Posting this here, will also post in the in season player thread as well cause we'd talked about potentially signing him.... Congrats to Daniel Salloi as he made his professional debut with Ujpest FC in the Hungarian First Division! pic.twitter.com/3xIwUfmLPC— Sporting KC Academy (@SKCAcademy) July 19, 2015 To be fair, I'm not sure if he actually qualified to be a HGP signing for us. Still disappointing.
Our U15's beat South Carolina United 5-2 today in their first game at Nationals in Tulsa. We play United FA Elite (out of Georgia) tomorrow morning. They also won their game today. Since we don't have a U15 team (this team is mainly comprised of our U14's with a few players that are U15 that don't see time for the U16 team I'm not sure how they do this, but Top Drawer Soccer has our U15's ranked 6th in the country ... they have the team we beat today (South Carolina United) as the #2 team in the country! They have the United FA Elite team we play tomorrow as #1 and the team they beat as the #10 team (out of San Diego) in the country. The other group has the 3, 4, 9 and 23rd ranked teams in it. Top 2 teams in each group advance to national semi's.
We defeated United FA Elite 2-1 [1] Surf Aguilar defeated South Carolina FC 99 Elite 4-2 [2] Replay of our game today is at [3] We advance with a 1 goal loss or better, 2 or more goal loss depends on the other result. Game is at 11:30 tomorrow. We also have two academy affiliates playing, U16 Sporting St. Croix, who are 0-2-0 (W-L-T) and U13 Sporting J. B. Marine - Mann, also 0-2-0. Also a academy member club U18 Kansas Rush who are 1-1-0. [1] http://tournaments.usyouthsoccer.or...ingKCAcademyKSRII-C/UnitedFA00PremierGANL-B2/ [2] http://tournaments.usyouthsoccer.or...aUnitedFC99EliteSCNL-R1/SurfAguilarCA-SRIV-C/ [3]
U-15s just beat Dallas Texans '00 2-1 despite being down a man. GOAL!!!!!!!! Rugova with the finish. 2-1. Now take care of the ball!!— Sporting KC Academy (@SKCAcademy) July 25, 2015 That's the game!!! The boys are through to the finals! The boys play a man down to beat a very good Dallas Texans team.— Sporting KC Academy (@SKCAcademy) July 25, 2015 And I thought that this was interesting: Someone get @cpi45, Lil Xavi, a contract! This kid is unbelievable! A true #10! Texans cannot handle him! @usysncs #ROADtoOK— GotSport - GotSoccer (@GotSoccer) July 25, 2015
So I just got back from UNC's exhibition vs Winthrop. UNC looks to be playing a 4-3-3 this year. The first half had Zach Wright playing the center forward. And basically glued to the spot, he never dropped back and didn't really interchange with either wing, notably USYNTer Alan Wynn. Last year when they both played Wynn spent more time in the center. Wright is going to have to work on his strength, though. If Winthrop can knock him off the ball, the ACC defenders are going to kill him. Andy Lopez (Mikey's brother) apparently red-shirted last year so he's still got four years. 10 of the 11 starters played the first half. Lopez came on at the half with the second string. He played wide on the front line, swapping left and right with the other winger (the center forward is one of the 6'5" Hume twins). Interestingly, Lopez took the free kicks and corner kicks while I was there. Lopez scored the go ahead goal about halfway through the second half. That's when I started packing my gear. It was a tap in after the goalkeeper had spilled/parried the ball in the six.
http://www.recklesschallenge.net/maryland-freshmen-shine-in-exhibition-win-over-providence/ Article says Zach Wright scored in Carolina's preseason game vs No. 21 Coastal Carolina.
http://www.sportingkc.com/academy/teams Sporting posted the Acadamy team's online for the upcoming season. Just looking through the roster it looks like we really are becoming more "regional" with many kids from Nebraska and other surrounding areas. Couple of kids from Tennessee, the Carolina's, Nigeria (yep), Hawaii, Rhode Island. I guess some of those kids could have moved with family for non soccer related reasons and found their way to the Acadamy, but I know some others were playing with our affiliates (like the Nebraska and Tennessee kids) and either they relocated themselves or their entire family relocated to be a part of the Acadamy. This is likely what we need to continue to do to compete with the talent rich areas like SoCal, Texas, NY, etc. Good luck boys! Sporting KC Academy @SKCAcademy Overall, very promising start to preseason! Long road ahead but there is much excitement, potential and buzz around in these groups!
http://www.sportingkc.com/academy/residential Interesting! I actually thought it would be better than this. They're just getting more out of town kids and need help ... to me ... "residential acadamy" means the club is providing the housing for those players as a recruitment tool. This is just "assisted living" for athletes. Don't get me wrong, this means the demand and ability to attract out of town kids to their acadamy teams is growing ... but this needs to grow into something they want to invest in as a club and provide boarding opportunities and either start a school or partner with a local one.
http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2015/08/24/18/07/150824-coaching-player-development-initiatives-rel Will be interesting to see this effect on not just the academy but soccer in the US in general. Especially at the younger ages and the age group changes.
In terms of impact, I see the calendar year change as a small administrative change that will be a short tem headache at the local level, but should result in a net positive for US Soccer long term as clubs/ODP/US soccer all look at the same pool of players to fill the same teams. Luckily, my son's club (ESI) has already adjusted and we'll be spared the headache during tryouts next year. The bigger impact to soccer development in the US will be from the small sided game decision. That should have a huge impact for player development. Heartland generally did a good job of keeping games small sided, but when we have traveled south, we have entered tournaments that had 11 v 11 brackets for U9 and U10 teams! Imagine how few touches a U9/10 winger or wide mid gets in an 11 v 11 game. Get that down to 7 v 7 like the federation wants, and those kids see the ball more and get more chances to make an impact on the game.
http://www.goheels.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3350&ATCLID=210303790 A couple familiar names making some plays for a top 5 team in College Soccer!
I just went back and looked at the Academy rosters for this upcoming season ... one name I didn't see was Elvir Ibisevic. That would a kid from Sporting Iowa that ended up playing a few games for our U16's last year at the end of the year ... Figured we'd see him on a roster this year full time? Anyone know anything interesting to add?
This article about his commitment to UNO says he's in the U.S. soccer residency program. http://www.omavs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=31400&ATCLID=210264594#.VcwWyVInP88.twitter
Wright scored again for UNC this weekend, against Tulsa. Also De Julio and creighton are #1 in a couple of polls now fwiw
Academy teams playing very well, especially the U16's at 4-0 in their USSDA season (17 GS, 4 GA). The U18's are 3-1 with the recent result against the Dallas Texans going against them (3-2) late in stoppage time (17 GS, 5 GA on the season). The U14's picked up their first result of the year (2-2) vs the Dallas Texans after losing their first 2 games of the season to the Colorado Rapids. The U13's and U12's are both 5-0-1 in their regional leagues. And as Buzz keeps us informed, the College kids are making noise. I think I saw Piatczyc connect with Stephenson for an all SKC assist/goal combo for WVU. Piatczyc has 9 assists in 9 games this year to match his 2014 assist total in 9 fewer games (lot of nines in there so I hope I got it right).
Looks like Wright had 2 more against UNC-Wilmington yesterday as well. Could be one to keep an eye on for a Sporting Park Rangers spot?!
My guess is that at this point he winds up in the SuperDraft. A very good effort last night, but he really needs to show consistency. If that comes, watch out. Andy Lopez's minutes seem to be slipping, and he missed a sitter in the last 20 seconds of the game.
Good to know, I thought there were a designated number of years that a player needed to be in the Academy and I didn't know if he had reached that before leaving for college. It would be nice to sign him to the SKC2 squad directly or as a HG and "loan" him there. We're a bit void of forwards at the moment!
Having and using are two different things. If he left college right now, I'm not sure I'd waste an HG on him. If he continues to improve and gain consistency, and more importantly show quaility in ACC and NCAA tournament games, then I'd reconsider.
Now that we have a team in USL ... anyone have any thoughts on how some of the SKC "Juniors" either still in the academy or playing in college may fit into the team? I'm assuming we'll see a couple at least? How about it Buzz, your recent Acadamy players in College post got me looking at that again. De Julio seems like a solid fit?