It could be a way for him to get minutes and make an appearance or two as he gets used to playing with adults. Like Acosta at left and right back before moving to his preferred CM role. Probably doesn't hurt to know what defenders are thinking and doing so you know better how to beat them. Hope he's not the new Brek Shea though who never really has owned any position.
Will that actually help him out though? I think for some players it will, but some players are not versatile and cannot competently play multiple positions. I don't think Reynolds is one of those players who can competently play in a wide position. We don't know the reasoning he was being used at RB and its one match, but I'd hope that they aren't trying to use him as a RB or even a LW/RW with regularity. I think that would hurt his development. He's already a very raw player. He needs reps at the position he can play well.
Its not just one match. We heard that he's been training at RB with the first team........................... By the way, have you seen Bryan Reynolds' finishing ability? FCD has prolific goal-scorers at the U17 and U19 levels. Reynolds has 2 DA goals in two years. A bit of a flawed statistic because he was with the US U17s during that part of that time. But he wasn't exactly a goal-scorer with the US U17s either. It's OK to develop fullbacks if that's what the staff thinks his developing skill set matches. We've had plenty of youth forwards that have ended up developing in other positions. Jonathan Spector was a forward at the youth levels, for instance.
I think you have to judge his goal-scoring on what he shows in games, not the numbers. This is a player who has been playing against older players for years now. If you consider back to the last time he was playing in his own age group (the U-17 tournament in LigaMX to open the season), he was by far FCD's best player, and scored goals during that tournament. I'm not even all that high on how I've seen his game developing in the last year or so. I've not seen progress. He's mostly very good against players his own age, but struggles against older players. He's a raw player to begin with. I think the lack of development is partly due to him still being used at positions other than CF. Does anyone remember back to the 2015 U-17 WC when Wright was getting a lot of criticism? He had outgrown winger, and needed to be moved to CF. Playing him as a winger made him look worse than he was. When moved almost full-time to CF at Schalke, he did extremely well. I think the same needs to happen for Reynolds. Its worth noting that Reynolds is even more raw of a footballer than Wright is and not as talented, but I view his positional situation very similar to Wright's. I've seen some nice finishes from Reynolds, specifically with the U-17's. I haven't seen him play as a CF 30-35 times to judge exactly how good of a finisher he is with 50, 75 100 scoring chances, but I've not seen any problems with his finishing so far. I also think its important to keep in mind that a lot of those DA games he was playing as a winger. I'm actually not sure I've seen him play as a striker for FCD.
Details from FCD's new affiliate in the RGV. Fingers crossed that it has the potential to be as fruitful as the affiliate down in El Paso. RGV is still an under-supported community in the US Soccer landscape. https://t.co/BCeuwDhXhk— 3rd Degree (@3rdDegreeNet) May 9, 2018
http://cbs4local.com/sports/sports-headlines/mls-team-scouts-el-paso-soccer-players Was wondering if you saw that SKC was in El Paso recently?
SKC is really aggressive these days. Its awesome. El Paso's not in any club's homegrown territory, so its fair game for all. That town has a long history of producing talent, but is so secluded that it is unlikely to ever have a DA team of its own. Its actually closer to California than to Dallas. As far as affiliates go, FCD's foresight there was a grand slam. El Paso, RGV, etc. are ripe for scouting by MLS clubs. There should be 10 MLS clubs scouting/recruiting/etc. in those places. Personally I think Houston has squandered an opportunity in the RGV to really establish the same kind of pipeline to their academy/first team as FCD has with El Paso. Teams can "visit" El Paso to scout, but FCD has a long-term permanent presence there. They have an established pipeline and track record going all the way back to Mikey Ambrose thru the Aaron Guillen generation and now to Brayan Padilla, Ricardo Pepi, Edwin Villarreal, Diego Maynez, Brian Aguilar, etc. Its actually shocking how many USYNTers that get callups from FCD are from El Paso & not DFW. I don't see that with Houston and the RGV. They haven't put in the work..........................
FCD and Houston U19s played in Toyota Stadium yesterday after the FCD first team's game. I like that. Mexican teams do that. Anyway, FCD won 4-1. #fcdalllas u19s0 Avilez2 Almaguer, 15 Fuentes, 13 Rula, 3 Bautista7 Cerrillo, 25 Servania, 8 Cappis14 Reynolds, 18 Damus, 9 RayoBench -1 Collodi, 6 Velasco, 10 Roberts, 17 Kim, 29 Paga, 20 James— 3rd Degree (@3rdDegreeNet) May 12, 2018 One will note that both CBs are missing. Chris Richards and Brecc Evans (who's on his way to Steve Sampson and Cal Poly). Holland Rula (on his way to Wake Forest) is the normal left back, but was moved over to CB. I'm hearing increasing scuttlebutt about the quality of the #6 on this team Edwin Cerrillo. He's on his way to Maryland. There won't be many midfields better in the DA than a trio of Cappis/Servania/Cerrillo with Thomas Roberts coming off the bench. Lots of comments on twitter from those at the game about FCD just dominating the midfield here............................... Reynolds was back on the wing again for this game, and he scored one of the goals. Other goals were by Almaguer (a 2019), Ghanaian Paga, and Kevin Kim (a 2019) The FCD U19s have turned it on at the end of the season here. Last 5 games: FCD 5 Houston Texans 0 FCD 4 Houston Dyanmo 0 FCD 4 SKC 1 FCD 5 Solar 1 FCD 4 Houston Dynamo 1 FCD U19s, U16s, and U15s are all in the 1st place in the conference as playoffs approach.
FCD U12s have been in the UK for a tournament. Beat Nottingham Forest and Birmingham to finish 3rd. Its amazing how many trips FCD youth teams go on. @globalfootypro International Tournament 3rd place for the boys from @FCDallas after beating @NFFC today and @BCFC yesterday and rebounding from a loss against @stokecity on the opening day. 👍⚽️ pic.twitter.com/ddUzNHe6GD— John Gall 🏴 (@GallJohn) May 20, 2018
Here is U.S. U15 BNT mid Evan Rotundo's brilliant goal from earlier today (@SurfSoccerClub lost 1-2 to @GironaFC) pic.twitter.com/GPEuDQtnjY— J.R. Eskilson (@JREskilson) May 24, 2018
Man City Cup Friday Univision Deportes and ESPN3 10:25 PT Man City u14 vs Galaxy u14 11:40 PT FC Girona u14 vs NYCFC 12:55 PT Chivas u14 vs Club America u14 As of right now, the three matches from Thursday are available for replay on Watch Espn. FWIW, Rotundo is really good.
LAFC's U14s lost 2-1 to Club America's U14s but it was a close game. Club America's first goal was from a poorly cleared ball that went right in front of goal and an America player put it in the back of the net. For LAFC to be an expansion team, their players were as talented as one of the best Liga MX clubs in Mexico. Xolos defeated San Jose's U14s 1-0. Tijuana's players were bigger and dominated physically but were not that great technically. San Jose have some very gifted, albeit short players, playing for their U14 academy team.
Man City beat the Galaxy 4-2 Girona beat NYCFC 5-0 Both European teams have some talent and a few really good players and they were much more advanced. They played better as teams and were much more disciplined and aggressive. But it’s important to note that both teams were filled with players 8-12” taller than who was guarding them. They won every single physical battle. Any time they got in trouble, they shielded the opponent away and almost always maintained possession. Still, no one was as impressive as Rotundo. The semifinals are Sunday, but there certainly won’t be any D.A. teams in them.
Next up in the @NexenTireUSA #ManCity Cup... Our U14s play @LAGalaxyAcademy and we kick-off in just 10 minutes! (18:30 BST) WATCH 🎥 https://t.co/XK7jy3g1mk pic.twitter.com/TTjvnu4bkG— Man City Academy (@ManCityAcademy) May 25, 2018 I guess this confirms that they are U14. It was probably a little more noticeable for Girona but Man City was definitely bigger and stronger than LA, too.
The Girona team just has some really developed 04s. My son was on the ID2 team that played them in a friendly in Spain. They were definitely 04s, but there were a handful that were just huge. They tied 2-2.
Rotundo played excellent. He nearly got San Diego a result completely by himself. San Diego couldn't keep up with the Spanish side. This is what you want to see from elite youngsters in these club youth games, especially in his own age group. Make the opposition look like they are video game defenders. You are playing against players who will be mechanics and butchers in 10 years. If you are elite and will be one of the next big names people should be talking about soon, you should dominate this opposition. Thats my expectation when I hear about these talented youngsters. I don't think its unreasonable, and it doesn't mean they should be written off if they don't impress, but the level is low, and I think its a high-bar to clear if you want to be considered an elite youngster. Only two who I've been more impressed from what I've watched than I expected from these younger age groups are Nyeman and Rotundo. Just comparing what I've seen between Rotundo and Toure who are the two most highly touted 04's right now, Rotundo was way more impressive. I'd need to see him play more though to have a better idea where he stands compared to our best youngsters to come up the ranks the last 5 or so years, but I was very impressed. @zlebmada I assume you have access to the ESPN+ from your gifs of other games. Can you please gif Evan Rotundo's game against Girona? #41 on San Diego.
Had to re-watch the game this morning. Leone unfortunately was responsible for the game-winning goal for America. Leone got to the ball as it was coming into the box but it was deflected right into the path of an America player. He is pretty good though. He is confident, which maybe is because of his size but he completed several passes, both short and long. He did lose the ball a couple of times when he got forward but I like his aggressiveness. He made quite a few interceptions as well.
Irvine Strikers beat Girona 1-1 (5-4) for U14 Man City Cup. Crossfire Premier beat Tijuana 2-1 for 3rd. .@strikersfc_acad won the Manchester City Cup U14 Championship over @GironaFC 1-1 (5-4 pks). Rohan McEligot scored the Strikers' goal in the title game. pic.twitter.com/drPYqMGy35— J.R. Eskilson (@JREskilson) May 28, 2018
Recorded the Irvine Strikers Crossfire Premier semifinal and watched it tonight. Strikers were a very good team. There was no specific player as talented as Rotundo, but they all had a very good first touch and made very good decisions. That semifinal was 1-1 and went to PKs. The one goal they gave up was on a corner and the XF CB headed it in because he was about 9 feet tall. He was actually pretty good, too. The Strikers were lacking in the final third and didn’t have a lot of really good chances. Part of that was their own deficiencies and part was a pretty good XF defense. The one goal the Strikers scored was on a very nice header on a corner by the starting RW, Edwin Ramirez Garcia. Ramirez and the LW, Victor Valdez, both were pretty good, although Ramirez came off pretty early. If I was going to guess, I would’ve said the Strikers would lose to Girona because of Girona’s physical advantage. But the Strikers were probably better and more organized both offensively and defensively. If you get a chance, check out one of the replays of the Strikers matches. Both the semifinal and final are in the “replay” section of Watch ESPN. They’re pretty fun to watch and probably have a couple players who could turn into very good pros.
I watched the Surf -Sounders game and I didn't see Rotundo do anything special , I believe Sounders were playing their bench in the first half. In the second half their 2 Nat Players came in and it was all Sounders after that.