Overview:
Harder Stadium is getting a makeover with a new field, seating, sound system and some video board improvements
It’s back to the future for the dean of UC Santa Barbara coaches.
Tim Vom Steeg has retrieved the blueprint from his groundbreaking season of 2004 to remodel the Gaucho men’s soccer team this season.
His 58-year-old stadium, meanwhile, is in the midst of a makeover for its debut in professional soccer next spring.
“It’s spectacular,” Vom Steeg said of the improvements that the Santa Barbara Sky, one of the United Soccer League’s new expansion franchises, is bringing to Harder Stadium.
The changes include a new field, seating and sound system, as well as an enhanced video board.
The $400,000 field was laid down in time for UCSB’s home opener at 7 p.m. Thursday against national power Missouri State — the No. 15 team in last year’s final United Soccer Coaches rankings.
“It’s the same field as SoFi,” Vom Steeg told Noozhawk, referring to the home stadium of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers in the NFL. “It just pops on the screen.
“This should be one of the top facilities in the USL — and it’ll for sure be one of the top facilities in Division I college soccer — so it’s a win-win for everybody.”
Not enough wins, however, were strung together to satisfy him during last year’s 10-8-2 season.
The Gauchos, who have advanced to the NCAA Tournament 14 times during Vom Steeg’s 25 years at the helm, failed in that quest the last two years.
Their defense was a soft underbelly that allowed 1.75 goals per match last fall.
Only Vom Steeg’s 2008 team allowed more goals (1.77) during his quarter-century as coach.
He has a crafty, veteran roster at his disposal, but he’s been rethinking his combinations.
“Do we take a little bit of skill off the field and add a little bit more grit?” Vom Steeg asked. “I’m not trying to blow up the band, but the band didn’t quite get it done last year.
“We had missing pieces last year, and those missing pieces were on our defense. And the defending starts with your forwards all the way back to your goalie … I was missing a collective group that were all willing to defend.”
The final straw for Vom Steeg came when UCSB gave up two goals in the final 15 minutes to suffer a 2-1 defeat in its Big West Tournament semifinal match at UC Irvine.
“That, in a nutshell, was our season,” he said.
Bottom Line
Opponents found Vom Steeg’s 2004 club to be a tough nut to crack.
Those Gauchos led the nation with a goals-against average of 0.56 (14 goals in 25 matches). Their final record of 21-2-2 remains the school record for victories by a margin of three.
Their strong-arm tactics became the subject of a Soccer America article after they’d risen to No. 1 in the national rankings.
The author quoted such coaches as Manny Schellscheidt, whose Seton Hall club was one of 15 teams that UCSB shut out that year.
“If you beat them on the dribble, chances are you’re going to get fouled,” he said. “It’s nothing dirty, but it is win at all costs.”
The 2004 Gauchos tied Indiana 1-1 in the College Cup final but lost the championship in a penalty-kick shootout.
Their magical run, nevertheless, set the stage for UCSB’s run to the NCAA title in 2006.
“The ’04 team was the toughest one I ever coached,” Vom Steeg said. “Their fight, their grit, how hard they worked … They were known for being this very physical team.
“They committed a lot of fouls, but that was just their mentality. It was an identity, right?”
This year’s Gauchos adopted some of that mindset during Saturday’s 2-1 exhibition victory over San Diego State.
They didn’t back down during a chippy “friendly” at Harder Stadium in which 31 fouls were called. Five Gauchos received yellow cards.
UCSB’s 2004 team, like this year’s, was a seasoned group led by three senior All-Americans: goalkeeper Sam Kennedy, forward Drew McAthy and defender Tony Lochhead.
Defender Andy Iro and midfielder Tyler Rosenlund, two of the few underclassmen who got playing time that year, were both named to the Freshman All-America Team.
The Gauchos will celebrate the 20th anniversary of that record-setting season during halftime of the Oct. 6 Blue-Gold Game against Cal Poly. The 4 p.m. match will be nationally televised by ESPNU.
“I understand from the RSVPs that they’re going to get about 90% of the players back for that,” Vom Steeg said.
Many Happy Returns
He has nearly all his players back from last season with just two major exceptions. All-league midfielder Lucas Gonzalez is now playing as a graduate student at Gardner-Webb in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, while goalkeeper Leroy Zeller returned to his native Germany to play professional soccer.
UCSB’s lineup does return 16 seniors, four of whom received All-Big West Conference honors last year.
Forward Alexis Ledoux and midfielder Mikkel Goeling were both first-team selections. Coach’s son Caden Vom Steeg was a second-team choice as a defender while midfielder Nemo Philipp received honorable mention.
Caden Vom Steeg’s twin brother, Jared, remains sidelined after a fourth surgery on his foot and ankle, but his dad still has plenty of options on his 36-man roster.
“Chava (Salvador Aguilar) was probably our best striker two years ago,”’ coach Vom Steeg said of the senior forward. “He was on a crazy streak, scoring like six goals in seven games … and the next thing you know, as we’re about to go into conference, he (tears) his ACL against Stanford.
“Last year he was nowhere near where he’d been, but now he’s back.”
Other seniors who saw significant action last year were forward Rene Pacheco; midfielders Nalu Mack and Henrique Bueno; and defenders Haruki Utsumi, Pablo Figueroa, Johannes Vedin and Timon Windisch.
Figueroa scored the game-winning goal with just eight seconds remaining in UCSB’s exhibition victory over San Diego State.
Another senior, David Mitzner, played all 90 minutes as Zeller’s heir apparent at goalkeeper.
A junior class that includes forwards Nicolas Willumsen and David Danquah, as well as midfielders Eddie Villeda, Filip Basili and Dominick Phanco, has also experienced plenty of game time.
Numbers Game
Vom Steeg’s wealth of depth doesn’t end there, however.
“Calle (Mollerberg) from Sweden was our No. 1 recruit a year ago but his knee didn’t allow him to play when he came here,” he said of his sophomore midfielder.
“He bit the bullet and did the surgery last season.”
Junior transfer Ocean Salari, Cal Poly’s top attacking forward two years ago, and junior midfielder Ramses Martinez, are also ready to go after redshirting last season.
And then there’s sophomore midfielder Isaiah Barber, who was the Gauchos’ biggest surprise last spring when he emerged as their leading goal scorer during their practice season.
He followed that up when he scored the first goal of Saturday’s exhibition match by heading in a free kick from sophomore midfielder Kaden Standish.
“You look at our bench and there’s just this army of players,” Vom Steeg said. “Our recruiting class is really good, too.
“We picked up one of the top-five recruits in the country in Manu (Duah, a 6-foot-4 former Dunn School star from Ghana). He’s something we didn’t have last year as a defensive midfielder.
“And Peleg (Brown) from Israel is another player we really needed. We gave up a lot of goals on the left-hand side because we just didn’t have that defender there. He’s somebody who’s going to come in and make a huge difference.”
Both Duah and Brown played all 90 minutes of Saturday’s exhibition.
UCSB’s incoming freshmen include forward Zac Siebenlist, a San Luis Obispo High grad who was Duah’s teammate with the Santa Barbara Soccer Club, as well as defenders Colby Renton and Lantz Gutierrez.
Redshirt freshman Ethan Senter is in the mix of midfielders, getting a look during all 90 minutes of the Gauchos’ Blue-Gold scrimmage.
“I feel bad for the younger players a little bit,” Vom Steeg said. “Zac, who’s from the San Luis Obispo area, is one of the most exciting young players we’ve had come into the program in the last couple of years, but it’s a logjam at forward right now.”
The crowd up front includes sophomore Kavi Krishnan, who was selected to last year’s All-Big West Freshman Team. Center back Andrew Kamienski also saw extensive action last year as a freshman.
“You have these elder statesmen … a bunch of them,” Vom Steeg said. “Now I guess it’s up to the coach to figure out how to make sure this thing works.”
