Ilias Calaitzidis learned to dribble a soccer ball in a cramped basement in Quebec.

Almost every night when he was young, Calaitzidis would maneuver a miniature soccer ball around his basement strewn with obstacles. To unwind from a day of school, he’d turn on his stereo and dribble.

“They were just random things (to avoid),” Calaitzidis said. “A teddy bear or a shoe. I’d do it for a couple hours.”

The Syracuse men’s soccer team (6-5, 2-3 Big East) is thankful for Calaitzidis’ stuffed animals and sneakers. After failing to score in his first seven contests, the freshman has notched three goals in his last four games. He scored the first goal Saturday in Syracuse’s 2-1 overtime win at West Virginia (3-7-1, 0-4-1 Big East). Jarett Park scored the game-winner eight minutes into overtime for the Orangemen.

Calaitzidis, who’s represented Canada at the international level, was one of four freshmen starters and seven freshmen to garner playing time against WVU.

“I’m always antsy about pressing (freshmen) into (playing) this early,” SU head coach Dean Foti said. “They’re still green.”

Along with sophomore Ryan Hickey, Calaitzidis has been responsible for replacing the midfield presence of departed captain John Andrade.

“It’s rare to find a freshman that can come in and run and dribble around upperclassmen like he can,” defender Ryan Hall said. “I don’t know where he’s getting it from.”

While Foti admitted this year’s midfield has not possessed the ball as well as last year’s, he said he planned part of that because of the Orangemen’s dynamic forwards — Jarett Park, Guido Cristofori and Kirk Johnson. Rather than putting the ball at the feet of its midfielders, SU has let the forwards do the work.

But so far, the strategy has failed.

Because of their skills, SU’s forwards often feel comfortable attacking when outnumbered by defenders and lose the ball.

Since struggling to a mediocre start, Foti has emphasized ball control.

“We have some dangerous guys up front, and we don’t want to put the reigns on them,” Foti said. “But you need some sort of happy medium. We’re defending all the time because we’re always going forward.”

And for all of Calaitzidis’ skill on offense — born out of the basement drills — Foti said Calaitzidis is a defensive liability.

Because of that and injuries to seniors Eric Chapman and Kevin Boyle, Foti switched Saturday from his usual three-defender defense to a four-man backline. The new formation, which Foti said he’ll keep indefinitely, allows SU to make up for Calaitzidis’ defensive errors in the midfield.

“That’s where he struggled early on,” Foti said. “The way we’re playing now is a little more friendly to the way he plays. Hopefully he doesn’t get exposed defensively.”

Chapman may miss the rest of the season after suffering a concussion Sept. 21 at Seton Hall. Since the injury, he has suffered headaches, and doctors warn another concussion could make him concussion-prone for the rest of his life.

“I don’t think he’s going to be back,” Foti said. “We don’t know for certain, but the specialist said he needs to take a couple months off, or he could end up concussion-prone like (former NFL quarterback) Steve Young.”

Boyle, meanwhile, was sidelined against West Virginia with a badly bruised foot.

The change in formation, though, has benefited SU’s freshmen. Foti has played more zone defense, which defenders Matt Chew and Mike McCallion played in high school. It’s allowed McCallion, normally a midfielder but pressed into defensive duty, to relax because he has extra backup.

“I’m not much of a defender,” McCallion said. “But this gives me a chance.”

The results showed Saturday. In its first two conference games without Chapman, Syracuse allowed six goals to a pair of Big East teams that had not previously won a conference game.

Against the Mountaineers, despite losing starting goaltender Alim Karim to a red card and playing with a man down for nearly 60 minutes, SU allowed just one goal.

Karim was red-carded after fouling a Mountaineer with 50 minutes remaining in regulation and will automatically miss tonight’s game at Army.

“With the win, especially considering we were using a new formation, I think this was the best game we’ve played,” McCallion said. “Before Alim went out, we controlled the game.”

Published on October 7, 2002 at 12:00 pm