The Unknown Underdogs: Syracuse Men's Soccer

The Syracuse University 2022 men's soccer team had an incredible underdog journey. They started the season unranked and not expected to do well. However, they proved everyone wrong by winning games and climbing up the rankings. They had a major victory against reigning champions Clemson and continued to excel throughout the season. They won the ACC tournament and advanced to the NCAA Men's Soccer College Cup. Despite facing tough opponents, they won game after game and reached the championship match. Their coach, Ian Sinclair, played a crucial role in their success. In the end, Syracuse emerged as the champions of men's college soccer, a remarkable achievement for a team that was initially overlooked. The Unknown Underdogs, episode one, the Syracuse University 2022 men's soccer team. Everybody loves a good underdog story. I mean, think about it. If you were asked about what your favorite story is, whether it be a movie or a book or some other type of media, odds are it involves an underdog overcoming the odds and saving the day or winning the championship or overcoming some insurmountable task. This is no different for sports. I mean, if you asked me my favorite sports memory, it would have to be the Cleveland Cavaliers coming back from a three to one deficit and defeating the 73 win warriors in an unforgettable game seven that every Cavs fan will cherish for the rest of their lives. A classic underdog story. Along with this example, there are plenty of other underdogs whose story you hear about all the time, but I believe some of the best underdog stories in sports are not known by enough people and those stories deserve better. Therefore, I have compiled three of the best underdog stories that you have never heard of, and I would start with maybe the most recent, but certainly a great underdog story nonetheless. That is the story of the Syracuse University 2022 men's soccer team. Syracuse is an interesting story when it comes to underdogs. This wasn't just a team that got hot at the right time or was able to capitalize off teams with injuries and make a deep run. No, the Syracuse Orange were just a team that no one saw coming. Syracuse started the season unranked, not even viewed as one of the top 25 men's college soccer teams, and for good reason too. The 2021 Syracuse soccer team went 8-8-2 and didn't even make the college soccer cup, and with minimal changes going into 2022, they didn't add a ton of transfer athletes and kept their coach from the year prior. It makes sense. I mean, who would guess that this team would become the champions of men's college soccer? Not me. Not you. Not anyone. But that didn't stop Syracuse from believing that they could. We should have been able to tell how Syracuse's season was going to go, as their preseason was a great indicator of the team that they were going to become. In the three games they had played, the team won two of them, with a combined score of 11-1. Syracuse may have been looked down on at the start of the season, but they were not going to keep it that way if they could help it. The regular season started on August 25th with a 2-0 victory against Iona, and Syracuse would not look back after that game. It took the team just two matches, the previously mentioned win against Iona and a 1-0 victory against 21st ranked Penn State, to become the 15th ranked team in men's college soccer. They would not become unranked for the rest of the season. These two matches, followed by a draw at Vermont, was all a lead up to what would be the ultimate test for this Syracuse team, and that would be their match against Clemson. Clemson was the king of men's college soccer at that point in the season. They were coming off of a championship campaign in 2021, and had won every single match that they had played so far in the 2022 regular season, and had only allowed one goal in their last five matches. This Clemson team was great. It was primed to make another deep run toward the men's college cup, if not win the whole thing again. All of these stats didn't make Syracuse lay down and let Clemson trample all over them. They fought back. The match started at 7pm at Clemson's historic Riggs Field, and it started with a bang, with Clemson picking up a goal within their first eight minutes. Not exactly what you would want when trying to pick up an underdog victory on the road. But Syracuse would not be deterred. It would only take about 10 minutes for Syracuse to find an equalizing goal, which would take them to the half tied 1-1. Syracuse came out blazing in the second half, notching the go-ahead goal just two and a half minutes after the beginning of the second half. Syracuse would not let that lead go for the rest of the match, even though Clemson did not let off the gas for the last 40 minutes of the game. Syracuse won the match 2-1, and have now beaten the reigning champs, a number one team in the country, on the road. Pretty good for a team that started unranked. After the win, teams were now on watch for what the Syracuse team could become. They were now the number three team in the country, and didn't show any signs of slowing down for the rest of the season. But they had just started their most difficult part of the schedule for the season. During the Clemson match, Syracuse would be playing four ranked teams in their next six games, one being Clemson, who they beat, and number four, Wake Forest. Syracuse would end up losing two of those four matches against ranked teams, those being against number 21 Virginia, and number 22 Cornell. Syracuse, however, did not falter against their biggest challenges in Clemson and Wake Forest. This made the team securely in the top ten, especially going into a much easier part of their schedule. After their loss to Cornell, Syracuse would not lose another game during the regular season. They would finish their season with four wins and two draws in their last six games, earning them the second seed in the ACC tournament. Winning the tournament guaranteed a spot in the Men's Soccer College Cup, but even without winning the whole thing, Syracuse would most likely get in from an at-large bid, or getting into the Men's College Tournament without winning their conference championship. After a last-minute goal for Syracuse to beat North Carolina in the first round of the ACC tournament, they would get a rematch against Virginia, who had beaten them earlier in the season. After 90 minutes, Syracuse and Virginia were at a deadlock, tied 2-2, but the game wasn't over. Someone needed to win, whether it be through the following overtime periods or penalty kicks, if another 30 minutes couldn't break the tie. Well, 30 minutes weren't enough for these two teams, and another goal wasn't scored, so the game went to penalty kicks to determine a winner. The teams were drained of energy, but they had to muster up one last stand to get the win. After Virginia missed their second penalty, all Syracuse had to do was convert the rest of their penalties in order to win the game. Much easier said than done. However, much like Syracuse had done all season, they did not buckle under pressure and converted when they needed to. Winning the match against Virginia, something they were not able to do during the regular season, had sent them to the final of the ACC championship, something unimaginable at the beginning of the season. And who else would they have to play other than Clemson? Even after Syracuse had defeated Clemson earlier in the season, Clemson didn't go away. They actually stayed in the top 25 of men's college soccer, and even though they were the 8th seed in the ACC tournament, they were able to make a run to the ACC championship match. Syracuse was a different team than they were when they first faced off against Clemson during the regular season. They were much better. Clemson didn't score a goal this time, putting only 4 shots on target as opposed to Syracuse's 8, and Syracuse handled them easily, finishing the match with a 2-0 victory and sending them to the NCAA Men's Soccer College Cup for the first time since 2019, an achievement that shocked men's college soccer. Syracuse was ranked as the 3rd overall seed in the tournament, and therefore received a bye for the first round. The bye is incredibly important, as they had come off of 3 demanding matches and would need to win the next 5 matches in order to win the national championship. They started the tournament off against the Ivy League champion Penn Men's soccer team, who Syracuse dispatched relatively easily, winning 2-1. They then advanced to yet another rematch against a team they had lost to in the regular season, this time being Cornell. But much like Virginia and Clemson found out, this Syracuse team was much different than they had faced earlier in the regular season. Syracuse allowed only 2 shots on target total, and Cornell did not put up a single goal. Syracuse won 1-0 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Men's College Cup. At this point, it would be unbelievable that Syracuse had made it this far into the tournament, maybe to everyone except for Syracuse themselves, but they were not about to end it there. Their next match was against Vermont, a team they had drawn earlier in the regular season, and were now playing for a spot in the semifinals. This was another major defensive showing, where Syracuse allowed just one shot on target for the entire match, and they won the match 2-1 with all goals being scored in the first half. From beginning the season unranked and on the outside looking in, they were now 2 wins away from being on top of Men's College Soccer, and their next match was against Big East champions Creighton. Creighton came into this tournament without receiving a bye at the beginning of the tournament, but they were still on a tear throughout this entire tournament, much like Syracuse had been. No one expected Creighton to make it this far in the tournament, but they would have to go up against another underdog, the Syracuse Orange. This game was a back and forth affair, with neither team scoring consecutive goals. The last goal being scored in the 85th minute by Levante Johnson to give the Orange a 3-2 lead, which they would hold onto for the remaining 5 minutes. They had defeated every last opponent they had faced in their last 7 matches, and were now in the championship of the Men's Soccer Tournament. I even mentioned one very important part of this Syracuse run, and it's something imperative to most underdog stories, and that is the coach. Ian Sinclair put on a clinic as the coach of Syracuse. He had been coaching there since 2010, but had not always had the best record at conference play since he first took over. This was just his second time winning more games than he had drawn or lost in ACC play, and he made it count. After the regular season, he was awarded the ACC Coach of the Year award, but his biggest test, along with his team, was just ahead of them, facing Indiana in the NCAA Men's Soccer Tournament. This is what it all led up to. Syracuse had come from the bottom, and are now almost at the top of Men's College Soccer. This was not going to be a cakewalk for the Orange, though. Indiana is a strong team, and are more than deserving to win this match, but if there is something that Syracuse had mastered this season, it is beating teams when they needed to. The match started, and both teams were ready to play. It was about halfway into the first half when goal scoring started. Syracuse opened the game with a goal in the 23rd minute, but Indiana wasn't far behind with an equalizer in the 31st minute. Syracuse wasn't just about to let off of Indiana's defense, though, and scored another go-ahead goal just a minute after Indiana's tying goal. Syracuse would hold this into the halftime, and looked like the game would stay in that result, but in Syracuse fashion, Indiana found yet another equalizer to bring the game to 2-2. After the final 10 minutes of regulation play, and another 30 minutes of extra time, neither team could find a game-winning goal, bringing the match to penalties. Penalties in and of themselves are stressful, but penalties in the biggest game of these athletes' lives is something entirely different. Both teams have had their fair share of stressful moments during their respective runs, but the winning team would have to dig deep in order to get the championship in their hands. Both teams started the penalty shootout 5-for-5, bringing the shootout to sudden death. If you miss and your opponent makes their penalty, you lose. Both Indiana and Syracuse converted their 6th penalty, but on the 7th penalty, Orange goalkeeper Russell Sheehy made the first save of the entire shootout. If Syracuse penalty taker Anthony Sinclair makes his shot, the Orange are champions and underdogs that no one saw coming. Sinclair stepped up to the spot, took his run up, and buried the shot. At Syracuse University, the underdog no one expected would even get close to challenging for a championship, let alone winning the whole thing, has done the impossible. I particularly love this underdog story because it is one that I got to watch personally. A lot of major underdog stories we hear about all happened long ago, at least before I was born. This is one story that I will remember for the rest of my life. Syracuse was a great team that shocked everyone in men's college soccer, and their story deserves to be told, along with many other great underdog stories. Thank you for listening, and I hope you tune in later.