Yeah, I feel like there's some truth to that. I think we kind of try to keep them in college unless we think we're going to play them a bit right away (that was the case with White, because we were so bare bones in defense), but if it looks like foreign clubs are knocking, that changes the attitude.
DCU U16 -- Jose Carranza gets a invited to residency in Bradenton. ttp://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2014/01/07/ten-mls-academy-prospects-highlight-us-soccers-spring-u-17-bradenton-residen Carranza’s going to have a lot of eyes on him with the 2015 U17s. Wouldn’t be surprised to see DCU try to sign him after his run at Bradenton. Carranza will be there along with another local kid, Eric Matzelevich (googling says he’s with Bethesda-Olney and attends a school in Potomac (Bullis), but he might actually be a Washington, DC resident — a real rarity for the District to produce a talent at this level.
Academy college commitments: http://www.dcunited.com/news/2014/0...emy-players-make-their-collegiate-commitments
from goff's latest piece: *United academy players called into recent national team camps: Defender Suli Dainkeh (Reston, Va.; University of Maryland): U.S. under-20s at Dallas Cup Midfielder Jose Carranza (Woodbridge, Va.; Prince William Soccer): U.S. under-15s in Italy Midfielder Ronald Ventura (Kensington, Md.; Potomac Soccer): El Salvador under-20s Midfielder Jorge Calix (Alexandria, Va.; Team America): Honduras under-20s Alexis Cerritos, son of former MLS and Salvadoran international Ronald Cerritos, scored in DCU U-14 squad’s 3-0 victory over Virginia Rush.
Just read this. Not that it matters much, but the link says Carranza is from Manassas. It also says Matzelevich is from Washington, DC, which is what I wrote. I said nothing about where Carranza is from. I said Matzelevich is from DC, which makes him a rarity on the scene.
Yeah - sorry about that, I realized later that I screwed somehing up but couldn't remember what, and I was too lazy to fix it.
Not that this is relevant to anything (as usual). Years ago I was traveling up to Manassas for a tournament for my son's team and we had one his teammates traveling with us. Riding on 66, the lad misreads one of the road signs and exclaims: "Man asses and dumb fries. What kind of place is this?" Just goes to show, you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy. asitis
And sometimes you can't take the boy out of the boy. Though that's probably a good thing. I've always thought, since I was in middle school, that there are many roads/signs on US50 East to Ocean City, MD that were easily crudely interpreted. Just a few I can remember off the top of my head Cox Neck Beaver Assowoman Tuckahoe
I watched the DC United u-17/18 team today. The most impressive thing about them was how good their passing was. The players knew how to be on the right part of the field to receive a pass & they definitely looked as if they played together. I don't know if I had seen this before on a team with Leidos or VW on the front of their shirts.
Watched the U18 lose 2-0 to Bethesda-Olney today, despite being up a man for the last 65 minutes. TBH they were on their way to getting blown out before the sending off, as B-O easily could have had four or five in the first 25 minutes. DCU struggled to create chances with an extra man. With more serious local opposition than they've had in the past, they're going to have to up their game.
Not too worried about match results for the academy. What was the score when the player was sent off?
You don't run an Academy to produce winning Academy teams. You run an Academy to produce players who can eventually compete for places on the senior team in 3-5 years. Maybe 2 players a year might be good enough. If you got 2 or more, you're doing well. If you have only one, you're not. Nobody should care about how well a group of 11 players out there do.
It was already 2-0 when the guy was sent off, and Bethesda-Olney had missed several good chances as well. One of Bethesda-Olney's players was at the U20 NT camp last week--the only non-college/pro player there--and they have a couple other kids that have gotten U18 NT callups this year. DCU just looked less talented. A bunch of former DCU academy standouts, including some homegrown signings, played for Bethesda when they were younger--now that they have their own academy, DCU is going to have to work harder to attract the top area prospects.
Well, I suppose from a competitive view, the club doesn't really care about which program the talent is coming from so long as they are all within their "catchment", you know? From a certain point of view, even a bad U-18 team is a scouting mechanism. But it is undeniably useful to have those players within the walls of the castle rather than simply in the fields of the kingdom.
Yeah but it doesn't mean the presence of one (or a few) local team with more talent means the Academy is poor. a couple years ago Olney Rangers had Gedion Zalalem and a couple other U.S. national pool players but that didn't stop DCU Academy from turning out Collin Martin and Michael Seaton.
Posted this on the DCU News and Speculation catch-all thread but I guess it belongs here. Dave Kasper letter to Acadmey players: Sonny Silooy out as Academy Director. U-18 Coach Nolan Sheldon promoted to Academy Director.
I heard Sonny might be headed to Liverpool from someone I know who talked to him within the last month.
Cool, I hope wherever he's going, it's Sonny's idea to leave and that he's not headed to any other MLS/NASL team
I think this is a step in wrong direction. Stating that, I hope this was a soccer-based decision from whomever in the FO knows anything about soccer. Unless Sonny left on his own. In that case, while still a loss, at least he got poached by one of the big guys. Which means we were doing something right for the past few years in the Academy.
Someone in the FO who knows anything about soccer? I don't think Molly Bruh has firing/hiring authority yet ...