RSL Academy

Saw this from Andy William's twitter account:

@bommadog: Mr. Allen RT @DouglasWatsonII: @RealSaltLake which current player do you see making the biggest impact for RSL three years from now?

Thought it was an interesting response and very telling of the kid's talent.

 

Can someone translate the Twitter encoding above?

 

if i am not mistaken it says that Andy Williams was asked "which current player do you see making the biggest impact for RSL three years from now?" which he replied "Jordan Allen".

 

Twitterspeak. Every bit as good as Newspeak.

 

The Academy has posted some basic stats for the 4 teams they run. (Just as a reminder, the "elite" teams are actually a level below the USSF Academy teams.)

Some things that stood out to me:

• I keep seeing Eric Carbajal's name, with 9 goals and 5 assists for the U-18s, that makes more sense.
• Sam Gleadle, andother U-18, is no slouch either 7 goals and 3 assists
• Corey Baird and Jose Hernandez have pretty solid numbers at the U-18 level too
• Justen Glad, the U-16 defender who's played in some reserve matches and in the DDC for the adult team is best known for being a standout defender, but he's knocked in 4 goals as well
• Sebastian 'Bofo' Saucedo, another U-16, has an amazing 12 goals and 6 assists.

Obviously these numbers don't mean any of them will be an automatic success at higher levels, or post similar numbers as they move up the ladder, but you've got to think that a couple of them have a good chance at being contributors to the full men's team at some point.

 

Really surprised that Bofo is not playing on the U 18 team. He is a junior in high school and the best thing for his development would be to play with the 18s. Looks to me like the Academy is to worried about winning games sometimes and not player development sometimes. The 16s would still be very good without Bofo.

 

Does this make Chivase USA the MLS team w/ the 2nd most RSL Academy players?

 

Interview with Jordan Allen

http://www.grandesportsacademy.com/...fessionally-virginia-gsa-prepared-next-level/

 

Can anyone explain why the coaches would have Justin Glad leave preseason with the first team to go play two games with the u16s? Wouldn't preseason with full professionals be better for his development? Is it because they wanted wins against Surf and Nomads so badly they put winning ahead of his development? Is there that much if a drop off to the back-up center back? Shouldn't players that get time with the reserves (Glad and Saucedo) be with the u18s anyway? That would seem the natural progression. Or are they worried about disrupting the mindset, college prospects, or income received from current u18 starters? It can't be that the u18 players in their positions are better players. Otherwise those players would be getting time with the reserves as well instead of Saucedo or Glad. Help,me make sense of this...

 

If he wasn't going to showcase in today's game what difference does it make since preseason is over now. It's time to get the first teamer's prepared for thier weekly routine.

 

Here is @pate latest look at the kids down at the academy.

http://ccb1212.blogspot.com/2014/03/eye-on-academy-march-stock-report.html

 

The short answer is that there is some politics involved. Grande Sports is for most all of the kids down there a pay to play academy. There are some scholarships but mostly they are partial. So with that being said what is the best way that grande can recruit players to go live in Arizona and away from home? The teams need to have great results. Winning the national championship last year was a huge deal for recruiting more players down to the grande. And yes it is a big step from the 16s to 18s. At the 16s level bofo is dominant and can change the games at the 18s level he would be good but not as dominant. Just remember it is an RSL academy but also the Grande Sports Academy which is completely different.

Of course my belief is that rsl NEEDS to get an academy team up in SLC soon.

 

This ain't going to happen.
At least not in the next 3-5 years, if not more.

It just doesn't make sense cost wise. The market in Salt Lake isn't big enough to justify having an academy here. The potential USL side in San Diego is what will be the focus of RSL in the next few years. Once that is established, they might move to have one in Salt Lake.

While there are quite a few pros to it (not the least of which is establishing a true premier club in a valley with far too many youth clubs) it just doesn't make sense financially. We don't have the size nor the money to pull it off right now.

 

In talking with Garth about the possibility of an academy in SLC he pretty much said it wasn't going to happen. It would cost too much money when they have something perfect going down in AZ. He did say that the odds of a PDL team being here in SLC is pretty high in the future.

 

Well very sad to hear that and I know for a fact that many of the top clubs in slc have looked into doing an academy but have always been afriad that RSL will do one and then there will not be enough talent to support two academies. What is sad is that part of being a porfessional team in a market is to give back to the local community. Portland has no more talent than the SLC market and they do an acadmey the same is true of Kansas City. You coiuld still bring in top talent from other states as they do now. Just make sure we are all clear on what Casa Grande Academy is. RSL gets the benefit of an academy which is an MLS requirement at a cheap price because Casa Grande can use the RSL name to produce income.

 

Here is the thing, RSL is giving back to the community just not in the academy way. The way they see it is that they have the Salt Lake valley soccer kids bought into them pretty good. Sure, it could be a whole lot better, but their isn't a super high demand (or fear of anyone else taking over) so why spend the money and time?

You can have an academy in Arizona, get those kids (including the regions surrounding) AND the Salt Lake kids. It's actually a pretty sweet gig they have. Hopefully the PDL idea pans out and we get that team here as that would be a nice addition. That would be giving back to the community.

"Top Clubs" in the valley have started academy's. I coach on one. Truth be told, we have far to damn many youth teams in this valley. The talent gets spread thin and we end up cannibalizing each other. What RSL could introduce is a premier youth team in the area. However, I doubt many of the egos in youth soccer would be willing to "sacrifice" their cash cows youth teams. I could really go off on this, but I'll just leave it at that.

RSL isn't introducing an academy in Salt Lake in the foreseeable future. They are looking to add a PDL team, from the sounds of it, in the next few years. This will operate only in the summer and would be a nice addition to the "RSL Pyramid" that they're trying to establish.

 

Three Academy players make the U-18 roster:
G - Christian Herrera
D - Justen Glad
M - Sebastian Saucedo

Good luck to them against Mex and Can. (And in getting called in for the May Lisbon International Tournament.)

 

Generation Adidas Cup kicks off this week in Frisco. RSL was placed in Group B along with LA Galaxy, Toronto FC, and Stoke City (ENG). All games will be streamed on MLS's website, and RSL has two players listed in the players to watch: Justin Glad & Christian Herrera (GK). My question is does Glad still qualify for this tourney now that he's been signed to the 1st team?

http://www.mlssoccer.com/generation...referral&utm_content=News&utm_campaign=Unpaid

 

I believe he is eligible because of 1) his age and 2) he is a home grown signed player. That's how i read it anyway.

 

Match report from the opening day of the GA Cup.

 

So, Salcedo is called up to the Mex YNT, Allen starts and gets 2 assists for the US YNT, and Justen Glad started for RSL's U-17s in their Generation Adidas Cup game yesterday. I think our defense looks to be in good hands as the Academy pipeline is starting to heat up.

BTW, Can YNT player Josh Doughty scored for RSL against TFC Generation Adidas Cup game. RSL Academy and former Academy players in three National team programs in CONCACAF, not bad. Not bad at all.

 

RSL GA team playing stoke's youth team right now. We're currently losing 1-0
It's streaming right now if you have nothing better to watch.

(I love how our jerseys have gold numbers, supposedly that would be against the rules in MLS, but toronto has those silver numbers in their secondaries)

 

Leo Fuchs equalized. The Believe chant was sung

 

RSL absolutely dominated the second half, Stoke didn't ever really get into the RSL final third, let alone the box almost the whole second half. Numerous RSL chances. Then Stoke gets a foul in the final third in the 70' and gets a ping pong goal to take the lead at the death (the game is only two 35 minute halves). Then RSL manages to tie it up with a BEAUTIFUL move by an RSL player, brought it down off a long cross at the top of the box, took a touch towards goal, cut back to lose his defender who slid, then finish passed the keeper. All in the third minute of stoppage time.

Going to a shoot out, this tournament has weird rules, both teams get a point and the winner of the shootout gets a second. The kids look good though, moving the ball very well, some trouble in the final third though (boy, that story sounds familiar).