IRVINE, Calif. — Put some ABBA on the pregame playlist because it’s “here we go again” for the UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine Men’s Soccer teams, who will meet each other in The Big West Championship for the sixth consecutive tournament on Saturday night.

The Gauchos and Anteaters have contested either a Big West Semifinal or Final match yearly from 2021 onwards and 10 times since the conference instituted a tournament in 2008.

Of their four semifinal meetings, the hosting team has won the last three; Santa Barbara will look to buck that trend when they visit Anteater Stadium this weekend, a venue they have only won at twice in the past 10 seasons.

Last Time Out

The Gauchos booked their trip to Orange County on Halloween, making a strong start in the first half, then hanging on in the second for a 3-2 win over CSUN. Fourth-year Gaucho Kaden Standish shone on his Senior Night, assisting Santa Barbara’s first and third goals while netting one of his own between them.

The win was yet another example of what the Gauchos can do with a strong first half and the wind at their backs. Santa Barbara has scored 18 goals in the first half of games and conceded just eight, while in the second half it has scored just 10 and conceded 15.

However, more often than not that early advantage has been enough to secure a result; the Gauchos were the first team to score in seven of their nine wins and have only lost once after leading at halftime.
 
When Santa Barbara last visited Irvine, not even two weeks ago, the Gauchos were undone by a first-half goal and frustrating defense from the Anteaters in a 1-0 defeat. It was a game that Santa Barbara spent most of attacking, and they could count themselves somewhat unfortunate to end without a goal.

After the Halloween night win over CSUN, Santa Barbara Head Coach Tim Vom Steeg said, “I’m looking forward to Saturday, to be honest with you. We thought we had a lot of the game against Irvine when we played them the first time.”
 
Vom Steeg expects to be buoyed by the return of Donovan Sessoms and Colby Renton, as well as potentially Jack Middleton after all three missed the Oct. 31 match.

Scouting the Anteaters

UC Irvine clinched its position as one of the top two seeds for this Big West Championship by virtue of its 1-0 win over the Gauchos on Oct. 24, which was also the Anteaters’ last Big West game. Had the result of that match been reversed or even just a draw, Santa Barbara would be playing host on Saturday night.

Midfielder Shane Kaemerle scored the only goal for Irvine, also his only goal of the season. The Gauchos kept the Anteaters’ main scoring threats — namely forward Gage Lyons and his seven goals — contained, as UC Irvine had only eight shots in the match and only two on target.

The Anteaters also come into Saturday’s semifinal after a loss, conceding a penalty kick goal against California Baptist on Halloween. Again, Irvine’s offense only generated two shots on target against the Lancers.
 
A staunch defense that can make a win out of just one goal from an opportunistic offense is one of the Anteaters’ favored approaches under current head coach Yossi Raz.

When Santa Barbara last won in Irvine, it was something of a smash-and-grab job, with the physically imposing striker Nicolas Willumsen taking advantage of a bad bounce to score the game’s only goal.

On this year’s squad, strikers Zac Siebenlist and Gunnar Franke match Willumsen’s physicality and play style, but a potentially more reliable option for the Gauchos to break through the Irvine block is the distance-shooting ability of Kaden Standish and Steinar Bjornsson.

Standish won Santa Barbara’s game at Rutgers with a long-range strike back in September, and Bjornsson did the same at Grand Canyon just five days later. Then there is Donovan Sessoms, who took five shots and forced two saves when the Gauchos visited Irvine in the regular season.

Follow Along

Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. from Anteater Stadium in Irvine on Saturday night. The match will be streamed live on ESPN+, with live stats and play-by-play updates available through ucsbgauchos.com.