Christian Miesch sought out each of his fellow starters during pregame warmups before Tuesday night’s game with Cornell. He wandered around the sideline near Syracuse’s bench, hugging them each of his new teammates individually. Minutes into the game, as Syracuse pressed Cornell high up the pitch, Miesch yelled out orders to junior defender Sondre Norheim.

“Drop back, drop back,” Miesch shouted from in front of the net.

Miesch, 24, is new to Syracuse, new to the Atlantic Coast Conference and new to the United States. Growing up in Switzerland, Miesch played in the lower divisions of organized soccer and never had the US on his radar. But after his Swiss friend and former SU player Jan Breitenmoser introduced the idea of collegiate soccer to Miesch, he spent a year with Stony Brook, then transferred to Syracuse (2-1-3, 0-0-1 ACC) to compete for a starting job that’s still up for grabs.

So far, Miesch has started four games and redshirt junior Jake Leahy has started two. And while Leahy has been with the program for longer and reaps the benefits of continuity with the coaching staff and returning players, Miesch is older, has more game experience and appears to have a slight edge over Leahy thus far after starting SU’s last two games.

“A shutout against Louisville and his first Syracuse win last night,” SU head coach Ian McIntyre said on Tuesday. “I’m delighted for him.”

McIntyre said on Wednesday that no one has won the job yet, and added that while Miesch has played well in the last two games, Leahy has every chance to prove himself in training.

“All those little things like a new apartment, new city, you have to push them away and focus on the game,” Miesch said.

Last summer, Miesch was on professional team Ville FC, a second division team in Switzerland. He didn’t play in a game because he was the backup.

Miesch had to make a choice. He could stay in the professional environment, where the pressure is higher and most of his teammates are playing for their livelihood and families. He could hope to earn his spot and playing time in Switzerland. Or Miesch could take Breitenmoser’s advice and come to the U.S.

The problem was most of the Division I programs had already filled their starting goalkeeper spot. Also, Miesch wasn’t sure if he’d even be eligible. Though he hadn’t appeared in matches, he’d spent two years in the German fourth division and was now with Ville.

“I hadn’t really played a game pro, but I was in a professional environment,” Miesch said. “There is a lot of rules the NCAA wants to know. I finished high school later than most people (at age 21) so you have to explain.”

In two weeks, Miesch had to find out if he’d be allowed to play college soccer. With help from UniExperts — a German company that Miesch said specializes in helping European athletes check with NCAA compliance — the then-22-year-old was cleared and joined Stony Brook for the start of their preseason.

As the No. 1 keeper at Stony Brook, Miesch earned the 2018 America East Rookie of the Year award. But the America East isn’t the conference he wanted to be playing in.

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“If you still have that goal of going somewhere, namely the MLS, then the ACC is the place to be,” Miesch said. “You can tell that athletics actually play a big role here. Practice is a little more structured, the people really have bigger ambitions.”

He entered the transfer portal this spring, making him eligible for contact by all Division I coaches. McIntyre was one of the first coaches to call. After one conversation with the nine-year SU head coach, Miesch wanted to visit Syracuse. After his visit and his first in-person conversation with McIntyre, he committed.

Miesch appeared in two games this summer for Florida’s Treasure Coast Tritons in the United Soccer League, a developmental soccer league. When he arrived at SU on Aug. 10, the Orange had a lot of new faces. Miesch is the oldest of them all at 24 years old.

Kyle Gruno, his teammate both now with SU and this summer, helped ease the transition. Instead of a professional environment, where players leave training to go home to their families, Miesch was a part of a team that lived together and spent hours together outside of practice daily.

“There’s a lot more pressure on you in professional life,” Miesch said. “It’s way more intense, you don’t really get second chances.”

On Tuesday against Cornell, a goalkeeping error from Miesch cost the Orange a score. McIntyre said that his teammates “got in his way” but the sophomore goalie came out to catch the ball through traffic on a free kick later in the half. He dropped the ball, and the Big Red turned that into a goal.

Miesch admitted postgame he probably should’ve punched the ball away instead of catching it. But in the second half, he was aggressive, coming off his line to claim free kicks and corners.

After the game, he put his arm around German freshman Noah Singelmann after Singelmann had scored the game-winning goal and made a comment in German.

“He’s a mature, veteran player,” McIntyre said. “I know he’s new for us, but he’s got plenty of experience under his belt. We needed him.”

Published on September 18, 2019 at 11:19 pm

Contact Anthony: [email protected] | @AnthonyDabbundo