UConn Men's Soccer - 2025

[yungdowork]

I think the fact that being above .500 is good enough says it all. This was a dominant program, where a season not making the tournament would be seen as a complete failure. I agree I've seen growth in the past years but my biggest concern is talent level. Just a few players who play USL, no Jake Nerwinski, Kwame Awuah, Andre Blake, Cyle Larin, Abdou Thiam, Nkosi Tafari(transferred to Seattle before MLS).

Matter of perspective I suppose. We haven't won a conference championship in 13 years so comparing the current situation to when we were a national championship contender every year is kinda rough. Getting 3 kids drafted by MLS teams last year (and 2 the year before), and sending multiple other players to USL is the exact type of thing that should attract talent and make us better.

It's not apples-to-apples, but it reminds me a bit of UVM. They missed the tournament but showed improvement for the first 3.5 years (covid year) of Rob Dow's coaching tenure. Then they won their conference tournament, the next year they advanced to QFs in the tournament, and then 2 years later ended up winning the national championship. This is year 4 of the Gbandi experience, so we need to start making some noise at the end of the season, but it does feel like the framework has been improving year-over-year.