With extra man, SU tallies just 3 shots on target in draw with No. 10 Pitt
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There can be many numbers to keep track of during a soccer game.
There’s the score, of course, but there’s also the clock, corner kicks, fouls and possession, to name a few. The most important number from Syracuse’s matchup with Pittsburgh, however, was a ratio. Three-of-21, to be exact. Three shots on target out of 21 total shots taken.
Despite playing a man-up for nearly 50 minutes, Syracuse could muster only three shots on target Friday evening as it struggled to break through Pitt’s backline. It didn’t matter what the Orange tried; Pitt’s defense made goalie Jack Moxom mostly a non-factor.
Still, Syracuse (7-3-1, 1-2-1 Atlantic Coast) earned its first draw of the season against No. 10 Pitt (6-2-2, 2-1-1 ACC) in a defensive contest. Even with the early red card, the Panthers weathered all the adjustments Ian McIntyre made to use the Orange’s advantage at halftime.
“They put their bodies on the line when they needed to,” McIntyre said postgame. “I felt like this was a point gained, not a two points dropped.”
After giving up an early goal to Pitt courtesy of Albert Thorsen, the Orange were listless. They let the Panthers control the game and struggled to push the ball forward.
That was until Pitt’s Logan Oliver flipped the game on its head.
In less than a minute, Oliver earned not one, but two yellow cards for dangerous tackles on Kameron Kist and Jordan Grey. It seemed that Syracuse had a chance to adjust and run the remaining 50 minutes on its terms.
“We were looking to make a couple of adjustments anyway going into the second half,” McIntyre said.
After going up a man, it was clear that Syracuse would create more chances; it was just a matter of whether or not those chances would result in goals.
Syracuse did one of those things. It created more chances.
Over the remaining 45 minutes, the Orange generated their fair share of chances, yet Pitt answered back. At times, the Panthers looked like the more threatening team.
Over time, the game became predictable. Syracuse would move the ball up into the attacking third through the left side, trusting Sachiel Ming to cross the ball in, hoping to find somebody’s head in the box.
After Ming delivered his cross, one of two scenarios would play out. The more common one was that Ming’s crosses did indeed find heads, but they happened to be heads belonging to bodies on Pitt.
“There were a lot of blocked shots, and those shots were going on target,” McIntyre said.
In cases where Syracuse got a shot off, it almost always went off the body of a Pitt player, leading to the same conclusion.
SU’s outlook seemed bleak. Pitt was simply doing everything right. It wasn’t that the Orange were doing anything wrong, but they just couldn’t get the ball through.
Then, as the 80-minute mark approached, Syracuse finally broke through. Ming made his run down the left side and delivered his cross into the box.
This time, though, his pass connected with the right head. Pedro Gulli found space to assert his presence, and his header found the back of the net.
“You always want to get between the two centerbacks,” Gulli said. “I always know in the back of my head that there’s space.”
With 12 minutes left, the Orange looked like a different team, but shots on target were still hard to come by as the clock ticked closer to zero.
Syracuse got close to breaking the deadlock in the waning minutes. In the 81st minute, Gulli found himself with a look at Moxom, but his only option to get a shot off involved taking a bicycle kick, which went wide left.
“I felt like maybe I should have jumped a little earlier,” Gulli said of the shot.
With the end nearing, the Orange continued pushing upfield just as they did earlier. Up the left. Ming makes his run. Ming attempts a cross. Syracuse gets a shot off. For whatever reason, that shot doesn’t test Moxom.
A 1-1 draw against a top-10 opponent is a result that McIntyre and Syracuse will take any day. After taking down another top-ten opponent a week ago at Notre Dame, Syracuse feels good about where it stands with five matches to go.
“I think we’ll look back on this match later and say this was a good point,” McIntyre said.
