I know nothing about this guy other than what you posted here, but this seems like exactly the type of player that might not have a pro pathway, have to go play college soccer, and emerge at 21-22 from college soccer. Now these players can sign in a pro environment before they hurt their development with the college soccer schedule.
The Revs signed '01 DM Dennis Ramirez to a USL contract. He's a local academy kid from a place out-of-towners love to mispronounce: Waltham, MA. https://www.revolutionsoccer.net/po...ion-ii-sign-academy-midfielder-dennis-ramirez
As of Jan 25, Alfonso Vazquez was 17. That means he's likely an '02 unless his birthday is in January. But I think that's unlikely if he's a HS senior. https://www.hartfordathletic.com/news_article/show/1080738
The final two opening week games I watched were Reno-Tacoma and San Antonio-Real Monarchs. Reno: JT Marcinkowski ('97): Looked good. No mistakes. Made a few saves. Looked to be in complete control of the game. He probably should be at the point where he's getting a chance to start in MLS. Gilbert Fuentes ('02): He had some good sequences, and also scored a goal. I don't know about how his athleticism is going to play at the MLS level. He's a well-below average athlete to the point where it might become a problem. At this level it's enough of a problem. Tacoma: Trey Muse ('99): His fundamentals looked very problematic. He had two shots go right through him that he should've saved rather easily. He did make some very nice saves, and I thought he looked good aside from that, but he clearly still needs some work on his game before he can be relied upon to play MLS games. Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez ('02): He was playing LW, so he wasn't being utilized well. I liked the pace he was playing at, and he was thinking the game well, but he wasn't able to have much of an impact on the game. I've not been thrilled with what I've seen of how Seattle wants to use him. Their starting CF is no taller than AOC, so clearly the issue can't be his height. Why is he playing out of position in the reserve team and a journeyman USL player (Dhillon) is making the bench instead of him? Josh Atencio ('02): He played very well. He was spraying the ball around from deep, and was also able to be the catalyst for a goal with an incisive pass. I've liked his play in USL the few times I've seen him play in this league, and I think he looks ready to be moving up to MLS minutes, yet he's still without an MLS contract. It doesn't make sense to me. Real Monarchs: David Ochoa ('01): It's worth mentioning him because he's a relevant name, but he didn't do anything out of the ordinary in this game. There's not a whole lot to say. It was a nondescript performance. Milan Iloski ('99): He linked the game well, not a bad athlete, can play some passes, but not an incredibly creative or dynamic player for an attacker. I could see him carving out a career in MLS, but I think carving out an MLS career is his ceiling. San Antonio: Jose Gallegos ('01): Very impressive performance. I thought he was the best player on the field. He had complete control of the game, and had a few sequences of ability that the other players on the field aren't capable of. He didn't contribute any goals or assists in this game, but he nearly did on a few occasions, and he put in a really complete performance on both sides of the ball.
AOC is around 5'10-6ft and around 130 lbs. Justin Dhillon is 6'4 185 lbs. Dhillon is a tank. That's why AOC is playing out wide when Dhillon is on the roster.
I watched some of the Tacoma game last night, and in what I saw I thought the style of play wasn’t so bad looking, which is encouraging. Looked like how the Sounders play, which is obviously something we want to see. If it came to it a lot of these players Individually could plug into the full team, and even while not necessarily having the quality, they wouldn’t look out of place.
Hunter Ashworth, a '98 who has played for NZYNTs, went pro with USL Pittsburgh. Edit: If I understand things correctly, he was at UCSB for four years, though only played three seasons, taking a redshirt year in 2020; I guess in that sense, he's bypassing a year of eligibility, though maybe he finished up his studies, too, or plans to.
USL Championship Temporarily Suspends Play pic.twitter.com/lUwfXvnIbl— USL Championship (@USLChampionship) March 12, 2020
I don't disagree. I think that if you have a 1995 and they are playing at the USL level for essentially a MLS youth side you need to cut him loose. MLS could have produced some solid center backs but decided to bench guys like Erik Palmer-Brown and Connor Donovan.
My bigger problem is that AOC’s height would be a reason why he’s not playing CF. I think if we start moving players such as AOC, Ferreira, Araujo from their natural positions because of their height, we shouldn’t be surprised if these players don’t pan out and we end up having a shortage of players at CB (like we currently have) and potential eventual shortages at CM and CF.
In my new piece today, I spoke with San Antonio FC #10 Jose Gallegos who is arguably the best teenager in USL right now and someone who holds big ambitions his club, the U-20s, and later on the biggest stages. https://t.co/RwJT2NTXbw— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) April 21, 2020
It seems the LAFC academy director is saying the team was/is planning for a USL League One side (perhaps called LAFC II). Was planned for 2021 but now may be on hold given what is happening. It's a Spanish-language podcast, so hopefully someone with better understanding than me can listen. 1253099449158701057 is not a valid tweet id
That quote at the end pretty much says what you said. He said that with the current situation everything is changing but they're not going to forget about it. He also said they're fighting for pro/rel at the academy level, which implies that it wouldn't be an exclusive league.
I imagine, with LAFC's resources, it comes down to do they want to pay people now when there's a decent chance it may be over a year before anyone plays in front of crowds.
Inbox: USLC & USL1 will "await further guidance" on possible timing of return to play, while the USL2 season is cancelled, with some kind of regional exhibition schedule a possibility.
With any luck, all threads will be DaMarcus Beasley threads some day. Beasley's future is beginning to come into focus. In conjunction with the United Soccer League (USL), he is putting together an investment group that will acquire a League One franchise -- the third tier of America's soccer pyramid -- in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana. https://www.espn.com/soccer/usl-cha...marcus-beasley-usl-franchise-owner-fort-wayne
This post is NBR (non-Beasley-related) though still relevant to this thread: With the expansion and viewing availability of the English Premier League and Champions League, soccer is at our doorstep. In Portland, an ownership group is looking to bring a United Soccer League team to southern Maine. The team would play in USL League One, which is the third highest league in the United States soccer hierarchy below the USL Championship and Major League Soccer. The USL has 12 teams, but has plans to expand drastically. https://bangordailynews.com/2020/05...uld-be-a-good-fit-for-sports-crazed-portland/
Fort Wayne, High Point, and Portland are the three cities that everybody has been talking about in regard to expansion and I believe those cities are where the next expansion will come from, but I am also interested in Wichita and Boise at the USL1 level. I would love for that region to develop some rivalries that would cement a culture in those towns not unlike what has happened in MLS with regional rivalries, even if it is on a smaller scale.
The Wichita-Boise region? That's a 19-hour drive! That ain't a region, that's half the country. It's a shorter drive from San Diego to San Antonio. You could drive from Miami to New York in about the same amount of time. I agree that regional rivalries will help USL grow and both the second and third division levels but they have to be a reasonable distance. Boise, for instance, would need Spokane and/or, say, Jackson Hole or Eugene, OR. Still long drives by Eastern standards, but at least able to be done by supporters if they charter a bus. The mid-size towns in the Northwest after Portland and Seattle are just so damn far apart. Wichita, by contrast, could have Omaha, OKC, Tulsa, Des Moines and an MLS team in KC all a reasonable drive away.
Perception is everything. They think that they are close to each other out there! I listen to the Omaha Union fan podcast. They act like Boise and Wichita are in the neighborhood! But I agree with what you are saying in general. Right now sources in the league are suggesting that Boise and Wichita are real possibilities for league 1 teams. Personally, I will believe it when I see it, but I would love to see that sports loving area get saturated with minor league soccer. The sport is cheap to put on compared to other team sports and would be perfect for those small cities. But yes, distance is alway the issue for a lot of those places.
With Major League Baseball cutting a big chunk of (affiliated) minor league teams, there are some voids to fill and some stadiums available.
The reality is that the upper Great Plains and the northern Mountain West simply do not have many population centers. Even if every viable metro area gets a pro club and are consolidated in one league (i.e. not separated in USL Champ and USL League One), travel will still be considerable. This constantly bothers people who don't like that there's a big blank spot on the map of pro clubs in the country, but ultimately doesn't matter all that much because relatively few people live in that region. The places that can really support a dense network of clubs are the Northeast, Midwest, Southeast, and California.
Yeah, I love highway driving as much as the next American (really!) but if you're playing a night game in Wichita, to say nothing of Boise, you are surely staying overnight before you head back to Omaha. That means hotel rooms and associated expenses for, what, two dozen people at least?