http://www.soccerwire.com/news/othe...of-operations-martin-vasquez-signs-extension/ Sandy, Utah (Via Real Salt Lake) – Real Salt Lake and Grande Sports World have announced that Martin Vasquez has signed a five-year contract extension to remain Head Coach and Director of Soccer Operations for the U.S. Soccer Development Academy U-16 and U-18 teams of the Real Salt Lake-Arizona Academy. In addition to his roles with the burgeoning RSL-Arizona program, Vasquez will also serve as the Director of Soccer for Grande Sports World and Grande Sports Academy, the home of the RSL-AZ Academy, based in Casa Grande, Arizona.
Interesting...I guess the academy is back east for something. What an honor to train with such a good player like @MixDiskerud ⚽️ God is Good🙏 pic.twitter.com/8hkR8XN96U— ⚽️ (@NicoOvalle10) October 30, 2015
I don't have an account, but often lurk on the RSL reddit. Someone there posted this and I think it's a really good compilation of RSL prospects the first team ought to consider. https://www.reddit.com/r/ReAlSaltLa..._list_of_rsl_academy_players_in_the_upcoming/
Hernandez, Riggs Lennon, and Ive Burnett are the three I'd pick to keep an eye on. Riggs is a shooting star and it will be interesting to see what develops for him in Europe. Ive has some speed, and good skill and was predicted to be an RSL first teamer from the time he joined the academy. Hernandez just scores goals.
The RSL academy program sounds fantastic. But it is $59,500/year! The language is such that they offer limited scholarships...etc. Does anyone know how limited?
I didn't realize it was that much. I can imagine the cost of operation is pretty high, but with such a price RSL is severely handicapping the amount of talent that can funnel through.
The best players pay nothing. Many good players are on scholarship and pay a fraction of that amount. That said there are many on the elite teams that pay full price. The majority of those will have a shot at a college scholarship but no real shot at the first team or Monarchs.
It wouldn't surprise me if that's how a lot of the academies are currently. Eventually, I would hope we can start churning out enough talent that the sale of those players starts to make enough to make academy free or extremely inexpensive.
I wasn't aware of that. I always figured RSL owned the academy. Some players develop later. It's very realistic that many players are missed with such a high price.
I've been saying for years that the high cost of club soccer is pricing out kids that may have developed into good players.
Besides the prospect of getting players up to the first team - details of Matt Miazga's international move to Chelsea illustrate the financial upside of a good academy (and luck of a really good player emerging). Don't think RSL made quite as much off of Salcedo, nor will Saucedo be quite so lucrative given that the loan contract probably already includes a number for a buy-out.
For this to happen RSL needs to give first team chances to young academy players. There are zero academy players with the first team in pre season this year. If RSL wants to truly develop youth players they need to change that. I know there is the Monarchs and there are a few academy players with them for a few days but that is not enough. There should be 5-6 players with the Monarchs for all of pre season, 1-2 best players (regardless of age) with the first team for pre season, and every week there should be 3-4 academy players with the Monarchs during the season. If they want to take development seriously they need to act like it. The first team management/coaches never watch the academy play. If they don't start taking it seriously they will lose the players to college soccer and lose their chance to make money off them.
or, they can take it seriously and continue to lose them to the Liga Mexico. The organization must be feeling a bit gun shy regarding the academy right now.
Well, this isn't true at all. Jordan Allen? Justen Glad? Lalo Fernandez? Danilo Acosta? Phanuel Kavita? Fito Ovalle? ANNNNNND, I know for a fact that the staff is very aware of the academy and the players in it. They make trips down a couple of times a year as well as have Andy down there often.
This is a little bit of a rimshot. Both players got minutes. Both players had/have aspirations to play in Mexico. Putting all the blame on the FO in either case is a misrepresentation of what actually happened. Also, we get a ton of money in both cases and with Carlos we got rid of an absolute cancer......not mad.
Salcedo was first off the bench and told he could have the starting position the next season. That's a pretty damn good opportunity for a player that young.
thats fair though being "first off the bench" as a CB is pretty much like being 5th string FW... The Saucedo one, though, is just flat out mismanagement by RSL. Despite the results, the staff kept plugging in Gil when Saucedo was just sitting there. Nothing drove me more nuts than watching Gil play AM at Guatemala for CCL while Saucdeo was forced to play an unnatural wing position. Further, Cassar would just sit on a last sub until the 90th minute in many games last year. Give Saucdeo 10 ********ing minutes.
I think radsoc was alluding to the fact that there aren't any CURRENT academy players with the first team. I think its a valid criticism. Sending players to get that experience would be super beneficial, IMO. In fact, I'm a bit perplexed why RSL didn't group themselves more with the Monarchs. Give these kids the opportunity to show you that they are capable of playing at that level.
There are a number of them practicing and playing with the Monarchs right now. I would expect to see some players join RSL when they head down to Tucson and Grande in the next couple weeks. Keep in mind, being down in AZ, joining up with RSL for the full pre-season would mean leaving school.
i forgot about the casa grande leg of preseason that makes more sense to not pull in academy players yet. I'm still perplexed by the Monarchs separate preseason though. If they truly want a pyramid setup for player development/track, then you should take advantage of opportunities to have the close groups work together.