Phil Wheddon got to see his players, and the ball, up close on Sunday, as Syracuse mainly kept possession on the near sideline. After 20 minutes he screamed “other side,” slamming his clipboard into the ground.

This year, the Orange has had success working the ball up the field starting from its back line. On Sunday, the team wanted to focus more on quickly switching sides of the field in order to create holes in the Louisville defense.

“The game plan was: get to one side, bring it back to the other, and then break them down that way, and then move forward quickly,” sophomore Jessica Vigna said.

But the execution wasn’t there. Flat passes and a lack of ball movement doomed the Syracuse (4-8-1, 0-4 Atlantic Coast) offense in a 1-0 loss to Louisville (6-5-1, 2-2) on Sunday in at SU Soccer Stadium.

“We did a lot better of a job in practice all week,” senior midfielder Jackie Firenze said. “We didn’t connect very well today, but really, our biggest downfall was in the first half, we just didn’t connect any passes.”

SU’s stagnant play hindered its scoring opportunities. The Orange finished the match with only seven total shots. Cardinals goalkeeper Taylor Bucklin wasn’t challenged for most of the match.

With each blunder, the Orange seemed to get more frustrated. After a pop-up shot that was easily saved, coaches put their hands on their heads. Right before the first half ended, Firenze yelled at her teammates that they were doing too much watching and sitting.

“Something that we like to focus on is making sure when the ball goes forward, and we have pressure on the ball, that everybody gets up the field and stays on the next player so we press the field,” Firenze said.

“It just happened in that instance that there were a couple of people who were just standing and weren’t pressing when one person was stepping to the ball.”

The Orange compounded its possession and passing issues by not making quick enough decisions when it actually got the ball near the goal.

“I would like us to take our opportunities quicker,” Wheddon said. “We’re taking a touch, or two touches, and then shooting, and by that time we’re getting closed down.”

Wheddon reiterated his team’s initial game plan was to suck the Cardinals defense to one side and quickly turn the field to work the ball over to the other side.

Still, he knows that his team needs to find a way to execute and put the ball in the back of the net.

“If you look at the stats, we outshot them, we had more corner kicks then them,” said Wheddon. “That has to, at some point, translate into goals.”

Published on October 4, 2015 at 4:40 pm

Contact Tomer: tdlanger@syr.edu | @tomer_langer