The losses continued to pile up. The goals came at an increasingly sparse rate. And as the Syracuse men’s soccer team struggled through last season — winning just two games and going winless in Big East play — Brett Jankouskas became more and more frustrated.

Nearly every part of the season played a role in that frustration. The win-loss record. Syracuse’s style of play. Its formation. The inability to mesh together as a team. Even in games in which SU pulled out wins or draws, some players said the Orange was outplayed.

‘I wish we could restart the year,’ Jankouskas said. ‘Like start over in preseason and redo everything.

‘It was frustrating. Especially how the games went, we never had more shots. We never had more possession.’

Jankouskas stuck it out with the program until this spring, when he said he informed SU head coach Ian McIntyre of his decision to transfer a couple of weeks before the university’s Spring Break. Jankouskas is one of nine players from last year’s roster who left the program. With the addition of two transfers this spring, the Orange has a current roster of just 17 players, of which 11 compose a starting lineup.

The numerous transfers and departures took place after Syracuse suffered through a 2-10-5 season, the lowest win total for the Orange since 1971. Syracuse scored just 10 goals in 17 games, getting shut out in nine matches.

The Orange’s poor season combined with players leaving all come in McIntyre’s first year as Syracuse’s head coach. After he left Hartwick with a winning track record to take over at SU, the Orange finished with fewer wins than it did in former head coach Dean Foti’s final year. Syracuse went 3-15 in Foti’s last season in 2009.

But McIntyre and those still a part of Syracuse continue to see the program heading in the right direction.

‘We were very disappointed in not securing more tangible wins,’ McIntyre said, ‘but I think the foundation has been laid. It doesn’t happen overnight, but I think we’ve made a good start.’

The foundation of the current Orange — 15 returning players and two transfers — has already made progress this spring. Syracuse exceeded its win total from the entire 2010 season this spring in just six matches.

And those who know McIntyre from his Hartwick background believe the Syracuse program is on track. The Orange has a large incoming freshman class, and McIntyre said the success SU had recruiting shows that wins and losses are only part of the equation to get results.

Cincinnati head coach Hylton Dayes, who was on the winning end of the 4-0 shellacking that ended Syracuse’s season, believes McIntyre will turn the Orange into a Big East force.

‘Just watching from a recruiting standpoint, it looks as if Ian is getting his type of player into the program now,’ Dayes said in a phone interview. ‘He has a chance to reshape the team and the program the way he wants to, and it takes time.’

***

Jankouskas walked out of his one-on-one meeting with the SU coaches at the end of last season aggravated. He and McIntyre went back and forth, disagreeing on certain things. And though he ultimately decided to remain with the team following that meeting, he said both he and the Orange coaches left angry.

Jankouskas opened the door to exit McIntyre’s office, and he walked into the smiling face of Michael Johansson, waiting for his turn.

Johansson never envisioned he would leave Syracuse before his four years of school were completed. The Vallentuna, Sweden, native said he felt comfort and security behind SU’s scholarship offer when he was being recruited.

Originally, Johansson decided to remain at Syracuse after the season.

‘Though we had played very bad, our results were bad, it’s like they promised me a four-year deal,’ Johansson said. ‘I was like, ‘OK, I will stay here.”

Johansson said McIntyre called him one of SU’s most talented players but told him that he wants to play with big, strong, fast players. He said McIntyre advised him to look to ‘go somewhere else.’

Johansson was shocked. He said he felt forced to leave after walking away from that meeting. He requested another meeting looking for answers.

McIntyre never gave a straight answer about what would happen if Johansson tried to stay, Johansson said. He said he felt as if Syracuse would have pulled his scholarship had he attempted to fight to remain on the team. SU assistant coach Jukka Masalin, who recruited Johansson, helped him transfer. Johansson will attend and play soccer at Division II Lander University in Greenwood, S.C., next year, the school where Masalin played college soccer.

McIntyre wouldn’t directly address Johansson’s potential status at SU if he tried to stay but said he feels Johansson will be happy at Lander.

‘Mike wants to be a central midfielder and play, and I think he’s found an environment that will allow him to do that and be successful on both ends,’ McIntyre said.

***

The group of nine players who left SU — all for different reasons — includes two players who transferred to Syracuse from Hartwick with McIntyre: Jakob Karlgren and Konrad Andersson. It includes five freshmen from a year ago, including Johansson and Jankouskas, the gem of McIntyre’s first recruiting class. And it includes two players who transferred to Syracuse from other universities.

Both Johansson and Jankouskas pointed to McIntyre’s style of play as a key reason for their overall frustration.

For most of the season, they said SU incorporated a 4-5-1 formation with one forward up top. Typically, that forward was Jankouskas.

Jankouskas said he was not used to playing up front by himself, and he didn’t feel like it fit his style of play.

‘I’d never get the ball to me, and it was just — my goal wasn’t to score,’ Jankouskas said. ‘It was just to lay it off and hold the ball up.’

The Orange did switch up formations, McIntyre said. Syracuse played a 4-4-2 formation for much of the game in its 3-2 overtime victory over Colgate, a nationally ranked team at the time.

‘It can kind of morph and change at times. We’ve played a 4-3-3 at times as well,’ McIntyre said. ‘It’s really dependent upon the players that we have available and those guys that are performing well.’

Syracuse’s goal on offense last season centered on getting the ball into the offensive half as quickly as possible. This means rather than playing a possession-style game, working the ball up field and stringing passes together, the defense would clear the ball out from SU’s defensive end and send a ball in the air to someone up top.

Jankouskas pointed to that style as a reason for the Orange’s lack of offense. And the balls through the air up field are toss-ups, ones that Jankouskas said made it harder to keep possession.

That led to games in which chances were few and far between. In a 4-0 loss to South Florida, the Orange took just four shots — two on goal. In an overtime loss to Adelphi, SU mustered just three shots.

Even in most of the games in which SU captured a win or draw, the Orange still couldn’t put together a consistent attack. Syracuse’s first win of the season came in an overtime match with Northeastern on a free kick by Nick Roydhouse in the 96th minute.

Prior to that shot, Syracuse had two shots in total. None on goal.

‘Especially when there were home games, I felt kind of embarrassed because we got outplayed pretty much every game,’ Jankouskas said.

Jankouskas said he felt McIntyre probably preferred a more possession-style game. Johansson said he asked McIntyre about playing that style. He said McIntyre told him he felt playing the current style of play was the only way Syracuse could earn points.

But Johansson didn’t fit.

‘I’m not very big, very strong, I’m not that kind of player,’ Johansson said. ‘I want the ball at my feet. And they knew that, and that’s how I play.’

Jankouskas said some players were used out of position. David Neumann, a defender who played right back, is a great one-on-one defender, Jankouskas said. But in Syracuse’s formation, he was forced to play more forward — something that doesn’t play to his strengths.

McIntyre said he has no specific style of play that he forces upon his players. Each year, he tries to find a style of play that fits his personnel.

Ideally, McIntyre said he would prefer ‘technical players that can deal with the ball,’ but a coach and a program need to utilize their players’ strengths and hide their weaknesses.

‘I think ultimately you create a system that best fits your players,’ McIntyre said, ‘and not the other way around.’

Karlgren, a Swedish defender who came to Syracuse from Hartwick with McIntyre, left SU after the season to pursue a professional career overseas. He plays in France for Vesoul on a five-month contract.

Karlgren said in an email that the more direct style of play McIntyre employed this past season wasn’t his trademark at Hartwick.

‘Our midfielders (at Hartwick) were very skillful with the ball, and we kept much more possession and played shorter,’ Karlgren said in an email to The Daily Orange. ‘At SU, we had just two weeks to put together the team and our own game did not work as well as we wanted. Mac is a very tactical coach, and he will use the tactic he thinks we have the greatest chance to beat our opponent.’

Jankouskas said he plans on transferring to either Penn State or Lander, where he would play alongside Johansson. Fredrik Forsman and Konrad Andersson are both back in Europe. Skyler Russell transferred to Rollins College.

Jon Mangram remains at SU but left the team for personal reasons. He said it had nothing to do with the style of play, playing time or anything that reflects upon the Syracuse team itself.

Jankouskas and Johansson both alluded to broken promises that led to their departures. For Jankouskas, he said the SU coaches told him they would play a ‘keep the ball and attack’ style of play. For Johansson, he felt as if he lost the security of having a four-year scholarship to SU.

McIntyre said when taking over a program, there’s always going to be a time for transition. That was even more of the case in the Syracuse program.

Only 10 players remained on the team that played for Foti. McIntyre brought four transfers from Hartwick and a large freshman class to SU. A couple of transfers from other colleges rounded out the roster.

‘It has to be we’re looking for those individuals that want to be a part of what we’re doing here at Syracuse, and it’s not for everyone,’ McIntyre said. ‘You’re always looking for the right fit.’

***

To Roydhouse, morale has never been higher in the Syracuse men’s soccer locker room.

The group of 17 has played well this spring. The Orange earned a 2-2 draw against a Monmouth team that made the NCAA tournament a year ago. Syracuse won a three-team tournament at Binghamton by defeating Iona and Binghamton.

In SU’s first four games of the spring, the Orange scored 10 goals. That was the same number it scored for an entire season last fall.

‘It took a long time for us to build a collective unit and come together,’ Roydhouse said. ‘It’s unfortunate it took until spring that we’ve actually gotten to know how each other play and things like that. So we’re starting to build momentum for next season.’

Injuries and lack of depth from the departures have turned into obstacles this spring. Some players have been forced to play out of position. Midfielder Mawuena Agbossoumonde said he played forward in a recent game, the first time in his career he played up top.

Louis Clark, a forward who transferred to SU this spring from Division II Ashland University, is already standing out. McIntyre said Clark leads the team in goals for the spring. The other transfer, goalkeeper Phil Boerger, who left Evansville, has split time with returning keeper Ryan Jones in net.

Nine players left the program, but the 17 that remain have shown rapid improvement. For a coach who has preached patience in the overhaul of the SU program, it is a welcome sign.

‘I feel that we have a terrific core here,’ McIntyre said. ‘I’m excited about our new additions, and we’ve certainly got a roster full of young men that are delighted to be at SU.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on May 1, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr