KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Head Coach Chad Wiseman knows what his Western Michigan University men's soccer players want.

"All those guys come here to play an unbelievably tough schedule like we have this year, but learning how to beat those teams is totally different,'' he said. "We have some very tough resume opportunities here, and if we knock off a couple, we will climb up the national ladder.''

That schedule starts on Thursday when the Broncos (8-10-4 overall, 2-2-3 Missouri Valley Conference in 2025) travel to Kentucky, an NCAA tournament team last year. It continues at Dayton, a Wednesday night home game against Wisconsin and then a brutal road trip to No. 24-ranked Connecticut and No. 10-ranked Bryant. From there Western Michigan has home games against Butler and Seattle.

Last year's WMU schedule was ranked the 19^th-hardest in the nation. This year, it's probably right up there, too. That toughness paid off when WMU, the sixth seed in the MVC postseason tournament, won three straight road games to claim the conference title and qualify for the NCAA tournament.

"As we play these first seven games, we'll learn a lot about ourselves,'' the coach said.

One thing he wants to find out is who will score goals. Last season, the Broncos scored 29 goals, but only 14 of those goals-scored return. "I'm not sure we have one guy who will score 15 goals, but by committee, we have multiple guys who can get into that five-to-seven goals range,'' Wiseman said. "We consider ourselves an attack-minded program.''

Senior Braxton Arpachinda had four goals and a team-leading 12 points last year. Junior Sahel Yessen and sophomore Liam Smith each had three goals. "Scoring starts in the back end of the lineup and we have good outside backs in Notre Dame transfer Alex Rosin and Pittsburgh transfer Josh Veychek,'' Wiseman said. "Those two, I feel, can influence a game and if they do, we're going to create goal scoring opportunities.''

Players like junior Yessen, junior Braden Stevanovic, Clemson transfer Vitor Geromel and Seton Hall transfer Joseph Min are players Wiseman is looking at to score. "Yessen, at the end of last season, started to find his moments,'' The coach said. "Geromel was the USA Today National Player of the Year in 2024 and Min was on a Seton Hall team which was a top 25-ranked team when he started its final nine games last season.''

The Broncos have a battle among the goaltenders with returner Alex Lindewirth, a senior, and freshman Alessandro Ouzounis. Lindewirth played in 19 games last season. "Lindewirth had a good end of last season and Ouzounis joined us in January and the moment is not too big for him,'' Wiseman said. "They are a great one-two punch who are very different.''

WMU has 13 new players this season, which isn't unusual. "If you look at the past three or four years, we've had to replace between 11 and 14 players every season,'' the head coach said. "Some are seniors who were out of eligibility, but some of them were lost to the professional ranks.''

It usually takes some games to meld that many new players, but junior Jordan Klein doesn't see that in 2026. "The new guys are blending in well where no one is outside the group and I think we are more together this season,'' he said. "It's been fun watching the guys getting to know each other.''