Another great day for boy’s soccer. U-15 Quakes 3 Ballistic United 0 U-17 Quakes 5 Ballistic United 1 U-19 Quakes 2 Patedores 0
Quakes U-19s beat Galaxy 3-2 in LA. 3 players from the U-17 roster started and 2 scored, including Cade Cowell.
https://www.sjearthquakes.com/post/...ld-goalkeeper-emmanuel-ochoa-homegrown-player Youngest homegrown player ever signed. The Quakes look serious about developing academy talent.
Ochoa is the eighth product of the Quakes Academy to sign with the first team, and seventh since December of 2016. He is one of five Homegrown players on the Earthquakes roster currently under 18 years of age, joining Jacob Akanyirige (17), Gilbert Fuentes (17), Casey Walls (16) and Cade Cowell (16). No other team in MLS has more than two players currently under 18. The academy is doing its job, the next step is to actually develop these kids into first team MLS-level players, training with the Quakes, getting professional minutes with Reno or elsewhere on loan, and then being integrated into the first team...
The kid is already 6' 2" tall. It will be interesting to see how tall he gets. Would be nice to have a 6'5"-6'6" box dominator who is as agile as a cat.
Wholly mole, at 6'2 that makes him equal or taller than all of our keepers except for Tarbell who is 6'3.
I heard a rumor that the Quakes got very concerned about losing him to international teams because he drew a lot of interest at the U-15 tournament in China. They may be signing some guys early to sell on down the road.
Smart move if that's the case, you don't want to lose talent you spend time and money to develop without compensation. For example FC Dallas got like a million bucks for Alex Zendejas who will likely never amount to much, but a big fat goose egg for USMNT starter Weston McKennie. But at some point we need to actually see the Quakes sell players, that's not something they have shown they can do yet. Of course they need to produce talented homegrowns to do so, and in the first half decade the only one they produced was TT...
it caught Taylor Twellman’s attention. What’s the answer to his question? Can someone who understands “child labor laws” explain to me how this can happen but not training compensation etc for academy kids?! Is it a @NCAA thing?! @turneresq maybe?! https://t.co/macVEJATlc— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) November 12, 2019
Speaking of... Drake Callender, welcome to La Familia.#InterMiamiCF acquires Homegrown Rights to goalkeeper from @SJEarthquakes. 🗞️https://t.co/aEdjOJUqk0 pic.twitter.com/yArn2PArtu— Inter Miami CF (@InterMiamiCF) November 12, 2019
I don’t know how this even relates to my comment. Unless you think I’m saying they’re not producing talented homegrowns. But I specified for “the first half decade”, meaning until Lima, JT, etc. From 2009 when the homegrown program began through December 2016 (date from the quoted article). If the Quakes were producing as many homegrowns back then as they are now, some of those nonexistent hypothetical homegrowns would probably have been sold by now, or at least on the verge of being sold. Instead the Quakes have recouped like $0 of their millions in player development costs from selling homegrowns (that I know of), until today’s Callender news. And even that isn’t how a club sustainably funds their player development, the rights to some college kid are not going to bring in as much money as a proven MLSer. Maybe Lima will be the first, if he is valued more by some other team than by Almeyda... If we assume (and I will, barring solid evidence to the contrary) that the Quakes are signing these kids to contracts because they’re talented and not for PR reasons (which doesn’t make sense as almost no one cares), they seem to be doing a good job of signing players from their development pipeline. Mow they need to work on the other end of the “develop kids into professional players” conveyor belt, where finished products are sold (sometimes for big bucks) on the global player market. Obviously the latter can only happen after the former. And in the middle they need to be developed into MLS-level players by Almeyda and his staff in San Jose and Russell and his staff in Reno.
It’s not much, but at least it’s something, and it’s not like the Quakes needed another Goalkeeper... https://www.sjearthquakes.com/post/...ire-superdraft-selection-trade-inter-miami-cf The San Jose Earthquakes announced today that the club has acquired the first pick in the second round of the 2020 MLS SuperDraft (No. 27 overall) from Inter Miami CF in exchange for the Homegrown Rights to University of California goalkeeper Drake Callender. San Jose can also receive up to 150k in General Allocation Money (GAM) should Callender meet certain performance-based metrics.
The key line from NYCFC GM Claudio Reyna in @JeffreyCarlisle's story on the Joe Scally sale: "There is also a point where their value starts dropping, and you have to be aware of that."Too many @MLS teams in the past haven't been.https://t.co/Fo7E55ziZL— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) November 13, 2019
What I don't like is that the front office announces these things as if he's going to be on the first team. I'll eat my shorts if he gets any meaningful minutes next season.
They're announcing it because he signed a professional contract with the MLS San Jose Earthquakes... why would the front office NOT announce that? Has any MLS front office ever not announced a new MLS signing? There are some conditions (eg "first team", "meaningful minutes") a signing has to meet before they release the information to the public? And there's probably a 0% chance he plays a single MLS minute (forget meaningful minutes) for like three years... he's freaking 14! Even in three years... when was the last time a 17 year old goalkeeper played in MLS? I'm pretty sure even successful young goalkeepers that won jobs early in their careers like Sean Johnson, Bill Hamid, Andre Blake, Zac Steffen, etc. were all on the other side of 20. Same for Marcinkowski and Bingham before him, when they made their Quakes debuts. The young goalkeeper prospect closest to MLS minutes David Ochoa will be 19 before he makes his RSL debut. If Emmanuel follows in David's footsteps that would be FIVE YEARS.
Yes Gonzalez made his MLS debut in his age 19-20 season (birthday in May)... so basically 19-20 is the earliest a goalkeeper prospect can be expected to get MLS minutes. And this kid is 14, so unless he's some Gianluigi Donnarumma-like prodigy (AC Milan debut at age 16), that's probably five years away. Who knows if that will ever happen, it's a window far in the future. One would hope the Quakes will have a good young goalkeeper who has the position locked down. And if he doesn't develop, he could be career lower division player, or out of pro soccer entirely. If he's really talented he could be sold to LigaMX or Europe before ever playing for the Quakes.
For those interested, here is a link to a scrimmage game between the San Jose Earthquakes U-17 team and the PDP Nor Cal team that was held recently.
USA U-16s win the four team Nike Friendlies Tournament. Casey Walls was on the team and Gilbert Fuentes played for U-17s that finished 3rd.
BTW, if anyone would like to watch the academy teams play, they have their last home game before winter break (play resumes in Feb) this Saturday 11-23 at Evergreen Community College. It’s a triple header with U-15s at 10a, U-17s at 12 and U-19s at 2. They will be playing the Portland Timbers. Free admittance and there are restrooms.
Jeff, thanks for all your insights, updates, and information on the academy teams, it's much appreciated.
Glad to hear it’s helpful. I’m genuinely excited about the Quake’s Academy this year. It’s had it’s share of dysfunction and neglect but I feel that Chris Leitch with Bruno Costa’s help has transformed the Academy from low achievements and expectations to one that is actively seeking to develop quality local players. If there was one thing I could adjust, I would like to see the Earthquakes hire San Jose native Shaun Tsakiris as Academy Director and have him coach the U-17s. Currently Chris Leitch is running the boy’s side but I feel like he has plenty of things on his plate as it is. Right now Luciano Fusco is coaching both the U-15 and U-17. Shaun’s son is playing on the U-15s, so it would be better to have him coaching the U-17s.
https://www.sjearthquakes.com/post/...ms-nationally-ranked-top-25-top-drawer-soccer Very impressive top to bottom.