RSL Development Team Squad Forecast

By Pat Eyler

Some of the most interesting news coming out of this off season was the many teams that announced information about their plans for USL Pro teams. The question for the RSL fan base has been when will the team announce final plans for their USL Pro team?

News on this front has started to trickle out the past few weeks. From information given at some of the town hall meetings to discussions taking place on the latest On Frame show as well as some comments by Garth Lagerwey to the Salt Lake Tribune,  it is sounding like they are trying to get a team ready for the 2015 season (the deadline set by MLS). If everything is to be believed that team will play in San Diego. To go along with this news were some comments made on On Frame (and in other places) about creating a PDL team as well.

This is exciting news and I thought it might be interesting to look at who might be on those teams.  I’m going to model both squads on a 23 man roster with 3 goalkeepers, 8 defenders, 8 midfielders, and 4 forwards.  

Until there is more definition around USL Pro/MLS loans/player movement for these reserve sides, it’s hard to know how many players would be moved down to get minutes versus being available for top level gameday rosters.  I’m going to mark 4 players as “loaned” from the MLS club on the USL Pro roster.  I’ll also mark home grown players, who should be protected from being signed by other MLS clubs.

I’m also thinking about this a year or two in the future. Some of the players who are currently in the academy or playing NCAA ball might be playing professionally by that point, so forgive a little fuzziness there. Other MLS clubs are using assistant coaches to help with their developmental teams so I am placing our assistant coaches with our teams as well.

USL Pro coach: Andy Williams (or Daryl Shore)

Goalkeepers: Lalo Fernandez (on loan), Matt Bersano (HG)

Defenders: Rich Balchan (on loan), Aaron Maund (on loan), Ive Burnett (HG)

Midfielders: John Stertzer (on loan), Ricardo Velasquez (HG), Andrew Brody (HG)

Forwards: Benji Lopez (on loan)

PDL coach: Paul Dalglish

Goalkeepers: Christian Herrera (HG), Luis Barraza (HG)

Defenders: Justen Glad (HG), Aaron Herrera (HG)

Midfielders: Miles Stray (HG) Corey Baird (HG), Jose Herandez (HG)

Forwards: Bofo Saucedo (HG), Niki Jackson (HG), Coco Navarro (HG), Sam Gleadle (HG)