Golden State is a strong addition for the Southwest Division, also covers an area that isn't fully served by other local DA clubs. Can't speak for Juventus but they help give No Cal a San Francisco presence with Earthquakes and De Anza both being South Bay clubs.
According to his James Madison page, he played for a club called FSCS Magnum. There's not a lot of information on them on the internet, so it's hard to say if they still exist. Hmm. It looks like they'll be the closest DA club for the large majority of the Inland Empire.
FC Golden Actually, Arsenal FC has historically been the DA club that covers the Inland Empire. However, over the last few years the boys' side of the club (particularly at the younger ages) has underachieved, opening the door for FC Golden State, as well as other clubs.
The release isn't working for me. Tried to find it on the website and I guess they just did a redesign so everything is a little weird. Anyone have a working link? Edit: Here we go: http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2014/04/01/10/37/140401-academy-additions
Sure, but looking at the map, Temecula isn't exactly next door to places like Ontario or Rancho Cucamonga either. Distance isn't everything, of course, but it's good that a huge metro area like the IE has options & competition.
They're based out of there and practice in the area and even go into Burbank/Glendale, but their DA teams have been playing "home" games at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga. I'd still call them a San Gabriel Valley based club as where they practice is more important than home game location. In all though, they get players from all of the foothill area from San Fernando Valley (Real So Cal has had this on lockdown previously), San Gabriel Valley, Burbank/Glendale, and the upper Inland Empire.
Arsenal's academy is no longer in Temecula. They train back closer to their Rancho Cucamonga roots in Ontario, and play games at Norco Community College, pretty centrally located in the IE actually.
Seems like a shot across the bow for Arsenal, FC Golden State is not only right in the same area, but the FC Golden state Academy doc Jimmy Nordberg used to be at Arsenal (I think as Boy's doc.) Arsenal has the same people coaching the older teams generally. DA might be telling them its time to up their game.
Good club, covers the Peninsula well, closer to SF and Marin county than De Anza or the Earthquakes. The interesting news is that the Technical Director mentioned in the article is Albertin Montoya, a Bay area stand-out who played (I think) at Santa Clara University, ended his pro-career early due to injuries, and has been the long-time Director at the MVLA club (a powerhouse in girls soccer); Montoya was also the Head Coach of the U-17 girls team, but was replaced after a dismal WCQ. Most interestingly, he coached Marta and Tiffeny Milbrett at the now-defunct Bay area club FC Gold Pride of WPS, during which time he was nominated for the FIFA Coach of the Year Award. I've seen his teams -- they play a very attacking brand of soccer, and Montoya is a *great* coach of very young kids. Given his style and that of coaches like Tsakiris at De Anza, the new Bay Area Derby should be very interesting!
Chivas USA has had an IE presence too when they absorbed Cosmos West. Caleb Calvert is from the High Desert, Malcolm Jones (now with the Galaxy) is from Chino Hills, Rolando Munoz is from Rancho Cucamonga, and there's a few more too. They would practice (and even play) at the Claremont Colleges when Dan Calichman was there (he also coached one of the colleges there), not sure if they're still do.
Word has it that Virginia Rush (Virginia Beach) got removed from the DA. Haven't seen official confirmation of that anywhere though.
One club that has been removed is Cal Odyssey- from Clovis CA. This has left a huge void in Central Cali.
Sad thing is the Galaxy was all set to affiliate with Cal Odyssey, but San Jose bitched about it to MLS and the Earthquakes eventually became the Cal Odyssey affiliate. As far as we know, the Earthquakes really didn't help out much at all with the partnership, whereas the Galaxy likely would've invested more into the club. In turn, the Galaxy recruited Nathan Smith and Elijah Martin to leave Cal Odyssey to join the Galaxy academy. The Fresno area definitely needs a team and hopefully whether it's Odyssey or someone else, there's a representative again soon. Bakersfield could probably support a club too, and they do have Central California Aztecs in the U14 division.
I think Chivas moved everything back to Bell Gardens-don't see them around this area anymore. who knows where the next ownership will take them. Probably a part of the reason for Golden State, the foothill area needed an Arsenal alternative once Chivas moved away.
Long overdue. With the merging of Richmond Strikers with Richmond Kickers to form Richmond United, that leaves the Mid-Atlantic Division down two teams. I strongly support both moves, but I wonder if they are just going to play with two less teams next year.
The problem with Prince William is that most of the club's success is under the direction of Ken Krieger (father of woman's national team player Ali Krieger). Ken Krieger just left Prince William in February to join McLean Youth in a move that, for the life of me, I cannot understand. McLean Youth is one of the most dysfunctional clubs in the area and has been highly dysfunctional for a long, long time. It is filled with parents who want to run the show based on their individual agendas and administrators who survive by playing politics. Why would Ken Krieger want to get involved in that? I have no idea what kind of under 14 club Prince William will be without Krieger in charge at the club. He was their stability. http://www.soccerwire.com/news/yout...-william-for-mclean-after-decades-of-success/ http://www.pwsi.org/home/387383.html