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The Syracuse Orange met with the Michigan State Spartans last night in the second preseason exhibition game of the year for both squads. It was tough to get a gauge for this one as there was no coverage outside of the two team’s twitter feeds (@CuseMSOC and @MSUmsoccer respectively). It seems the game opened up right from the start. The Orange started in the following formation:
If I happened to miss anyone or have things way off formation wise... well, it’s due to not being able to see or hear what was going on and only working off past experience.
The Orange pressed the attack off the bat and Liam Callahan converted in only the fifth minute. He sent a ball into the box that couldn’t be dealt with by the Spartan defense and was knocked into the net, giving Syracuse the 1-0 lead. Hendrik Hilpert proceeded to stand on his head to protect the lead in the thirteenth minute.
13'- Hilpert pulls of a fantastic kick save from the cross to keep the score at 1-0. Orange still lead 1-0.
— SU Men's Soccer (@CuseMSOC) August 18, 2016
Soccer is a funny game. You can play stalwart defense, have an errant hand thrown up at the wrong time and next thing you know, your keeper is staring down a penalty taker. In the twenty fourth minute, the aforementioned handball by Oyvind Alseth gave MSU the penalty that ended up equalizing the score.
The game went back and forth for a while, until Chris Nanco decided to do Chris Nanco things and outrun an entire team on an overball and expertly finished top right to give Syracuse the lead going into the half.
The second half proceeded to get some folks some run that hadn’t seen the field yet, as well as Austin Aviza taking over for Hilpert in goal. Sparty equalized with around twenty minutes left in the match, leaving the tilt at a 2-2 draw. The teams also agreed to a 20 minute extra period, I’d assume to get the squad some more run.
Overall I’d assume Coach McIntyre saw some things he needs to work on, as well as some things that he can take to the bank. The squad will be back in action tomorrow night against the Ohio State Buckeyes. You can follow it at @CuseMSOC as well.