Overview:
The Gauchos are coming off a 12-5-5 season which didn’t end until they lost a penalty kick shootout at Stanford in the second round of the NCAA Tournament
A tectonic shift in the world of collegiate sports has brought more of the world to UC Santa Barbara men’s soccer.
The dramatic rise in the NCAA scholarship limit from 9.9 to 28 enabled coach Tim Vom Steeg to reinforce his troops with an even larger foreign legion this season.
Seven new international players — three plucked right out of Europe — will be on the pitch when the Gauchos visit Oregon State for their opener at 7 p.m. Thursday.
“It’s not like the school walked in with 10 more scholarships, but I have been able to increase the amount of money we’re spending,” Vom Steeg told Noozhawk.
“I’ve been able to pick up three frontline players without the restriction of 9.9.”
The change became most evident when two experienced lineups battled each other in last week’s Blue-Gold scrimmage.
Vom Steeg, whose Gauchos were picked to win the Big West Conference title in last week’s coaches’ poll, believes he could “literally take either of those teams and win the championship.”
“It looked like something you would see if you were 15 games into the season with a lot of seasoned players,” he continued. “It’s usually a crazy game with lots of mistakes — a little bit frantic, a little bit careless with the ball — with all the freshmen on the field for the first time.
“But the Blue-Gold looked like a borderline pro game with lots of very mature guys who were very confident and secure on the ball.
“It’s an international crowd that’s been at a lot of different venues and stadiums.”
Even UCSB’s freshman class includes a seasoned veteran: 21-year-old Icelandic striker Steinar Björnsson. He plays in his country’s top division for Víkingur Reykjavík.
He’ll help replace Alexis Ledoux, the graduated left winger who led last year’s 12-5-5 Gauchos to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
“Steinar was the best forward we identified as giving us an opportunity to replace the 14 goals Alexis scored last year,” Vom Steeg said.
Dutch midfielder Thomas Noordegraaf and English goalkeeper Luke Skinner — both graduate students — were also playing across the Atlantic last year.
Four other foreign players have transferred to UCSB from other American colleges:
France’s Justin Gomes, a junior midfielder from Barton Community College in Kansas; Denmark’s Jacob Blach, a junior defender from Angelina Community College in Lufkin, Texas; Germany’s Mika Ney, a sophomore midfielder from Tyler Junior College in Texas; and, perhaps most important, Sierra Leone’s Buba Fofanah, a graduate transfer forward from Portland University.
Fofanah, however, is no stranger to local soccer fans. He led both Cate School and the Santa Barbara Soccer Club to some of the best seasons in their histories.
The Seattle Sounders selected him in the third round of the 2023 MLS SuperDraft but he turned down their pro contract offer to return to Portland.
Fofanah’s soccer journey took another turn, however, when he broke his foot after just six games last season. It prompted him to re-evaluate his career and transfer to UCSB.
“Sometimes you get a little bit lucky in this game,” Vom Steeg said. “He’s a player who adds a lot because he’s not only an excellent goal scorer, but he gives us the pace up the field that we haven’t had in the past.”
UCSB’s 31-man roster includes 13 foreigners who hail from four continents and 11 countries.
Forward Thinking
UCSB retains most of its forward personnel despite Ledoux’s graduation.
Nico Willumsen, a senior from Denmark, received All-Big West Conference honors last year while scoring six goals. They included the game-winner in the Gauchos’ 1-0 victory at UCLA in the first round of the NCAA playoffs.
He showed that he hasn’t lost his touch, scoring UCSB’s lone goal in Friday’s 1-1, exhibition draw at San Diego State.
Zac Siebenlist, a sophomore who played his club soccer for Santa Barbara SC, is coming off a three-goal rookie season.
His last strike sent the Gauchos’ second-round match at No. 16 seed Stanford into overtime — a contest that UCSB would eventually lose on penalty kicks.
“Those matches provide a huge carryover and lift to this year,” Vom Steeg said. “The momentum is there.
“There are a lot of good positive feelings about the second half against Stanford. It was probably the best half of soccer we’ve played in a long time.
“It all feeds into this group.”
Also back on the forward line are junior Isaiah Barber and redshirt senior Ocean Salari.
Adding Fofanah and Björnsson to the mix, along with freshmen Owen Wall of Chandler’s Arizona College Prep and Mateos Carvalho of San Clemente High, gives Vom Steeg plenty of weapons.
Manu Duah’s departure to Major League Soccer — he’s started for San Diego FC in each of its last six matches — did leave a void in UCSB’s midfield.
“Our big issue is what happens in the middle of the park because we lost Manu,” Vom Steeg said. “Typically, you get a player like that every generation … There’s a reason he was drafted No. 1 and is having a monster, breakout season.
“That was the big recruiting question … And in the middle of the park, you don’t just get freshmen. You have to go out there and bring in experience and the right pieces.
“The big additions for us are in the middle of the park with the international players.”
That includes Björnsson, who’s been working out as an attacking mid. His arrival on campus last spring allowed him to assimilate with his new teammates and don the No. 10 jersey as the team’s appointed playmaker.
Noordegraaf and Gomes, who played in France’s top league, add two more threats to UCSB’s midfield.
“Justin is probably the player with the highest pedigree we’ve recruited in a long time,” Vom Steeg said. “These are all critical, critical pieces.”
They add to a returning crew headed by junior Kaden Standish, whose six assists last year included the pass that got Willumsen his climactic goal against UCLA.
Senior Eddie Villeda, who’s played a starting role since his freshman year, got the assist in Friday’s friendly at San Diego State.
Redshirt seniors Salari and Ramses Martinez have also played meaningful minutes throughout their Gaucho careers.
“These are all very good, up-the-field, attacking midfielders playing underneath the forwards,” Vom Steeg said.
New Formation
A skilled midfield has convinced Vom Steeg to change his offensive alignment to a 4-2-2-2 (four defenders, two defensive mids, two attacking mids and two forwards).
“I introduced it during the spring,” he said. “I’ve never run this before, but we’ve worked on it for five months.
“It’s built around two forwards and a lot of possession in the midfield.
“Buba is a good pickup for this, giving us plenty of guys who can run up front and be dangerous.”
He considers his outside backs to be additional “running positions.”
“It’s a fluid system, and there are a lot of things I can do with it,” Vom Steeg said, “but it starts and ends with two forwards.”
UCSB does have some promising youth. Freshmen Colby Renton and Cole Harris both got extended minutes on the back line during Friday’s friendly, as did sophomore Ethan Senter at defensive mid.
Jack Middleton, a freshman walk-on from Redwood High School, has been “the biggest surprise” during fall workouts and earned a start at defensive mid against San Diego State on Friday.
Ney adds to that mix at “six” — the holding midfielder position.
“We figured we could use another six and, boom, we get a real two-way German player out of junior college,” Vom Steeg said.
Solid Back-Bone
The Gauchos’ starting back line lost only Vom Steeg’s son, Caden, to last year’s graduation.
Calle Mollerberg, a redshirt sophomore from Sweden, returns after earning NCAA All-Far West Region honors at center back. He and junior Drew Kamienski give the Gauchos a pair of physical, 6-foot-3 forces in the middle of the defense.
Peleg Brown, a sophomore left back from Israel, and Haruki Utsumi, a graduate student from Japan, provide UCSB’s defense with even more experience.
“Haruki stepped in for Andrew in the NCAAs and played great,” Vom Steeg said. “We’ve also got (Hartnell College transfer) Kevin Brown as an attacking outside back and a Danish kid, Jacob Blach, coming in.
“I normally would be too limited in scholarships to get a player like Jacob, and he was arguably one of the best junior college defenders in the nation last year.”
He’s given himself two good options to replace David Mitzner, last year’s All-Big West honorable mention goalkeeper.
Skinner arrives as a 22-year-old international veteran while Owen Beninga, a high school recruit from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, earned raves while playing for the New England Revolution Academy team.
“We had identified Owen as probably one of the top three goalies in the country,” Vom Steeg said. “But at the same time, you don’t know if you’re prepared to give the Formula 1 car to an 18 year old.
“He’s certainly the future of our program, but we had the ability to go out and get a player like Luke (Skinner), who’s graduated and has played 100 games in England.
“Realistically, between the two of them, you’re not going to miss.”
The challenge Vom Steeg faces in coaching one of the deepest teams in his 26-year career is finding the right combinations and chemistry.
“I just have to sell it to the team that, every single week, there are 180 minutes, and nobody’s playing all 180,” he began, “but the level is good enough that we can interchange a bit and do some different things.
“The question is, are the guys we’ve brought in really, really good like we think they are?
“We get just seven, eight, 10 days of practice before we play, and you’re spending a lot of time just sorting them out.”
And that time is drawing short with the season opener looming on Thursday.
