2011 UCSB GAUCHOS Official Thread - Road to Redemption

You have a link?

I saw where Ives reported he is GA candidate but nothing definitive about him actually signing.

Thanks for the thorough analysis. If UCSB gets at least one of the strikers they are after, do you expect the team to be stronger, weaker, or about the same next year?

We need a finisher that's for sure. Add that to the mix of returnees and healthy MD and McGlynn and I believe we can be better. Silva is the biggest loss, but if Castillo is as good as advertised we should be good there. Stronger is looking like a good bet.

It was on Twitter from another Gaucho fan who apparently talked to Garza himself. Then Ives reported it in his twitter.

I am just a fan. Graduated from SB in 06, but still try to do what I can to be around the program and help where needed.

I also believe that UCSB could and should be better next year. As has been pointed out, Nonni, McGlynn, and David barely played and should all be back for their senior years. They have all previously earned a minimum of 2nd team all conference honors.

We lose Kiffe, Silva, Pontius, and Garza. When we look more narrowly at what we lose from the Creighton match, Kiffe did not play due to injury, Pontius got red carded, and Garza conceded Creighton's PK. We should be better for the next College Cup run

With the departure of Silva and Garza, I think more people will take notice of Sarle. Along with new recruits, three key seniors coming back from lost junior years, and my anticipated emergence of Dom Sarle, I am looking forward to next year. It will be a team loaded with upperclassmen.

Proven goal scorer wanted, though

I'm not sure that I agree with the above. Here's my take... just my opinion.

I agree that McGlynn/Josue give us an attacking back like Kiffe... that's good. And even though Pontius had a great year... I would think that Glodack or Juan might be able to replacement him. Pontius was very good this year... very under-rated in my book. BTW... Pontius played the whole game at Creighton... I think he got carded in the last minute of the game.

Where I differ is with Silva and Garza.

Silva's finishing this year was extrodinary... if he had a year like the previous years I'd say yes... a new guy could replace him. But his numbers were off the charts this year. They will need to heavily recruit to find someone who even gives half the goals and assists that Silva had this year. When Barrera left Silva was waiting to take that spot. Unless Sarle moves into that spot I think we have a void there IMO.

And most importantly Garza's athleticism was a game changer all year... they are going to have to recruite someone to fill that role. His numbers were modest by UCSB standards but they don't tell the whole story. He was usually the best athlete on the field every game. And he's Generation Adidas because he was consistently one of the top players on the field every game.

Also... I wasn't impressed with Andre in goal this year... I don't think he compared well to the other goalies in our league. And I don't think Schmetz was as good as Pontius... or looked anywhere near the comparisons that were made to Iro.

In my estimation UCSB will need to seriously retool... at the very least they will need to add a dynamic scorer and a top notch goalie to be better than this year's team.

I'm confident TVS will assemble a very competitive team... if not a better team. But not without some new faces.

Oh yeah... and Josue had a breakout year... he will start over Nic next year. Also Fifi was fantastic this year and if he come out even better next year that could help us.

Why didnt Nikko Boxall join UCSB. Surely they must have had first dibs on him due to his brother. Seems like ucsb could use a good cb and he was a freshman all american this season. Anyone know why he didnt join?

I would assume because the former UCSB assistant is now the assistant at Northwestern.

Nikko was recruited by Neil Jones who played and was the Asst Coach at UCSB before going to Northwestern. He was our lead guy for the NZ pipeline. I did talk to Nikko when he was out playing the Ventura County Fusion last year and he made mention that TVS didn't go for him b/c he had a few defenders already signed. He did say something in regards to the fact that if TVS offered him a spot, he would transfer (granted this was before season started). He knows what he's missing in SB, but he is just happy to be over here playing.

Losing Sam Garza will hurt next year, big time. With Luis Silva graduating where's the offensive punch going to come from?

Refer to my earlier breakdown as that question was mentioned.

Any truth to the rumor that Opoku is staying in Europe and not returning to UCSB next season?

Yes, I was going to post about this in more detail a little later when more details were figured out, but Opoku is DONE with UCSB. The coaches wanted him to get a GA contract and were helping push for one, but that did not come about. After last summer with the Ghana U-23 team he got the itch. He received some interest from Portugal/Spain, so he has hired an agent and is heading over there. We obviously wish him luck and would love to have a Gaucho getting playing time in Europe and hopefully getting him up to the Ghanaian National Team.

Also, Nonni is not in school this quarter looking at opportunities over in Europe as well. Not sure about whether or not he has hired an agent and thus not sure if he will be back. His work rate will be missed, but he was a little injury prone. Luckily we have a transfer lined up from a Final Four team that should take the wing spot (not going into detail with that yet, but he def played with the team and didn't just sit the bench.)

Acoff?

Opoku will be missed - I had hopes to continue to see him grow as a player in a Gaucho uniform. Oh well, best of luck with your pro career (though it seems the players from UCSB with the most pro success have pretty much always graduated and not left early).

As for the transfer, I'm going to take a stab that it is somebody from UCLA or Creighton, simply because I get the feeling Youngin' would have posted that he was an NCAA finalist or champion if that were the case...then again, I have been known to be wrong on numerous occasions. I wouldn't be too surprised with a transfer from either of those schools. Then again, I also wouldn't be surprised with a transfer from Charlotte, since they just had their coach hired out from under them, if memory serves.

UCSB looks kind of thin in front next year with Opoku and Nonni leaving, in addition to the departures of Silva (I know, not technically a forward, but he was in on quite a few goalscoring plays) and Garza. Hopefully whoever is coming in can step up.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that a certain striker who trialled overseas for a year and came back to the US only recently will be signing with UCSB soon.

To confirm what some of you suspected: Article in today's Omaha World-Herald indicates that Acoff is transferring to UCSB.

Correct, he was the player I was speaking of. I didn't want to put it out there without anything public. He will help us on the wing/RM losing Garza and Nonni.

Mentioned already in the attendance thread but UCSB came away with the top average attendance for the 5th year in a row in 2011. Averaged 1,001 more people then the next in line Maryland. Not as high as last year, but we also didn't host the College Cup and sell as many season tickets b/c of it.

Next year already has a good start since we are hosting UCLA again.

Ema Boateng, Milk Cup MVP, has verbaled to UCSB, according to the SB Independent:

http://independent.com/news/2012/jan/25/goal-tending/

Looks like his California team (SC Strikers) lost in a Finals match in PK's against Tottenham Hotspur:

http://www.nimilkcup.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=item&id=150&Itemid=200

Looking forward to see him take the field.

And for those of you that are interested in the Right to Dream Academy, CNN International did a piece on it which includes Boateng.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/04/15/football.academy.ghana/

Interesting reading...thanks. Are the 2 Santa Barbara area boarding schools the only US schools that the soccer players attend?

No, there have been a few schools on the east coast, one I believe is in CT, where some of the players go. It really comes down to private schools connected to the program willing to take on these players. Obviously in terms of over here in the US, the academy is small so there aren't a lot of private schools connected. Obviously if the only schools these players went to were around SB, things would look a little shady.

Connecticut schools that have had players from the Right to Dream academy are The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville and Kent School in Kent.

thanks

So the first round of recruits have come about so I will be starting the new 2012 thread with roster dance, line up predictions, etc. Keep a look out if you're interested.

But first a quick recap of the season and what was discussed at the beginning of it all...

- Road to Redemption: after the ending in 2010 it was important for the Gauchos to have a good season to not only forget 2010 themselves, but have others forget it. I believe they succeeded with good results against solid competition, making it to the Sweet 16 to lose to a Final Four team, being ranked in the top 25 all year, having their first All-American first teamer, and having 2 players drafted to the MLS in the first round as well as 2 in the Supplemental draft.

- Strength of Schedule: the talk about the schedule was that it looked very solid on paper. Key wins and competition that stayed up there allowed for the seeding in the tournament. Hopefully next year's schedule will be similar.

- Strength of the backline: Losing Boxall, Hunter and Hayden made fans worry about who would fill in. Schmetz came in and played rather well alongside Pontius who had a great season. Gloddack also was a solid player, yet injuries affected him. I would say the backline held strong, however the GK position was questionable. Grandt came in with high regard, but confidence in his box as well as mistakes cost the Gauchos a few points here and there. I'd say we were about a B- in terms of how our backline performed with the drop off being b/c of Grandt.

- Putting balls in the back of the net: We have always been a good shooting team, however at the start of this season TVS said we would be putting more balls away then in the past. We seemed to start off the same way with getting a lot of shots, but not a lot of goals. We shot a lot during the season, but scored 51 goals and averaged 2.2 a game. You can't complain when you average over 2 goals per game, it was unfortunately the defense/goalkeeping that cost us a few games.

- Losing players early: I talked about possibly losing some players early and mentioned Garza as one. I didn't think Opoku (Portugal/Spain) and Nonni (Germany) would be the others, but off they went. Now we are presented with the need to stock the front line instead of the back line like last year.

Anyways, overall it was a good season with another #1 attendance average. Losing Silva will be the biggest loss for us, but hopefully with aggressive recruiting and players returning/stepping up we should be fine.

While the 2011 thread is still kicking, I thought I'd share the Top 5 goal celebrations of the year, Gaucho style:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIasHKXbdHg"]UCSB Men's Soccer Best/Worst Goal Celebrations - YouTube[/ame]