Men's soccer coach Rudy Fuller believes that in a tight season, experience is "what can put you over the edge."
If he's right, then he has a lot to look forward to next year, when the team will feature 12 seniors. But on the flip side, it also means that 12 players will graduate in 2009.
On Monday, Fuller announced the five recruits who will join Penn's class of 2012 and help replace the imminent losses.
They are: forward Christian Barreiro, midfielders Nick Unger and Eric Guo and defenders Thomas Brandt and Jake Levin.
The emphasis on defense results from the impending graduations of backline seniors Keith Vereb and Jeff Livingston, as well as two-way midfielder Derek Hobson.
"They were the heart of our defense," Fuller said. "But I feel that we've done a good job of identifying the positions that need depth and shoring up and filling them."
Barreiro, Brandt and Levin all played together for the Casa Mia Bays club team, which won the U.S. Youth Soccer Association championship twice during their tenure.
According to Fuller, Barreiro - who was offered a spot with the youth team of Middlesbrough, of England's Premier League - can add pop to a team that managed eight goals in seven Ivy games last year.
"Christian is a dynamic attacker, good one-on-one . with a nose for the ball," Fuller said.
The other two teammates - Brandt and Levin - partnered together on the Bays' back line for two youth national championships. Levin is a more physical presence and a leader at the back, while Brandt is an able distributor who "reads the game well," the coach said.
Fuller's Elite 300 camp at Penn, a consistent recruiting pipeline, provided another coup in Eric Guo. Guo, who is in Chinese Taipei's U-19 pool, will now try to make his way into Fuller's midfield.
"We saw him at length at the camp and with his club team; he's got a good pedigree," Fuller said, calling Guo a "two-way" midfielder whose versatility would help his cause.
But if anyone knows what it takes to get into the Penn midfield, it's Nick Unger, whose older brother Kevin has figured prominently for the Quakers.
While the elder Unger has established himself as a proven goalscorer, Fuller said that Nick "quietly makes his team better."
