Nicky Adams had been animated on the sideline all game, walking from one end of the bench area to the other, hollering commands and sometimes choice words with the referees. But in the 74th minute she fell silent, sitting in her chair with her head down.

After 74 evenly played minutes, FSU’s Deyna Castellanos got behind SU’s defense and flicked a shot out of the reach of Lysianne Proulx, taking Adams off her feet. Only two days removed from a 3-0 blowout loss to No. 22 Louisville, the Orange (2-6-2, 0-2-1 Atlantic Coast) remained in striking distance of the defending national champions No. 6 Florida State (9-2-0, 3-0) only to fall a goal short, losing 1-0 Sunday at SU Soccer Stadium.

“I told the team: we got to respect them,” Adams said. “We can’t change what they’re good at, they’re very, very good and we knew they were gonna have the ball a lot. I didn’t care how many shots it was, at the end of the day just the final scoreboard is the one that matters.”

Sunday’s match was always in reach despite an ugly 23-2 shot differential that favored Florida State. The disparity represents the Orange’s gameplan: Give up chances without allowing goals and then maximize their few opportunities at the other end.

This was Syracuse’s best chance to defeat FSU, Adams said after the game. But packing in the defense limited an offense that has now only scored one goal in its past eight contests. 

Syracuse did not draw a single corner kick and had few free kicks in scoring position. In previous weeks, Adams emphasized how important set pieces were to SU’s offensive gameplan.

“We’d love to have more corners,” midfielder Georgia Allen said. “We’d love to have more free kicks because we have some great headers of the ball so that would’ve been a great advantage for us but you know our main thing was to keep the ball out of the net. We did that for 75 minutes, we can really be proud of that.”

The Orange knew their opportunities would come in transition, Adams said. Syracuse had several quality chances but they didn’t usually end in shots. The Seminoles’ defense prevented SU’s attacks from coming to fruition in the attacking third. 

In the 10th minute, Allen took the ball at midfield and dribbled her way past three defenders all the way to just outside the box where she passed to midfeilder Kailee Coonan, who was cutting uncovered. What looked to be a golden opportunity was quickly called offside.

Three minutes later, freshman Kailey Brenner flew down the wing, beating her defender before trying to slip it in the box to sophomore Meghan Root, but the ball was promptly stolen by Florida State.

“We’re committing a lot of numbers to defense, so when it does transition we’ve got few players in attack,” Allen said. “We’ve got a lot of effort into staying compact. We need to maybe connect one more pass before we play that long pass in but that’s definitely something we can improve on.”

Adams tried to boost the offense by keeping junior Mackenzie Vlachos inside next to Allen while putting Coonan on the wing. Adams also subbed in freshmen Gianna Villoresi and Teri Jackson at forward for fresh legs that could get behind the defense on long balls.

Yet, Adams acknowledged the passing unraveled as the game went on. In the 61st minute, she was visibly upset at Brenner’s decision to clear the ball to the other side of the field where no SU player was instead of trying to set up an offensive possession.

“I thought our forwards were not in good positions. After we won it, they were so tired from defending they didn’t transition well,” Adams said. “So we kept pumping it right back to them instead of trying to complete one pass to try to get numbers around the ball.”

Florida State dominated time of possession throughout, holding onto the ball 66 percent of the time in the first half. With SU playing so far back, there would be prolonged periods of time where the ball wouldn’t pass midfield, even when SU made excellent defensive plays.

On several occasions, a ball would be stolen or cleared by SU only for a Seminole player to quickly acquire it near midfield and start another rush.

“For sure it’s frustrating when the ball goes up then it comes right back in our half,” Proulx said. 

Syracuse has not won a game since Aug. 29. And yet the Orange held a top six team to just one goal and were one connection in transition away from stealing a point. When the team walked off the field tied at the half, the home crowd gave a loud and prolonged applause.

After the loss on Friday, Adams said she was disappointed at the lack of energy and what she called “selfish” decisions on the field. On Sunday, with a compact defense, opportunistic game plan and strong goalkeeping, Syracuse proved that the Louisville loss may have been a “turning point,” Adams said. 

“I don’t think they ever want to feel that bad again,” Adams said.

Published on September 29, 2019 at 7:09 pm

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