UConn Men's Soccer - 2025

[yungdowork]

With exhibition games starting on August 9th in Kingston, RI vs URI, I figured it was time to start a thread.

According to the roster on the website, we have at least 4 new players. I did a little digging to see if I could get any info on them and here it is:

Preston Alessio - Freshman from the Taft School. Named NEPSAC Player of the Year as well as Gatorade Boys High School Player of the Year for the state of Connecticut. Played in the high school All-America Game.
Jack Ryan - Freshman from Brookfield. Won the Class L state championship this year as well as playing club soccer for AC Connecticut. Considered a technical ball-carrying midfielder.
Balthazar (Balthi) Saunders - Senior forward transfering from Villanova. Had 40 points in 3 years at Villanova. 5 goals and 6 assists in 2023, but missed almost all of last year with injury.
Austin Brummett - Junior forward transfering from San Diego State. Currently with the New York Red Bulls organization. Formerly got caps for the U-15 national team, and was the youngest ever player to play in the USL Championship.

Saunders in particular seems like an instant impact type of player who has had proven results in the Big East. Testori and Pickering are both returning and saw quite a few minutes at forward, as well as Charlie Holmes who played there a bit at the end of the year. Eli Conway and Michael Suski are both gone so there should be minutes available, however I'm sort of hoping we don't play 4 strikers every game again as the results haven't always been there. Hopefully Saunders can improve our goalscoring compared to last year when we ended up scoreless in more games than I would have liked.

 

[yungdowork]

A few new names have been added to the roster since my last post:

Edward Wester - Striker/Winger from Stockholm, Sweden. Played at the British School of Barcelona
Maquan Aldridge - Junior transferring from Southwestern Illinois College. Scored 23 goals and had 8 assists in 22 games at the junior college level last season and earned himself 1st team all region. Played for Jamaica at the U20 level.
Maxim Emmerling - 20 year old freshman from Germany. Predominantly a left back which is a position of major need with Kieran Chandler and Mikah Thomas both getting drafted after last season.
Adam Carter - Graduate goalie formerly played for Bradley and Messiah University. Seems likely he's there to provide a veteran presence for the other goalies, as we have a sophomore and 2 redshirt sophomores in that position.
Sebastian Francis - Sophomore defender from Farmington. Not able to find information about where he played last year. Former all-state selection for Farmington High School

 

[Kolumbo]

A few new names have been added to the roster since my last post:

Edward Wester - Striker/Winger from Stockholm, Sweden. Played at the British School of Barcelona
Maquan Aldridge - Junior transferring from Southwestern Illinois College. Scored 23 goals and had 8 assists in 22 games at the junior college level last season and earned himself 1st team all region. Played for Jamaica at the U20 level.
Maxim Emmerling - 20 year old freshman from Germany. Predominantly a left back which is a position of major need with Kieran Chandler and Mikah Thomas both getting drafted after last season.
Adam Carter - Graduate goalie formerly played for Bradley and Messiah University. Seems likely he's there to provide a veteran presence for the other goalies, as we have a sophomore and 2 redshirt sophomores in that position.
Sebastian Francis - Sophomore defender from Farmington. Not able to find information about where he played last year. Former all-state selection for Farmington High School

Farmington High School won the state championship in 2021 with Sebastian Francis as a Junior. Matt Cence was a senior and now plays at UMass. I think Sebastian graduated high school in 2023 and may have played for the club soccer team at UConn. Here is Cence's goal.

from 11/22/21
Farmington High School defeated Cheshire High School, 3-2, for the Class LL state championship last night at Dillon Stadium in Hartford. Great high school soccer being played. When you watch the game closely, every pass, cross, shot is important, similar to every play in football. Except the soccer game literally takes about 90 minutes rather than 4 hours because you don't have the inane clock stoppage and tv timeouts. You never know when a pass or a misplayed ball will result in a goal.

It was 2-2 at the half. Farmington's #10 intercepted the ball from the Cheshire defense and shot it past keeper to make it 3-2.

 

[yungdowork]

Farmington High School won the state championship in 2021 with Sebastian Francis as a Junior. Matt Cence was a senior and now plays at UMass. I think Sebastian graduated high school in 2023 and may have played for the club soccer team at UConn. Here is Cence's goal.

from 11/22/21
Farmington High School defeated Cheshire High School, 3-2, for the Class LL state championship last night at Dillon Stadium in Hartford. Great high school soccer being played. When you watch the game closely, every pass, cross, shot is important, similar to every play in football. Except the soccer game literally takes about 90 minutes rather than 4 hours because you don't have the inane clock stoppage and tv timeouts. You never know when a pass or a misplayed ball will result in a goal.

It was 2-2 at the half. Farmington's #10 intercepted the ball from the Cheshire defense and shot it past keeper to make it 3-2.

Yeah, from what I saw of Sebastian from his highlights he seemed like a solid no-nonsense defender. Willing to put a tackle in and used his body pretty well to gain a positional advantage. Looked like he played mostly outside back but a little center back too. He definitely had the pedigree to play somewhere, given Farmington's strength as a program plus the all-state accolades, but club soccer would make sense if he wanted to stay in state and try to earn this opportunity (which he has!)

 

[dbmill]

Men's Soccer Announce Nine Additions to 2025 Roster - University of Connecticut Athletics

STORRS, Conn. – UConn men's soccer head coach Chris Gbandi has announced the addition of eleven student-athletes to the 2025 roster. The incomers are compris...

uconnhuskies.com

 

[bill6319]

Anyone catch the preseason game against BC?

 

[yungdowork]

Anyone catch the preseason game against BC?

Yeah, pretty good game. 2-1 win for UConn. Giovanni Dennis scored a game-winning goal at 89:17 of game time, so less than 45 seconds left. Prior to that BC had a really nice goal off the volley from outside the box.

I thought Brummett, Pickering, Ayoub Lajhar (playing left back this year), and Charlie Holmes looked good. Balthi Saunders seemed like he was just having one of those days where every touch isn't going exactly like you planned it, but it's obvious the talent is there. Seems like Preston Alessio might be as good as advertised; I really liked what I saw from him, especially the defensive workrate. We had a few guys, like Sabri Hanni, that didn't play.

 

[Kolumbo]

Yeah, pretty good game. 2-1 win for UConn. Giovanni Dennis scored a game-winning goal at 89:17 of game time, so less than 45 seconds left. Prior to that BC had a really nice goal off the volley from outside the box.

I thought Brummett, Pickering, Ayoub Lajhar (playing left back this year), and Charlie Holmes looked good. Balthi Saunders seemed like he was just having one of those days where every touch isn't going exactly like you planned it, but it's obvious the talent is there. Seems like Preston Alessio might be as good as advertised; I really liked what I saw from him, especially the defensive workrate. We had a few guys, like Sabri Hanni, that didn't play.

 

[bill6319]

Now that is a strike

 

[bill6319]

Yeah, pretty good game. 2-1 win for UConn. Giovanni Dennis scored a game-winning goal at 89:17 of game time, so less than 45 seconds left. Prior to that BC had a really nice goal off the volley from outside the box.

I thought Brummett, Pickering, Ayoub Lajhar (playing left back this year), and Charlie Holmes looked good. Balthi Saunders seemed like he was just having one of those days where every touch isn't going exactly like you planned it, but it's obvious the talent is there. Seems like Preston Alessio might be as good as advertised; I really liked what I saw from him, especially the defensive workrate. We had a few guys, like Sabri Hanni, that didn't play.

This gives me some hope going into the tough opening weekend. I'm hoping their talent shows against UMass

 

[RitzLuce1]

This gives me some hope going into the tough opening weekend. I'm hoping their talent shows against UMass

I had to double check the preseason poll after seeing on uconnhuskies that UMass is ranked #8. Than again, UVM is #1 and the defending champion. And I believe Syracuse won the championship the year before.

We built a new stadium and performance center for the program and we are getting lapped by regional rivals with lesser facilities and tradition. A damning legacy of Reid’s final years. This has got to be a put up our shut up type year for Gbandi, no? Not sure the program is a priority for Benedict with football, men’s hockey, and baseball having success.

 

[bill6319]

I had to double check the preseason poll after seeing on uconnhuskies that UMass is ranked #8. Than again, UVM is #1 and the defending champion. And I believe Syracuse won the championship the year before.

We built a new stadium and performance center for the program and we are getting lapped by regional rivals with lesser facilities and tradition. A damning legacy of Reid’s final years. This has got to be a put up our shut up type year for Gbandi, no? Not sure the program is a priority for Benedict with football, men’s hockey, and baseball having success.

I agree it doesn't seem like soccer is much on DB's mind, unfortunately (but I've felt this way ever since the new stadium switched from being grass to turf), I don't see Gbandi going anywhere unless it's an absolutely horrible season. It's a real shame to see where the program is and how quickly it went downhill. Going to games doesn't have that special feel anymore; talent level and expectations are lower. I would like to see a full revamp of the program. I don't see a way Gbandi brings UConn back to its dominance. But I would love to be proved wrong

 

[Viet Vet]

It’s a hell of a lot easier to field a great soccer team when in the pecking order you are not behind (no particular order) football, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s ice hockey, baseball, softball and field hockey.

The only sport at Vermont that rivals soccer is hockey, and both men and women are typically bottom tier in Hockey East.

 

[bill6319]

It’s a hell of a lot easier to field a great soccer team when in the pecking order you are not behind (no particular order) football, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s ice hockey, baseball, softball and field hockey.

The only sport at Vermont that rivals soccer is hockey, and both men and women are typically bottom tier in Hockey East.

I don't necessarily agree with that logic. Men's soccer has some outliers for sure (Marshall, Denver) but let's be real, the powerhouses still come from big sports programs (Clemson, UVA, Stanford, UCLA, etc)
Having a strong sports program should only help men's soccer

 

[bill6319]

GAMEDAY @ Syracuse 7 P.M. ACCN ESPN+

- Big test on the road for the Huskies to start the 2025 season, that being said. This Cuse squad has a lot of turnover from the past season. They added 7 transfers last spring. 3 of those transfers being defenders as Cuse will look to solidify their backline with Chimere Omeze (Earned ALL ACC FRESHMAN TEAM honors the previous year). Besides Omeze, they don't have much star power returning, and their offense is a big question mark coming into this season. They will be a tough backline to break through, but the lack of chemistry may leave them vulnerable at times. Tonight will be a good measure of talent on this Huskies roster. Let's roll

MSOC Kicks Off 2025 Slate

 

[Fairfield_1st]

Not sure the program is a priority for Benedict with football, men’s hockey, and baseball having success.

All of our programs have solid coaches and are coming off good seasons. Men's soccer is the only sport that I can think of that may require some extra watching at the moment. He should be able to put a little extra time into paying attention to it.

 

[yungdowork]

I'm not a huge Gbandi supporter and I've been vocal about that at times, but seems like a lot of doom and gloom in here.

The team has been .500 or better in every season he's been here, and that counts for something considering in 2020 they ended up 1-6-1. Not only that but they've shown improvement year-over-year even though we were losing arguably our best player to the ACC almost every year (Mateo Leveque, Pierce Bateson). We were ranked for parts of last year and sent several players to the MLS (Max Kerkvliet, Kieran Chandler, Mikah Thomas). Several guys that graduated in recent years who didn't quite crack the MLS have been able to find success in the USL (Guillaume Vacter, Jayden Reid, Jayden Hibbert, both of the latter 2 who are now cracking MLS rosters).

I do agree that the athletic department needs to do a better job of getting students to the game. Something as simple as first 50 kids get popcorn or a t-shirt would get people in the seats. If the student section was loud, or even present, the atmosphere would build quickly. We played a lot of Big East games last year where the "Goal Patrol" section was arguably the quietest section in the place.