I was at that match. RSL had most of the possession / chances, with goals coming from Ben Ortiz and Luis Arriaga, both '01's. Hoppe is a great prospect but was neutralized in this match by the RSL CB's, notably '01 Noah Beck, who has recently been moved back from CM, and '01 Erwin Martinez. High quality match between two of the best teams in the SW division. Hoppe's movement / speed is top-level, but RSL did a great job of keeping him away from goal.
I was more trying to look at performances from a perspective of who impresses and shows skills that will play at higher levels. Arriaga, for instance, was disappointing, IMO. Vazquez is another who I thought was disappointing. They are already pros on first team contracts. They should be the best players on the field in a game like this, not just two of many guys who look like they might have pro potential by occasionally showing a sequence of nice play. I hadn't seen Hoppe play since his goals improvement. I was trying to judge his game. He wasn't that good, but I liked what I saw of his skill-set. It wasn't a game he could've had his best performance in because Barca struggled.
I agree about Hoppe's skill-set, definitely things to like moving forward. As for the RSL players on pro contracts, sometimes those players might have a mental letdown playing with academy teams (not saying that is the right mindset), and some would say RSL is making sure the Soto / Ledezma situation is not repeated.
I saw that last year with Pomykol and he even admitted it affected him not getting many MLS minutes. This where coaches or older players need to advise them to try even harder as nothing is ever given just taken.
A bit random, but here are the American youth prospects I'm aware of who are playing "abroad" in a Canadian DA academy, namely, Montreal, Toronto, or Vancouver. (Excluding Akinola and Dorsey who are with TFC's first team.) Montreal: '04 Medgy Alexandre. Presumably born in the US and raised in Montreal. He was recently named their U15 academy player of the month. I think he's a forward/winger. He was originally with Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Soccer Association. http://mntl.ussoccerda.com/sam/teams/index.php?team=7535376&player=566212059 À lire - Adam Rodrigue (U14) et Medgy Alexandre (U15) sont les Joueurs du mois Nutrilait en février -> https://t.co/V6yS4NPxNQRead - Adam Rodrigue (U14) and Medgy Alexandre (U15) are the February Nutrilait Players of the Month -> https://t.co/qeJ4pqziAT#IMFC pic.twitter.com/m75w2VvsGb— Académie du CF Montréal (@academiecfm) March 4, 2019 Toronto: '02 Sidney Paris. Moved from Chicago Fire, so presumably not raised in Canada. http://tfc.ussoccerda.com/sam/teams/index.php?team=7536976&player=538743765 '04 GK Adisa De Rosario. Presumably born in the US and raised in North York, ON. He's apparently the son of Canadian legend Dwayne. http://tfc.ussoccerda.com/sam/teams/index.php?team=7536956&player=546054089 http://www.football-talents.co.uk/Adisa_De_Rosario-3_7-366032-2.html Also for Toronto, YNT pool '02 James Crath was with TFC's academy last season after moving from Houston Dynamo, although his page doesn't seem to show him with Toronto this season. Vancouver: '02 winger Brandon Cambridge. Born in New York and raised in Chilliwack BC. He trained with the Whitecaps first team in preseason. http://vanc.ussoccerda.com/sam/teams/index.php?team=7520316&player=545840289 '02 US U17 GK Chituru Odunze. Born in North Carolina, raised in England/Wales where he was with Chelsea, West Ham, and Cardiff. Then in Alberta, where he played for Calgary Foothills. Might be moving to Leicester City. http://vanc.ussoccerda.com/sam/teams/index.php?team=7520336&player=545850605
'04 Dantouma Toure is back training with NYRB: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu_zqB4lG3e5e2qHavKbrneLvXJta5_u1Oh0yI0/
Ocampo-Chavez had a hat trick for Sounders U19. Rincon-Rodriguez, who has one callup to the US U15s, had four goals for Sounders U15s. 1️⃣2️⃣ goals against Portland! 🔹 U-15’s won, 5-1🔹 U-17’s lost, 1-2🔹 U-19’s won, 6-2🎩 + 1: Oscar Rincon, U-15🎩: Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez, U-19 #TheFuture pic.twitter.com/XJh3f7VUpl— Sounders FC Academy (@SoundersAcademy) March 16, 2019
Ocampo-Chavez has become incredibly underrated. He's rarely talked about, yet I don't think any of the Sounders prospects are all that close to him in ability.
March 16-17 weekend: Kaya Ignacio ('02) scored a hat-trick for the Dynamo U-17's. He now has 15 goals in 13 U-17 games this season. Jay Sonthalia ('05) has played 10 games (9 starts) playing up a year in the San Diego Surf U-15's. He started again this weekend. Dominic Dubon ('05) scored a brace for the Union U-14's. He now has 16 goals in 16 games this season for the U-14's. The Union have some good prospects at the lower levels between Bohui, Miscic, Pariano, Huckaby, Craig, Sullivan, Lau, Mazzola, Pierre, Evans and Dubon. It'll be interesting to see if this crop of Union players can eventually win them a DA championship in the U-17 or U-19 age groups. Angel Martinez ('05) started again for the Sounders U-17's. He's playing up two years. He has played 9 games (8 starts) for the U-17's. IMO, he's the second best prospect in the Sounders academy after Ocampo-Chavez. Austin Brummett ('04) also started for the U-17's. He was playing up a year. He has played 11 games (7 starts) and has two goals with the U-17's. His scoring rate with the U-15's is much better (9 goals in 4 games). He might need a season of adjustment to the higher level. He's playing up a year, anyway. The boxscore has not been listed yet, but Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez ('02) scored a hat-trick, as mentioned by ChuckMe92. He now has 12 goals in 8 games between the U-17's and U-19's this season. From what I can tell, thats the second best goal scoring rate in the upper levels of the DA after his U-17 NT teammate Ricardo Pepi ('03) who has 20 goals in 10 games. He belongs in the USL team, if not the first team. Seattle has to find minutes for two #9's with Diaz and Ocampo-Chavez both being too good for the academy level. John Carlos Cortez ('04) started for NYRB U-17's. This was his third game playing up a year with the U-17's. Samuel Kolby ('04) got his third appearance with the Atlanta United U-17's coming off the bench at halftime. He's the only '04 who played up an age group this week, although Efrain Morales ('04) made the bench. He didn't get into the game. Kyle Genenbacher ('03) played up two years for the Saint Louis FC U-19's and played the whole game. He's played 5 games (4 starts) with the U-19's. He's listed as a defender. Jansen Miller ('02) also started. He scored. He's played the full season up an age group with the U-19's. He has 11 appearances (10 starts) and 3 goals. He's also listed as a defender. Eric Walker ('02) was the third player for Saint Louis SC to play up an age group. He's a goalkeeper and started his second game for the U-19's this weekend. Dante Hockey ('03) scored for the Union U-17's. He's a CB with high potential. Nicholas Pariano ('03) also started for the Union U-17's. He's started to play more recently. I liked what I saw of his game and he has YNT caps in the past, but he's not played that much for the U-17's this season. He's been mostly with the U-16's. He's a defensive midfielder.
The autocorrect on my computer added a sporting theme to Dante Huckaby’s name, but not the sport he plays.
The Generation adidas Cup will expand this year, with a matchup of U15 MLS sides against Liga MX U15 teams. https://t.co/PS2Il86fub— Travis Clark (@travismclark) March 21, 2019
Goals galore in the FCD-SKC series today. Don't look now but if the playoffs started today, the FCD U17s would be the #1 seed and the FCD U19s would be the #2 seed. The U19s started the season slowly, but have been really dominant over the past couple of months. It’s GAMEDAY in Frisco 🤠U15: 8:30aU17: 10:30aU19: 12:30aLet’s go boys 👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/0GqqI4Xtmv— Sporting KC Academy (@SKCAcademy) March 23, 2019 FCD U19s 6 SKC 0 FCD U17s 5 SKC 1 FCD U15s 3 SKC 5 EEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh.
Check out @rinconjarosho’s Tweet: 1109868426460196864 is not a valid tweet id Yesterday the Sounders Academy U15 v Crossfire Academy U15 game featured 7 players with YNT call ups Ben Burns and Korede Osundina for Crossfire Angel Martinez(05) Juan Alvarez Austin Brummet Taka Sasaki Oscar Rincon for Sounders
Write up of a recent TFC - Vardar game. Also cites the fact that Minnesota Thunder academy allegedly folded.
‘01 Matthew Hoppe scored hat tricks in consecutive matches this weekend. https://t.co/7v6WhkOCqf— Daniel (@DanielSmith1022) March 24, 2019
March 23-24 weekend: LA Galaxy has a habit of being very aggressive with promotions of younger players. In the U-19 team this weekend, they used six U-17 players. Those players were Mauricio Cuevas ('03), Cameron Dunbar ('02), Kobe Hernandez-Foster ('02), Nestor Molina ('02), Adam Saldana ('02), Carlos Zuniga ('02). Dunbar scored a goal. Atlanta United used five 05's in the U-15's this weekend. Those players were Johann Chirinos ('05), Italo Jenkins ('05), Remi Okunlola ('05), Daniel Sebhatu ('05) and Ty Wilson ('05). Chirinos, Sebhatu and Wilson started. What is Atlanta United doing with Diego Lopez's ('02) development? He has played 10 games (6 starts) with the U-19's and has 3 goals. Why isn't he playing with the U-17's? If he's not good enough for the U-19's, he should play for the U-17's. If he can't be guaranteed starts every game, he should play for the U-17's. He has played 3 games with the U-17's and has 2 goals. William Reilly ('02) has started to get more games with the Atlanta United U-19's. He now has 4 games (4 starts) and 1 goal playing up a year in the U-19 age group. I don't rate what he brings, but Atlanta appears to and he has gotten a few U-17 NT caps. Zachary Booth ('04) got his second appearance for the RSL U-17's. He only played three minutes. RSL does not release info about their DA teams below the U-17 age group. Josh Atencio ('02) played 90 minutes for the Sounders U-17's. What is the plan here? Why do the Sounders keep shuffling these players from team to team? I can understand shuffling a player up or down occasionally based on what playing time is available, but it doesn't seem like thats the only reason why the Sounders have been shuffling all their talented prospects in the '00-'03 age groups. Does it help the players to be playing in a different age group each week (sometimes each day)? Sam Sarver ('03) scored for the Crew U-17's. If you want to get an idea of how stats can be deceiving in the DA, he has 9 goals in 11 games (10 starts), yet there can't be more than a few players in the U-17 DA this season who've played better than Sarver, from what I've seen. Crew does not have a high scoring team, and their offense relies on him for almost all of their goals. They don't have another player on the team who has scored more than 3 goals. FC Dallas got doubles from Johan Gomez ('01) and Beni Redzic ('02) in a 6-0 win over SKC at the U-19 level. Gomez has 17 goals in 18 games (17 starts) this season. He's not a great finisher, but I do think he's a talented player, and I wouldn't be surprised if he signed with Dallas USL team after this season. The issue becomes that he's a #9, and Dallas already has a better #9 prospect signed to the USL team (Pepi). Redzic is playing up a year and has 7 goals in 17 games (10 starts). I didn't understand why he was promoted to the U-19's this season. Might Redzic have said to Dallas that he's leaving their academy if they don't promote him? One result I found notable this weekend was DC United U-17's beating Philadelphia Union 4-2. The Union were without some of their better players who were playing in higher age groups, but DC is better this season in the U-17 age group. They missed the playoffs last year after not being able to win the last game of the season without their two best players when they were playing against a very weak team. Their '03 age group is very talented, and that goes past only Nyeman. They are going to be a team in the playoffs that I don't think a lot of the better academies are going to want to face. The first name in the NYCFC '04 age group to start appearing in their upper level academy teams with any regularity is Cooper Flax ('04). He has now played twice with the U-17's. They've produced a lot of talent in recent years, so its likely that there is some talent in their '03, '04 and '05 age groups that aren't getting much publicity yet. Brandon Tellez ('05) started again for the LA Galaxy U-15's playing up a year. He has played 6 games (5 starts) in the U-15 age group. Miguel Gonzalez ('05) and Diego Rodriguez ('05) also played up an age group in this game for the U-15's. Gonzalez started and played his third game of the season for the U-15's, while Rodriguez came off the bench for his second appearance of the season in the U-15 age group.
MTA is leaving the DA, but the club has not folded. They were being phased out by US Soccer as MNUFC came in. The club decided to leave every age after this year instead of continuing the incremental exit. Their top teams will play Boys ECNL starting in the fall.
I remember reading here that Dallas offered Redzic an MLS contract back in 2017 but his family opted out. At the time, it was believed that his European ancestry was what influenced their decision. In trying to find out more about him from the club website, I stumbled upon this (read Favorite Player section): https://www.fcdallas.com/players/beni-redzic
I understand he does have access to a euro passport and also heard he turned down an FCD offer. In hindsight that may not have been his best move as I am not sure there is much interest there from overseas. He does not seem to have developed like you would expect and I don't see him as a pro player. Time will tell. As for FCD this weekend, I disagree with USsoccer on Gomez. He simply scores goals in buckets and that is a rare trait. Haven't added up the numbers but over his FCD Academy Career he may be the most prolific scorer they have ever had. He has been on good teams with good player around him, but he has the individual ability to finish and put the ball in the net and every team needs that. I would be surprised if he does not pop up somewhere on a pro team if not at FCD. I would put him next to Pepi in terms of possibilities yet Gomez has not had the fanfare of Pepi in the FCD hype machine.
Here's NYCFC '01 Colman Kim saying he wants to go pro after graduating HS. https://www.sheltonherald.com/136980/shs-student-pursues-professional-soccer-goal/ http://nyfc.ussoccerda.com/sam/teams/index.php?team=1401587&player=28533913
I do understand where he is coming from, and we’ve discussed it before somewhere. He isn’t the type of player that takes your breath away over the course of 90 minutes. However, if you are in a scouting situation and only watch him, his movement in and around the box is rarely seen at this level - it’s fantastic. He isn’t going to blow you away with speed, size or trickiness on the ball - but you look up at the end of the match and he’s scored two goals. This happens again and again and again. We speak about technical abilities and skill sets a lot when talking about players, his skill set is his movement. There is a place in any team for someone who scores goals in bunches.
March 30-31 weekend: Houston Dynamo played two players up an age group with the U-19's, Zephyn Brockert-Kress ('02) and Erick Monge ('03). Brockert-Kress moved to the Dynamo this season from the Union, and has only played in the U-19's, starting all three appearances. Monge has started 7 games for the U-19's playing up two years. He's listed as a defender. I can't find any listing of Monge having YNT caps. Has anyone here seen him play? FC Dallas's youth movement continues at the U-15 level this week. They started four players playing up an age group, Christopher Sanchez ('05), Pranav DuBroff ('05), Jordan Jones ('05) and Nolan Norris ('05). DuBroff, Jones and Norris all scored one goal. Efrain Morales ('04) played the second half for the Atlanta United U-17's playing up a year. This was his second appearance for the U-17's. He's gotten YNT caps in his age group. I believe he's a CB/DM. Munier Hussen ('02) started and scored for the Crossfire Premier U-19's playing up a year. He has played three games this season for the U-19's and has two goals. He wears #6, so I suspect he's a CM, but thats speculation. Million Evans ('05) scored a brace for the Union U-15's. He has 6 goals in 13 games (11 starts) playing up a year with the U-15's. Quinn Sullivan ('04) also scored. He has 15 goals in 16 games (13 starts). LA Galaxy played a lot of younger players in their U-19 team this weekend against Seattle. Alejandro Alvarado Jr. ('03), Mauricio Cuevas ('03), Cameron Dunbar ('02), Kobe Hernandez-Foster ('02), Nestor Molina ('02), Jonathan Perez ('03), Adam Saldana ('02) and Carlos Zuniga ('02) all played up an age group in this game for LA Galaxy. Molina scored. Cuevas, Dunbar, Hernandez-Foster, Molina, Saldana and Zuniga all started this game. On the Seattle side, Ray Serrano ('02) played up a year. This was his third game of the season with the U-19's. He has scored one goal. With the U-17's, he has played 11 games (10 starts) and has eight goals. Kenan Hot ('04) scored four goals for the NYRB U-15's in an 11-0 win. He has played 2 games for the U-15's and has four goals on the season. He recently transferred into NYRB from PDA. He's a regular in his YNT age group. John Carlos Cortez ('04) also scored a goal in this game. Serge Ngoma ('05) and Dreni Idrizi ('05) both played up a year. Ngoma has played 14 games (11 starts) for the U-15's this season and has seven goals. This was Idrizi's first game for the U-15's. He's a keeper. Jacob Akanyirige ('01) returned from his injury for the Earthquakes at the U-19 level. He was red-carded in the 82nd minute, but its good that he's back on the pitch. He should soon be moved up to the reserve team once he improves his match fitness. An '01 on an MLS contract should not be playing many academy games. Cade Cowell ('03) and Casey Walls ('03) also started in this game.
Some info on an FC Dallas U-19 game I watched from a week ago, along with some info I recently heard about. This was the game last weekend against SKC. Unfortunately, no Sealy. I wanted to see how his game had been developing, but he didn't play. Tanner Tessman ('01): He played like a world beater. Incredible performance. I am very surprised he's not gotten more attention. As far as I'm concerned, he's right there in the next tier of 01's after the top guys (de la Fuente, Araujo, Booth). His skill, passing and decision making looks improved, and I thought he was good in these areas before. He ran the game with his combination play in midfield and line-breaking passes. He's a good athlete. 6'3 and good mobility. Defensive game is passable. It could improve, but nowhere near an issue. It was hard to discern a position because Dallas was playing a flat CM and they dominated the game, but somewhere in CM. He covered a lot of ground. I'd call him a box to box CM. Jorge Almaguer ('00) in CM is intriguing because his skill, passing vision and quickness adds significant possession and offensive, but I think he'd do better athletically at RB. He's not a bad athlete, but he's undersized as a CM. He has no real weakness as a RB. It doesn't make sense to create a weakness for him by playing him centrally. Beni Redzic ('02) played well. The best attacker in the game, I thought. I've used this comparison before, but he plays like Pulisic before Pulisic lost his football IQ. A little too one footed, but above average 1v1 skill, combination play and speed. Johan Gomez ('02) wasn't far behind Redzic, when it comes to performances from attackers in this game. He's somewhere on that Ferreira tree of 4-3-3 attacking CF's. A lot of tools (speed, quickness, dribbling, movement). He finished his chances very well in this game. My initial read on his finishing ability might've been wrong or he could've improved in that area. He's certainly scoring a lot of goals this season. Nathan Toledo ('01) is easy to overlook in that academy, but he's a very good CB. Almost never makes any defensive errors. Passing looked improved, as well. On the SKC side, there wasn't anyone who I thought stood out. The Rad twins, Jahon Rad ('01) and Kaveh Rad ('01) were both over-run, but they weren't any worse than the others. The keeper Brooks Thompson ('02) was bad. He got beat on an Olimpico, and he didn't make any difficult saves. The other goals weren't his fault, but some of them he could've saved. Something else I had recently heard about the FC Dallas system is I've been told about numerous good prospects in their system who FC Dallas has approached about professional terms, but they didn't like what they were offered. I'd suggest that the decisions at the upper levels of their academy are mostly a reflection of the deals they can get done.
He needs to follow up his world beater performances with other world beater performances. If anything has been an issue for him, it’s consistency. I agree with you, his top end is up there with the best in his age group. I for one, hope he really kicks on. Dallas Cup will be huge for him. I’m hearing of some European interest, but nothing concrete yet. Dallas Cup could provide the stage he needs to get to that next level.