Salinas Valley Samba

Salinas Valley Samba

Full name	Salinas Valley Samba
Nickname(s)	Samba
Founded	2004
Stadium	Watsonville High School
Ground Capacity	????
Chairman	Cain White
Manager	Mark Cisneros
League	National Premier Soccer League
2009	Regular Season: 6th, Western Playoffs: did not qualify
Home colors Away colors

Salinas Valley Samba is an American soccer team based in Salinas, California, United States. Founded in 2004, the team plays in National Premier Soccer League (NPSL), a national amateur league at the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Western Division.

The team plays its home games in the stadium on the campus of Watsonville High School in nearby Watsonville, California, where they have played since 2009. The team's colors are silver, black and white.

History

The Samba joined the MPSL at the end of the inaugural 2003 season, along with the Albuquerque Asylum, the Sonoma County Sol, the Sacramento Knights, and the Idaho Wolves. During their first season of play, the Samba finished the league in 5th place, five points behind the Utah Salt Ratz, who ultimately finished the season as league champions.

The 2005 season saw the development of location-specific conferences as more teams were added to the league. This placed Salinas Valley in the Western Conference, with a majority of California teams (with the exception of the Las Vegas Strikers and the Albuquerque Asylum) The expansion of the league in 2006 brought further development of the conferences, as the Western Conference split into "Northwestern" and "Southwestern", and a Midwestern conference was added. The Salinas Valley Samba are currently in the Northwestern Conference.

The Samba finished the 2005 season in 4th place. Also in 2005 the Samba advanced to the second round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup before being defeated by the Seattle Sounders.

In 2006, they finished the year in 6th place.

Players

Current roster

as at June 7, 2009 Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player Jesus Acuna Efrain Banuelos Jorge Becerra Ivan Campos Mario Castillo Joaquin Castilo Israel Cisneros Cesar Garcia Arnufo Gomez Gregory Gonzalez Julio Gonzalez Peter Gonzalez Ismael Ibarra Luis Ibarra Nick Lackey Jaun Marquez Armando Martinez Aldo Meza

No. Position Player Eli Miller Kyle Millerick Reed Mills Pedro Morales Noe Olivo Eduardo Ortiz Said Ortiz Alex Pacheco Roberto Perez Patrick Rickards Juan Rivas Jaime Rubio Kyle Satow Luis Serrano Diego Soto Edwin Soto Jose Tostado Nick Vargas Jose Vega

Notable former players

• David Estrada
• Yuri Morales
• Nate Northup
• Adam Smarte

Year-by-year

Head coaches

• Artie Cairel (2004-2008)
• Mark Cisneros (2009–present)

Stadia

• "The Pit" at Salinas High School; Salinas, California (2004-2008)
• Stadium at Watsonville High School; Watsonville, California (2009–present)

External links

• Salinas Valley Samba
• NPSL at The American Soccer History Archives
• The Samba sensation - team loaded with Santa Cruz players June 8, 2005
• USOpenCup.com standings for 2005
• Sounders dance past Samba