David Neumann is the Syracuse men’s soccer team’s unsung hero. His head coach, Ian McIntyre, will tell you that. Neumann has always longed to be the stopper on the edge of the field, far from most of the action and the attention.

He has played all but a few minutes as the right outside back for Syracuse this year, and he has done so with rare fault. He consistently shuts down opposing teams’ fastest and most skilled outside midfielders. In one-on-one play, he is tough to beat.

He is the fleet-footed ‘Rock’ for the Orange. The stopper who is always on the run. The rock who is always on the move.

‘I think he’s arguably been our most consistent performer this year,’ McIntyre said. ‘I think he’s one of the players where you can’t say he was excellent here, but average here. I think he’s been a rock throughout the whole entire season.’

Neumann, a redshirt sophomore, has played defense all his life. He has been a perfectionist ever since he was a 13-year-old on the Eastern New York Olympic Development Program. It was on this team that his coach Dave McCollum, who ‘loved to yell,’ instilled in him a fear of making mistakes.

This year, Neumann is a member of a defense that has performed consistently on a team that has not. His individual contribution to this back four has been his individual defending. Fellow outside defender Justin Arena said Neumann’s contributions to the defense come from his ability to stop some of the best players on opposing teams.

‘Dave is one of the best individual defenders on our team,’ Arena said. ‘When you go against Dave one-on-one, chances are you’re not going to get by him. I’m confident that any time a wide midfielder on their team gets the ball wide, Dave’s going to take him on and Dave’s going to win that challenge.’

The position of outside back suits Neumann particularly well. At 5-foot-10, 165 pounds, his frame does not have the physical presence required of a center back. While he does have the vocal leadership ability often found in middle defenders, the self-proclaimed screamer still prefers playing on the outside.

His favorite part of the position is that he gets to push up and help the offense. He talks about it as though it is a special treat. And one he is starting to get more of. McIntyre, unlike his predecessor Dean Foti, encourages his outside defensemen to join the attack and step into the opposing half. The head coach said he would actually like to see Neumann push forward more.

Still, Neumann is playing his best when he is closing down dangerous outside midfielders. Arena said Neumann did particularly well against Northeastern, taking their best players out of the competition. SU did not give up a goal to the Huskies and eventually won the game on a penalty kick in overtime.

Neumann is most proud of how he played in the Orange’s other win this season against No. 24 Colgate. During this game, SU had its midfielders in a square in the middle of the field, forcing the wide defenders to push up more. But more than that, Neumann again got to play against and shut down some of Colgate’s best players.

‘That was a great game for me and Justin (Arena) because their two best guys were actually their left and right mids,’ Neumann said. ‘We were just marking them the whole game. They really didn’t do much. Both of their goals came from down the middle.’

Whether or not there is a correlation between Neumann’s play and the two wins, his play continues to improve. The team has six more games, all of which are against Big East opponents, so the consistency of the defense will become even more important.

This season, and over their three years together, Arena has seen him grow into the consistent player McIntyre refers to simply as ‘Rock.’ No ‘The’ needed.

‘He’s gotten smarter in terms of being out wide,’ Arena said. ‘I mean, no one gets by him. He imposes on his defender, he gets close to them. So he knows now that if your wide midfielder doesn’t get the ball, he can’t be dangerous.’

alguggen@syr.edu