Would love to have been a fly on the wall for Coach Noonan’s halftime speech in the USC Upstate game. You could tell he was not happy with his team being up just 1-0 at halftime during the TV interview.
In the first eight-minutes, nineteen-seconds of the second half, No. 3 Clemson (9-2-2) scored four goals to put the game away in what became a 6-0 victory. The Tigers now turn their attention to conference foe Syracuse (6-5-3) on Friday at Historic Riggs Field at 8 p.m.
The Tigers played 23 players against Upstate, and had six different goal scorers.
Remi Okunlola had the first goal and assisted the next two
to James Kelly and
Wahabu Musah. Musah then assisted
Arthur Duquenne’s cheeky finish next, before
Alex Meinhard finished a pass from Antonio Illuminato on a set piece that caught Upstate sleeping and
Jackson Wrobel finished the scoring on a beautiful give-and-go from Ransford Gyan.
Poor social media person for the team couldn’t keep up in real time.
Prick of the week is USC Upstate’s Fabian Dietrich. In the 53’ minute after Clemson went up 4-0, he intentionally fouled Kelly from behind, then slid recklessly into Gyan in the matter of five seconds to get booked with a yellow card. Control your emotions, prick.
So, our old foe Syracuse comes to Clemson not having the year they wanted. The 2022 national champion and preseason No. 25 team just hasn’t figured it out this year. While they beat Notre Dame 2-1, they also lost to Le Moyne (?) 1-0.
However, these two teams are about as equal as they come in 16 matches between the two. The record is 5-6-5 and Clemson has scored 21 goals to Syracuse’s 20. At Riggs, Clemson is 2-3-3 against the Orange, losing 2-1 to the eventual national champion in 2022 in the last game at Riggs.
Four of the games have gone to overtime with three going to PKs. We are 0-3-1 in the last four games against the Orange – so nothing is given on Friday.
Washington transfer Gabe Threadgold – good name – leads the Orange with nine points (three goals, three assists) in the midfield. Ghana-native Michael Acquah has five assists from his forward position.
Also, former Clemson starter Elton Chifamba – who mysteriously left the team in the middle of the season last year – is now at Syracuse. He played in 56 games and started 30 games for Clemson – including 16 games last year, with seven starts. His last game was the ACC Championship game in which he played 25 minutes.
From The Daily Orange:
“Leaving Clemson never seemed likely for Chifamba. His place on the team seemed cemented as an upperclassman after developing into one of the best midfielders in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Yet, the opposite happened and his playing time diminished.
“A change in Clemson’s formation from head coach Mike Noonan led to a smaller role, as Chifamba started less than 50% of the Tigers’ games. Former Clemson midfielder Brandon Parrish said Noonan switched from a 4-3-3 to a 3-4-3. The previous system used three center midfielders while the latter used just two.
"Before, Chifamba could sit between the two center backs and dictate the pace of play as a defensive midfielder. He was forced to be more of a workhorse in the new formation, flying between the 18-yard boxes. But Chifamba was held out of Clemson’s regular lineup, starting just seven games.”
I can understand that, just really odd timing. Why not stick it out another month and win a second national title? Anyway, he has started 13 games for the Orange and has three assists.
But you know who is flying between the 18-yard boxes? Okunlola. In my humble opinion, he had his best game in a Clemson uniform on Tuesday. I keep an eye on him as he is my son’s favorite player on the team.
Last year as a true freshman, the Lawrenceville, Ga., native was usually used as Shawn Smart’s reprieve when Smart – now in the USL with Las Vegas – needed a breather. He played 632 minutes last year over 16 games and 4 starts with 2 goals and 4 assists.
This year, he has missed just one game due to a red card, but has 11 starts in 12 games played. The 2022 Georgia Gatorade Soccer Player of the Year now has one goal and three assists on the year after his performance on Tuesday.
Okunlola was also a member of the Academic All-ACC team last year.
Let's take an in-depth look into potential ACC seeding scenarios and what Clemson needs to secure a top four-seed and two tournament home games.
First and foremost, Clemson is in control of its own destiny. Win on Friday versus Syracuse and at VT on Nov. 1, then we are a top three seed. Where that varies is that it’s within reason to be Nos.1 thru 3.
No. 5 Pitt is the top seed with 15 points now, with No. 7 Stanford and Clemson sitting at 12. If Pitt drops a game versus Virginia or at Syracuse, that opens the door for Clemson and/or Stanford to create a tie. Top-seed gets a first-round bye.
The first tie-breaker is head-to-head result, but none of those three teams will play each other. The next tiebreaker is goal differential in conference games, which presently stands at Pitt +7, Stanford +3 and Clemson +2. So, if we ended up even with Stanford on points, they’ll get the nod for the higher seed on the head-to-head result.
No one has clenched a top-four seed and 12 teams are mathematically alive still for a top-four seed. Final maximum points that contenders can finish with (listed by current standing and current points in parentheses):
- Pitt – 21(15)
- Stanford – 18 (12)
- Clemson – 18 (12)
- Wake – 17 (11)
- UVA – 14 (11)
- UNC – 16 (10)
- Duke – 15 (9)
- SMU – 14 (8)
- NCSU – 14 (8)
- ND – 14 (8)
- Cuse – 11 (5)
- Cal – 11 (5)
If Clemson wins tomorrow, they’ll drop 6 of these teams. But you see how tight it is. Games remaining between two of those teams above (first game is tomorrow, second is Nov. 1 unless otherwise noted):
- Pitt vs. UVA | Pitt at Cuse
- Stanford vs. UNC | Stanford vs. Cal
- Clemson vs. Cuse
- Wake at SMU | Wake vs. NCSU
- Duke vs. ND (Nov 1)
- ND at Cal
So, with five of those games happening tomorrow, we’ll get a lot more clarity and how this thing might end.
Here is the bracket.
Go Tigers! Beat Cuse!
