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SU soccer transfers Roydhouse, Andersson bring national team experience to Orange

By Michael Cohen

 

Nick Roydhouse heard the police sirens, and he didn’t know what was going on. 
More than 8,500 miles from home, the New Zealand native heard police sirens wailing all around him. In the heart of Toronto, he sat on a bus, thinking only the worst.
‘I thought we were getting in trouble, because there were sirens going off,’ he said. ‘It was crazy.’
But instead of the siren-blasting police cars coming after him, they were for him. In 2007, Roydhouse was part of New Zealand’s national soccer team that traveled to Canada to compete in the FIFA Under-20 World Cup. The police were his escort, taking him and his teammates straight to National Soccer Stadium in Toronto for the team’s first game against Portugal.
‘When we’d go anywhere, to training or the games, we’d have our own bus,’ he said. ‘And we’d have police escorts everywhere. I did not expect that.’
Just one step below the full national squad, Roydhouse got a taste of the rockstar lifestyle for a week during that tournament. The junior midfielder is one of two players on the Syracuse men’s soccer team that has earned the chance to represent his country on the field. Sophomore defender Konrad Andersson played six games for the Sweden under-17 squad in his career before coming to SU. Both felt honored and privileged to wear their nation’s colors and now cherish those opportunities as moments they will never forget.
‘Our first game we had in Toronto, and we played against Portugal in a packed stadium,’ Roydhouse said. ‘Just walking out, the roar was incredible. The part that I didn’t really expect was when the national anthem came on, and I realized how much I loved my country.’
Roydhouse, who was 18 at the time, played in all but two minutes of his team’s three games at the Under-20 World Cup, highlighting a journey that began when he was just 12 years old. His first exposure to the national team was on New Zealand’s under-13 squad. And he worked his way up the ranks of his country’s ‘football’ ladder.
Five years after that first international experience, he was on the field in front of more than 29,000 people in 2007. The Kiwis, as New Zealand’s soccer teams are affectionately dubbed, played in Group C with Gambia, Mexico and Portugal. The team lost all three games in the group stage.
‘Playing for the national team, you’re kind of like the high end of the players in your country,’ Roydhouse said. ‘And to go over there and play against players that are playing professionally, it was a real big eye-opener to see the level and commitment that the good players put in.’
Andersson was equally impressed with the level of play he saw while wearing Sweden’s blue and yellow. His first game pitted the Swede against an international soccer power in England, and he still remembers the nervous feeling in his stomach in the moments leading up to the match. 
But like Roydhouse, hearing his country’s national anthem brought out a feeling in him that was almost indescribable. Pride, jubilation and honor rolled into one.
‘Obviously, I was so proud,’ he said. ‘Standing on the field, hearing the national anthem and representing your country. I was very happy.’
Andersson’s most vivid memory of playing for Sweden is something that makes the sport of soccer unique. He recalls a particular game and a particular player that will stick in his mind forever. Andersson and a central midfielder from Germany had had a physical battle throughout the game. Afterward, the German approached Andersson and the two exchanged jerseys, acknowledging the competitive fire of an opponent. An act of respect on the international level. 
Andersson kept that jersey, and he always will. 
‘I can always remember that game now that I have his jersey,’ he said. ‘It was a special game to me.’
Now, Andersson and Roydhouse bring that international experience to Syracuse. No national rivalries, no games with 20,000 screaming fans and certainly no police escorts.
But it doesn’t matter. The mindset of being a national team player has already kicked in. They know how to get to the highest level, and they are eager to teach that mentality to their Syracuse teammates.
‘Playing with so many good players surrounding you makes you a good player,’ Andersson said. ‘(Now) I’m just trying to be as good as I can be, so I can help my teammates be as good as they can be.’
 
 





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