I think you'll enjoy this feature I wrote on Jonathan Top. He's traveled with FCD to Vancouver and could make his debut on Saturday. Thanks for reading!
Would have liked to have seen him in the last 10 minutes. I guess the Hedges sub had a bit of logic but just go for it like Dir used to ages ago with four forwards at the same time (the old four-headed monster).
It was a rhetorical question. After seeing how Hyndman has refused to play them, I've changed my mind about the academy. Any kid going forward would be a fool to sign.
Doing so outright would be illegal collusion, but it would be nice to have a college coach who shares our team's style and philosophy and send our academy players their, essentially extending their development with touches in a competitive setting.
Which is why we have the Reserve team - and increased competitions for them beginning this year, as well as the ability for any signings to continue to play with the Development Academy while they are still age eligible (ie U-18)
Aren't teams restricted on the number of homegrowns on their rosters? And the reserve league is ten games spaced out over a great deal of time. Excuse me for wanting to diversify opportunities.
As homegrowns where they don't count against the roster? Yes, I believe it is six and FCD has six. They could move them to the regular roster and fill the whole team if they wished. It does seem to be too slow but I see some of them inching up glacially.
When does Leyva's contract expire? They probably need to make a decision on him pretty soon, no? He signed in 2009, so it'll be 3 years this fall.
They play 1/2 and full games during pre-season, scrimmages with the first team, teams in the area and misc teams coming into Dallas. They also play in some of the US Open Cup. At least that's what they have done in the past. I believe the reserve team played the Rio Grande Cup last year. Also, some of them play for misc Junior Natl Teams including Mexico and the U. S. If they really wanted a college education one would think they would go that route for 2-4 years. Then go pro. They could still work out with FCD during the summer.
I don't think there's any homegrown restrictions anymore. If you notice, every player Dallas has signed so far has been hispanic and I believe a big part of that is players with Mexican heritage can be signed by the Tigres and Monterrey's of the world and the players will not count against their foreign player limit. There's a few guys in college(Woodberry, Baladez) for FC Dallas who are non-hispanic that could probably make an impact on the roster, but, at least in Woodberry's case, they're going to finish out their school. It's an interesting dynamic to everything. Every player has a different path and there's no perfect solution.