Have the Expectations Changed for Syracuse Men’s Soccer?

By Adam Gotkin | @adam_gotkin

Syracuse Men’s Soccer has had its fair share of struggles so far this season. After starting the year as the number one team in the nation, the Orange dropped down to 10th last week and are expected to drop even further down the rankings after the loss to Temple back on Tuesday.

With these losses, have the expectations changed for the Orange as we get closer to the playoffs? The ‘Cuse struggled a lot in midweek matches last season, yet still won the national championship so that may not be the best factor to determine the outlook of this team.

In ACC play, SU is 2-1-3 with both wins coming over top 25 opponents, North Carolina and Pitt. Syracuse has gotten a point against two other top-25 teams this season. So while the record doesn’t look great, the Orange have shown many times this season that they have what it takes to win the big games.

What has to be better for SU is something that head coach Ian McIntyre talked about after the Temple loss. McIntyre said then and has said many other times that the team’s performance in the final third needs to get better. McIntyre put a lot of this pressure on his stars. Lorenzo Boselli hasn’t scored in close to a month. Nick Kaloukian needs to be more consistent and someone else, whether that is Michael Suski, Felipe D’Agostini, Nate Edwards or someone else has to step up in terms of goalscoring.

Defensively, the Orange have been much better since the change was made in net, with Jaheim Wickham replacing Jason Smith. Wickham had a clean sheet in his first three starts of the season but also conceded two goals against Temple.

The Orange have just three matches left in the regular season before the ACC tournament gets underway. Right now, SU is 21st in the country in RPI which places them in the NCAA tournament without much worry. But a win in each of the final three matches would make things much more comfortable for Ian McIntyre and his team.