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Minutes after UNC’s first of three yellow cards Wednesday night, Milo Garvanian received a pass around midfield, and when he looked up, he saw no Orange jerseys within nearly 10 feet of him. It allowed him to dribble up to the top of the box relatively uncontested and pass out to Tim Schels. But Schels’ pass inside the box was blocked by a flurry of SU defenders. With two minutes left in the first half, Garvanian readied for the third of four first-half corner kicks. But Buster Sjoberg headed the service out of bounds, and he did the same on the ensuing corner kick.

Head coach Ian McIntyre said before the heart of the ACC schedule that Syracuse was “close.” His team had beaten Virginia on the road and was on its way to a stretch of wins against nonconference, midweek opponents. Syracuse has been close all year, close in its one-goal losses against No. 2 Georgetown and No. 6 Duke, close in its overtime losses to Louisville and Pittsburgh. The Orange were close again on Wednesday night; their defense made sure of that through the first 102 minutes.

Then in the second overtime, Garvanian juked out Sjoberg and drew a penalty kick on Christian Curti, who dove after him well within the box. Garvanian snuck a high-shelf pass past a diving Russell Shealy to seal the opening round victory against the Orange.

The defense shined once again in Syracuse’s (8-8-2, 2-5-1 Atlantic Coast) double-overtime loss to North Carolina (11-5-1, 5-4-0). It shined en route to SU’s third-straight playoff overtime matchup against the Tar Heels. It just had one miscue, but that one slip up, those two juke moves and one penalty within the box eliminated the Orange from the ACC Tournament, placing their hopes of an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament in jeopardy.

Aside from his missed game against Niagara due to a red card, Sjoberg burst onto the scene in his first year with Syracuse. The Wofford transfer has manned down the back line in 2021 en route to seven shutouts for SU. He’s been a consistent presence in the box, making up for various miscues when he has let wingbacks bolt past him on the outsides. McIntyre has been pleased all season with how an experienced backline made up entirely of transfer players has gelled so well.

Sjoberg made one mistake Wednesday night during regulation, fouling UNC forward Santiago Herrera to trigger a free kick, but the set piece fell just left of the crossbar. To begin the second half, Sjoberg corrected his mistake, once again sticking his foot in the way of a UNC chance. The possession eventually led to a foul drawn by Curt Calov, and the early-half momentum that the Tar Heels had out of the gate was diminished.

Syracuse tied the Tar Heels in the team’s only matchup last year at a time when UNC was also a top-25 team. The Orange’s last loss to the Tar Heels came in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2016. The two teams penned a similar script Wednesday night, with both teams generating few shots on goal. Syracuse didn’t find its first corner kick until three minutes into the second half. The teams finished with a combined six shots on goal and just 10 corner kicks.

While Syracuse couldn’t create as many chances as it had in previous conference games, the backline made sure UNC would find the same lack of success. Less than 10 minutes into the first half, Herrera snuck past Luke Biasi on the nearside wing, giving him enough space for a cross in. But Sjoberg followed the progression of the play and easily booted the ball away from Shealy, halting any momentum. Schels quickly regained possession, but two SU defenders forced him to lose his footing and fall.

Ahead of the game against Wake Forest, Hilli Goldhar noted that the Orange want to play with “short, intricate passing.” He said they don’t want to screw around with the ball deep in their own zone, which has led to mistakes, fewer points and a lower seed in the tournament. In contrast, UNC leaned heavily on long passes in the first half on Wednesday night. Joe Pickering would try and find someone down low like Tega Ikoba, the Tar Heel’s leading goal scorer.

Fifteen minutes into the second half, Syracuse was almost bitten by a costly mistake deep in the box, one that eventually took them down in overtime. Defender Max Kent tried to kick the ball out of harm’s way, but it ended up going right to Herrera. He shifted to his left around Kent and Sjoberg, but Shealy blocked his shot on goal.

Goldhar also noted that the team has extremely fast strikers. The Orange have expanded their scoring options since the beginning of the season. Forced by another lower body injury that sidelined Deandre Kerr, Syracuse leaned on Manel Busquets, among others, to manufacture goals. In his last eight games, Busquets has five goals.

On some corners and set pieces, Sjoberg just needed to create enough motion within the box to upset UNC’s strikers. Tar Heels head coach Carlos Somoano described Syracuse as a “disruptive team,” and an “awkward opponent” that takes teams out of their rhythm. He noted that college teams would rather play opponents that were predictable, ones that didn’t stifle transition passes and shots on goal as much as Syracuse does.

UNC is used to outshooting its opponents by a wide margin. Throughout the regular season, the Tar Heels outshot other teams on goal 3-to-1. But on Wednesday, Syracuse kept the shot numbers close, finding various opportunities and stopping many from the Tar Heels. In the midst of a back-and-forth possessional battle in the second half, UNC earned a corner kick. Just as he did throughout the night in Chapel Hill, Sjoberg fluttered around deep in the box, which didn’t allow any Tar Heel jerseys to get a head on the service.

With a little more than two minutes left in the first overtime, UNC drove down the pitch off a long service from goalkeeper Alec Smir. But Curti stopped the momentum, stealing the ball away from a Tar Heel striker to once again stop any UNC momentum to send the ball to a second overtime.

But it was with eight minutes left in the second overtime that Curti let the Tar Heel striker get the best of him. He fell to the grass at Kenan Memorial Stadium, placing his hands over his forehead before running them through his hair. Shealy lay in front of the net, the ball that eliminated the Orange perched feet away from him as he stared up. McIntyre stood with his hands sternly on his hips alone, watching as North Carolina celebrated its fourth straight win.

Published on November 3, 2021 at 8:53 pm

Contact Anthony: [email protected] | @anthonyalandt