked it and actually didn’t think the keeper would reach it, but he did.”

“He certainly got a hold of it,” SU head coach Ian McIntyre said.

Alseth played right back in Norway for the last three or four years, but for a couple of months before he came to Syracuse, he played midfield for his club team because the team had a couple of injuries.

“When coach (McIntyre) said he wanted to try me out at midfielder I was pretty happy because it’s something new (for me to do at Syracuse) and I always want to improve my skills,” Alseth said. “He let me do that by playing the midfield.”

Published on October 2, 2013 at 1:14 am

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu