Tilley has good size on him but lacks in ball skill, for someone who has trained England I would expect more from him. McBean and Dhillion also have good size as you have stated, but again I would like to see their ball skills worked on. I'll take ball skills over size any day of the week.
You are right, ball skills required, and this is when they really work on this in Europe at this age. Galaxy need to have a specific plan for each of these prospects. Top of the list would be ball skill. McBean is strong, Dhillon gets in the right place, and Tilley reads the game very well. I think that the next year or two is when these guys will kick on and be very good or will plateau and just be good.
With kids like Mario Rodriguez, Esteban Rodriguez, and Paul Arriola, they left for Bradenton residency almost 2 years ago, when there wasn't as much emphasis on the Galaxy academy. The word has gotten out now, if you want a direct path to pro soccer in the U.S., join an MLS academy. So I expect top prospects to enter the Galaxy academy at younger ages from now on. The next step is to establish affiliate clubs in areas where it might be hard to travel to Carson to train at least 3x a week. Arsenal is an ideal candidate for the I.E. (and they get San Diego kids too) and then Cal Odyssey in Fresno is a rumored affiliate. That's the club Nathan Smith was with, and Villyan Bijev from that club just signed with Liverpool. We have a partnership with the South Bay Force, which is the club the recent U-18 USSDA champs Pateadores were before joining them, and they have 2 really good prospects in Jose Villareal and Javan Torre.
Thread bump. The rosters are out for the upcoming season in the dev academy and most of the players from the u17 sum cup, u15/16 champ squad and the u17/18 pats champ team are there. Many of the new faces we saw during the summer and in reserve games are there also, including raul, mario, villarreal, payeras, etc. http://ussda.demosphere.com/teams/37416866/37418059-37416960/TEAM.html Some weird things I noticed about the roster that hopefully people more knowledgeable than me can give some insight on. Apparently we either gave up or eric gonzalez or he didn't want to be on the team anymore because he is now with chivas, along with stevie rodriguez and a couple other players. On the other hand, we seem to have taken some players from chivas and added them to our team. Is there some kind of youth fee associated with players' rights? I remember there was a trade a little while ago where the rapids, i believe, gained the rights of a player from toronto. I was wondering if there was some kind of trade or just a handshake deal between us and chivas? The reason I was thinking about this is because christian hernandez, the u17/18 player of the year last year for pda, was a galaxy youth player a couple years ago. I wonder, if the union try and sign him as a homegrown, if the galaxy would receive some type of compensation like the rapids trade. I know it probably wouldn't be much but it would be huge in terms of the ramifications going forward. Otherwise this team is STACKED!!! and I can't wait to hear how they develop throughout the year. Hopefully most of these players stay around for the year and a couple are able to make it to the first team.
That is a stacked squad. I hope the coaches can make them a team and not a collection of individuals.
The USSDA Season is now underway and the all the Galaxy Academy teams have been off to a great start!
The Galaxy have expanded and I expect that they will now attract many of the best players in our area. I anticipate that all teams will do well and in particular the U18's who have the ability to win everything this year.
http://www.lagalaxy.com/news/2011/09/la-galaxy-academy-update-september-21 Here's the link to the Galaxy web site for the academy update.
Rumors swirling that Mendiola is leaving for a trial at Man City. Anyone know if this is true? Also anyone know where he is in terms of gaining citizenships? Ive read he wants to represent the USA, but moving overseas will likely kill that option.
Don't know if the rumor is true, but I have heard this to. He will need to get US Citizenship to play. It's an issue for the academy players as they are a talented bunch. many off them have overseas clubs looking at them and I would bet that one or two will decide to go form the U17/U18's as they are at the right age.
We just need to mitigate the losses. We'll always lose some players to Europe, but at their ages it's still a crap shoot. I like the odds of producing a good pro player from the 90% of kids we keep as opposed to the 10% we lose.
That's a good point. If I were Galaxy I would sign up the high potentials who might end up overseas = anyone who has a European passport or is likely to be approached. I would develop the hell out of them and then if they are good enough for the big Europeans - sell them at a good profit. If they are not quite that level, keep them as home grown and have a really strong roster here. It has to be a win, win for the club. Eventually we might match the standard in Europe and they would stay here anyway. At the end; let's face it some of our current reserves will not play. Some of those that do play and are older, can only manage for a short time. We need these players coming through and be the first to emulate Barca and the Man U and Man City.
The U-13s also have some player named Beckham on the roster: http://www.scdslsoccer.com/MatchReports/36148413/2616763.html Coach Billy Bizzaro?!?!?
Hey, 5 goals is 5 goals! I've been travelling and got a "promotion" so have had less time for things. Hopefully, more time by the playoffs.
Life does get in the way sometimes! Sometimes it should get in the way of soccer a little more for me, if you know what I mean. Anyway...Welcome back.
Hope Brookie turns into a tough cookie. Down the road, we will still have a Beckham on our team. A.K.A. Goldenballs Junior.
Watched the U18's LAG play the young goats yesterday. A decent game and much closer than it should have been. With all that talent for us, how come? We looked good coming forward, created many chances. But we looked a little shaky at the back. Our center back giving a fantastic knock down for the goats goal. Gave away the ball away to allow a run it on goal - well done our goalie. I am worried about our coaches set up and tactics. If he can not get these kids playing well, he shouldn't be there. I could win everything with these kids!
Hey, was mendiola or villarreal playing yesterday? If they were playing, plus the other players galaxy added, I agree. If this team stays together it has a chance to be really good come the end of the year. Hopefully the coaching staff is developing an identity.
Mendiola was playing, actually didn't do much. He is a good player, but lacked the spark he normally has yesterday. He is normally tremendous. Villareal didn't play. I heard he has gone to Europe? Anyone know any more? Not sure what the coach is playing at. For me it was a strange team selection and tactics. Maybe the coach doesn't know the best players yet, the best team or line up. I guest there's too many new guys on the squad. Like I said we were shaky at the back. If we don't defend better then someone will take us and with that squad it shouldn't happen.
The coach's job for the academy teams isn't really to win their games, it's to train and groom professionals for the senior team. Winning is icing on the cake but much less important that ensuring that the players that rise through the academy ranks have the skills (trapping, passing, moving with and without the ball, shooting, tactics, positional training, and so forth) that they need to help the MLS Los Angeles Galaxy win as many games as possible. If the academy can start producing productive players that are useful for the senior team on the regular, we really shouldn't care if they win any games.