San Jose Earthquakes Academy is on its way!

True. Tomo Allen was named to the MLS Next All Star game last summer, and some prospect watchers have Tomo Allen as a top 50 prospect for the US across all age groups and not just with MLS teams but including all the kids at Euro clubs. But maybe the org that favored Gilbert Fuentes over Nick Lima disagrees with that evaluation.

 

If anything they should have been playing him with The Town last year to see how he looks against the next level of competition. We didn't have to have Julian Donnery taking all those minutes. As it was I think Tomo played about 20 minutes and had about one touch with The Town. Same with Chance Cowell.

 

actions speak louder than words lol

Bruce believes 💫 pic.twitter.com/FiQREfYvwv

— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) February 24, 2025

 

FWIW Rajan Rajagopal also made the MLS Next All-Star game and got a start or 2 with The Town at the end of the year. And he looked pretty good. And he was signed as a Homegrown. So it's not like the Quakes never sign promising young players.

 

That's great but Allen is considered a top prospect and Rajagopal isn't... but maybe the Quakes don't see it that way. Also they play different positions so it's not like the Quakes have to choose between the two.

 

Well the Quakes have made a call - they see these guys every day and they know what kinds of things the player wants to do as well. We can't claim to know everything based on pundits' "rankings".

 

Do we know that Allen hasn’t made his own decision to put off pro options for the time being?

 

No I don't think we know that.

 

no Quakes kids (attn Luchi)

 

https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...s-west-region-talent-identification-mini-camp

.@ussoccer will hold its first regional mini-camp of 2025 as part of the #U14BNT Talent Identification Program.

Eighty players from the West Region will gather at the Elite Athlete Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif. from Feb. 27-March 3.

— U.S. Soccer YNT (@USYNT) February 28, 2025

U.S. UNDER-14 BOYS’ WEST REGION TID MINI-CAMP ROSTER BY POSITION:
Goalkeepers (8): Jared Figueroa (Albion SC Merced; Turlock, Calif.), Zorian Hickson (Real Salt Lake - Arizona; Mesa, Ariz.), Brady Kalletta (Crossfire Academy; Redmond, Wash.), Mario Occhialino (Soccer Chance Academy; Portland, Ore.), Jacob Ramirez (Los Angeles Surf Soccer Club; Chatsworth, Calif.), Sidney Schwartz (Rebels Soccer Club; El Cajon, Calif.), Luca Shevchenko (Los Angeles Galaxy; Westlake Village, Calif.), Thomas White (San Jose Earthquakes; Atherton, Calif.)

Defenders (24): Reggie Bailey (San Jose Earthquakes; Pleasanton, Calif.), Alexander Carbajal (Chula Vista Futbol Club; Escondido, Calif.), Aidan Carlos (Los Angeles FC; Rialto, Calif.), Christopher Chan (Los Angeles Bulls Soccer Club; Los Angeles, Calif.), Ayden Chavez (Las Vegas Sports Academy; Las Vegas, Nev.), Drake Dalton (Folsom Surf; El Dorado Hills, Calif.), Joshua Engel (San Jose Earthquakes; San Francisco, Calif.), Raul Garcia (Sacramento United Competitive Soccer Club; Sacramento, Calif.), Zachary Green (Oregon Premier FC; Lake Oswego, Ore.), Jaethan Irwin (Phoenix Rising FC; Phoenix, Ariz.), Midas Leco (SoCal Reds FC; Paramount, Calif.), Matthew Leone (Los Angeles Galaxy; Long Beach, Calif.), Wilson Mazariegos (San Jose Earthquakes; Novato, Calif.), Christian Nunez (Columbia Premier Soccer Club; Medford, Ore.), Easton Odom (Rebels Soccer Club; La Mesa, Calif.), Gabriel Rincon (FC Portland; Hillsboro, Ore.), Brayden Shen (Walnut Creek Surf SC; Concord, Calif.), Giovanni Tamayo (Venice Beach FC; Downey, Calif.), Ryan Tamm (SC del Sol; Phoenix, Ariz.), Mason Washington (Los Angeles FC; Lancaster, Calif.), Owen White (Crossfire Academy; Bonney Lake, Wash.), Takeo Willis (Crossfire Academy; Redmond, Wash.), Wes Wolfley (Phoenix Rising FC; Peoria, Ariz.), Mason Zeitler (Eastside FC; Seattle, Wash

Midfielders (25): Yulian Benitez (Next Level Soccer- Arizona; Gilbert, Ariz.), Jonathan Bustamante (Total Futbol Academy; Lynwood, Calif.), Caden Cortes (Total Futbol Academy; Orange, Calif.), Kash Held (Barca Residency Academy; Naperville, Ill.), Kevin Curiel Huerta (FC Bay Area Surf; Manteca, Calif.), Calen Dean (Seattle United; Seattle, Wash.), Jesus Esparza (Sacramento Republic FC; Woodland, Calif.), Xavi Garcia (Modesto Ajax United; Modesto, Calif.), Owen Hansen (Portland Timbers; Portland, Ore.), Gian Hurtado (Eastside FC; Seattle, Wash.), Bryson Lopez (Sacramento Republic FC; Vacaville, Calif.), Darwin Lopez (Unattached), Logan Navarro (Strikers FC; Lakewood, Calif.), Jordan Nguyen (Oregon Surf Soccer Club; Lake Oswego, Ore.), Tobias O'Connor (Pacific Northwest SC; Seattle, Wash.), Ethan O'Neil (Rebels Soccer Club; San Diego, Calif.), Damian Perez (Legends FC; Colton, Calif.), Thiago Romany (Los Angeles Galaxy; Toronto, Canada), Diego Ros (Barca Residency Academy; Casa Grande, Ariz.), Nat Saffiedine (Murrieta Soccer Academy; Winchester, Calif.)Marlon Sanchez (Los Angeles FC; Alhambra, Calif.), Christian Vanney (Los Angeles Galaxy; Redondo Beach, Calif.), Julian Villa (FC Bay Area Surf; San Jose, Calif.), Levi Welch (Los Angeles FC; Los Angeles, Calif.), Nasir Yasin (Crossfire Academy)

Forwards (23): Fekadu Assefa (Saints Soccer Academy; Portland, Ore.), Easton Becker (Columbia Premier Soccer Club; Camas, Wash.), Grant Choi (Seattle United; Bellevue, Wash.), Daniel Gyabaah (Los Angeles Galaxy; Orange, Calif.), Mason Jackson (Strikers FC; San Marcos, Calif.), Jeffrey Lara (San Jose Earthquakes; San Francisco, Calif.), Jude Larbi (Eastside FC; Redmond, Wash.), Alexander Luna (Stanislaus United Soccer Club; Modesto, Calif.), Brandon Marcial Vazquez (Chula Vista Futbol Club; San Diego, Calif Alejandro Martinez (Portland Timbers; Gresham, Ore.), Cash Mckeever (Vail Soccer Club; Vail, Ariz.), Anthony Merida (Los Angeles FC; Los Angeles, Calif.), Ian Miller (Eastside FC; Tigard, Ore.), Owen Northup (Pateadores SC; Orange, Calif.), Jonathan Placensia (Total Futbol Academy; Riverside, Calif.), Troy Raneses (Sacramento Republic FC; Folsom, Calif.), Jayden Rivero (Los Angeles Galaxy; Las Vegas, Nev.), Oliver Rowan (Marin FC; Mill Valley, Calif.), Bryson Smith (Murrieta Soccer Academy; Wildomar, Calif.), Jayden Staines (Sacramento Republic FC; Sacramento, Calif.), Carson Starrett (Barca Residency Academy; Chandler, Ariz.), Isaac Suazo (Los Angeles FC), Juan Pablo Torres (San Jose Earthquakes; Lindsay, Calif.)

 

How about this....

Soccer America Daily
New MLS Next tier welcomes more than 220 youth clubs and academies
by Paul KennedyMarch 1, 2025



MLS Next introduced the programs participating in its new competition tier (second level) with over 1,300 teams from more than 220 clubs and academies competing in regional divisions.

Each regional division will be managed by league operators, including the National Academy League, Elite Academy League, Sporting Development League, Cobalt Sports and Cal North Soccer Association.


Northern California
Operated by Cal North Soccer Association
AC Marin Vision
ALBION SC Merced
Almaden FC
Atletico Santa Rosa
Ballistic United
Breakers FC
Burlingame Soccer Club
De Anza Force
Diablo Valley Futbol Club
Elk Grove Soccer
FC Bay Area Surf
Lamorinda Soccer Club
Los Gatos United Soccer Club
Napa United
Palo Alto Soccer Club | Silicon Valley Soccer Academy
Sacramento United
San Francisco Glens SC
San Francisco Seals
Woodside Soccer Club Crush

 

Chicago Fire: "the team has 15,000 youth kids in Fire-provided programs, top of mls"

Wonder how the Quakes compare... I assume quite far down the list.

Chicago Fire owner Joe Mansueto notes the team has 15,000 youth kids in Fire-provided programs, top of mls. Calls ownership of team "a civic project." Says "this is for Chicago." Says playing and training in city will help club's relevance pic.twitter.com/a2JLtXdpPt

— Tim Hotze (@sing_electric) March 3, 2025

Great stadium location too

 

Not even a blip on the radar...

 

U17 roster, no current Quakes one former (Oliver Tan)


Goalkeepers (2): William Lodmell (Sporting CP/POR; Lisbon, Portugal), Aidan Stokes (New York Red Bulls; Totowa, N.J.)

Defenders (8): Miguel Alvarado (Colorado Rapids; Commerce City, Colo.), Micah Harris (Houston Dynamo FC; Houston, Texas), Ian James (Sporting Kansas City; St. Paul, Minn.), Enrique Martinez (LA Galaxy; Compton, Calif.), Zach Molomo (FC Dallas; McKinney, Texas), Oliver Tan (FC Famalicao/POR; Piedmont, Calif.), Gio Villa (Real Salt Lake; Chicago, Ill.), Bennett Wilp (Union Berlin; Berlin, Germany)

Midfielders (5): Isaiah Kaakoush (FC Dallas; Chandler, Ariz.), Kellan LeBlanc (Philadelphia Union; Royersford, Pa.), Evan Lim (New York City FC; Cedar Grove, N.J.), Jack Mize (Borussia Dortmund/GER; New York City, N.Y.), Logan Moniz (FC Boston Bolts; Assonet, Mass.)

Forwards (5): Mathis Albert (Borussia Dortmund/GER; El Segundo, Calif.), Lionel Gitau (Houston Dynamo FC; Houston, Texas), Vitaliy Hlyut (Chicago Fire FC; Roselle, Ill.), Eric Preston (LA Galaxy; Richmond, Calif.), Tanner Rosborough (New York Red Bulls; McDonald, Pa.)

https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...avels-to-take-on-costa-rica-twice-in-san-jose

 

For those that follow the academy closely, why is it that we sign some players who by all account are highly touted like Cruz Medina and then nothing really comes of it, why does he not get a shot with the first team, we seemed to have quite a few prospects who never get to the first team, play out their contracts at the Town Fc and move on and nothing comes of it. To me i would rather see Medina, or Verhoeven in the 18 than Harkes for example.

 

I think as a manager you have to balance "win now" with "develop your team". If you only do "win now" and you don't develop your young players you're going to continue to have to overpay for aging veteran players and you won't get those young players on the rise who are playing way above their contracts. If you do too much "develop your team" it's going to be hard to win in the short to medium term, and can the Quakes survive another terrible season.

I think Bruce is more of a "win now" guy, with the caveat that he won't hesitate to play a young player if he thinks he can help the team now. IOW he may not be willing to take short term hits, but if it's a young player that he thinks can help us, he won't hesitate to play them. So we have Beau and Ricketts in there starting but guys like Medina and Verhoeven are on the outside looking in. Luchi had a reputation for being a "develop your team" guy but he actually didn't do it much. When the losses started piling up, he was desperate for wins and you could forget about developing players.

I think if we stick with the 4-2-3-1 kind of setup, Verhoeven will probably get some minutes to spell Lima. He was on the bench last game or two. Medina is not so cut and dried a case. He was made captain and starting CAM last year with The Town, played most of the games last year and somehow wound up with 0 assists on the year. And this is a guy who's supposed to have really good vision and creativity. I'm sure he's getting frustrated - he did get some playing time with the 1st team in 2024 preseason but that progress seems to have been in reverse this year. He's still only 18 - he was only 17 when he was captain last year. I think he's gotta be patient and keep his nose to the grindstone and see if he can take his game up a notch to get Bruce's attention. At this point, assuming Bruces stays 2-3 years, it's all gonna come down to that - how much Bruce rates him.

 

Appreciate you insight on this , makes sense trying to win now , but also develop the younger players for the future and finding the right balance.

 

I can't like this enough. Particularly in a league like MLS where there is no real penalty to losing (i.e. relegation) there is little downside to better integration with the up and comers and some real potential upside (i.e. selling on)...

 

This BBC article has a sobering fact:

It's a familiar story. There are an estimated 1.5 million players playing organised youth football in England at any one time - but only around 180 of those will make it as a Premier League professional.
​

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0egr1nj9qpo

 

Oh no, most of those kids will have to become productive members of society, or alternatively lawyers.

 

Wouldn't there be similarly "sober" statistics for every sport in every country?
How would the majority of kids who play some sport even end up playing professionally, what would that looks like, tens of thousands of pro sports teams that are absolute garbage?

 

Recently I saw a quote from the CEO of some AI music generating company. He was saying basically that "people don't enjoy going thru the trouble of making music by hand" - practicing an instrument, using audio workstations to record, mix, etc. Man, he really does not get it. The journey is the reward.

 

Of course. As I’ve pointed out a few times, Dr Harry Edwards pointed out decades ago how harmful it was that Black youth believed pro sports was the best way out of poverty, because the odds of going pro are so miniscule.

 

He also said "I learned through sports never to allow my circumstances to limit the reach or the scope of my dreams." The journey is the reward.

 

Quakes should sign Tomo Allen to a homegrown deal

🇺🇸 Tomo Allen (‘07) scores his first professional goal 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/uP2bW5C0ix

— American Ultras Talk (@usmntaut) March 27, 2025