Eye on the Academy- March Stock Report

By Pat Eyler

It’s been a while since I've put together a stock report for the players, and a lot has happened in the meantime.  With the regular season approaching, I thought it was a good time to take another look at where things stand.  You might want to read my earlier post on who might play for RSL's upcoming development teams for a bit more insight into how and why the players are ranked the way they are.

The biggest change in my rankings is that Jordan Allen is no longer the top college prospect now that he is a member of RSL’s full men’s team. I've also added a few players based on the rumor that new rules will be created soon to allow MLS teams to sign players to USL Pro teams, and keeping some younger players on a PDL roster.

So, let’s get to it:

Ranking (Former Ranking)	Name	Age Group	Notes
1 (2)	Ricardo Velasquez (MF)	College	Velasquez only has another year or two left in college, but I’m not convinced he’s ready for MLS yet. I think he might get signed to a USL Pro contract for a bit of seasoning
2 (4)	Ive Burnett (D)	College	Burnett is another one who’s more likely to see a USL Pro contract in the near term.
3 (-)	Matt Bersano (GK)	College	RSL’s full team is so deep at GK, that I can’t see them signing someone except to the USL Pro level.  On the other hand, I think they’ll need a USL Pro keeper and the opportunity to bring in an Academy Alum is probably too good to pass up.
4 (3)	Justen Glad (D)	U-16	Justen is a U-16 and has committed to Stanford, but has played (and impressed) with the reserves and full team (as a preseason guest) a couple of times.  He’s probably the most ready to jump into the pros, but I think he’ll play for the Academy and the PDL side for a while before he takes that step.
5 (-)	Andrew Brody (MF)	College	A sophomore this year, Brody is likely to spend some time in the PDL or USL Pro before potentially stepping up to MLS.
6 (5)	Corey Baird (MF)	U-18	Corey is involved w/ the USMNT U-18s and has committed to Stanford, he’s probably bound for a year or two at the PDL side too.
7 (7)	Sebastian Saucedo (F)	U-16	‘Bofo’ has played with the reserve team a couple of times.  He’s another likely PDL player while he gets some college under his belt.  I’m tempted to move him higher up the list, but RSL is awfully deep at forward.
8 (10)	Jose Hernandez (MF)	U-18	The captain of the U-18s and a solid attacker.  He’s another player I think is bound for the PDL before thinking about the pros.
9 (-)	Jack Gayton (MF)	U-18	Probably headed to the PDL team for a couple of years while he plays @ Louisville.
10 (-)	Sam Gleadle (F)	U-18

Eye on the Academy- What is USL PRO and the PDL?

By Pat Eyler

I’ve talked a bit about USL PRO teams and the PDL, but not everyone knows what these two leagues are and how they fit into the bigger picture of US Soccer (and maybe into player development). If I’m going to keep talking about this stuff (and believe me, I am), maybe I should take a little time to explain things.

The US Soccer system, sometimes called a pyramid, is divided into tiers.  This is further complicated by the (sometimes feuding) organizations that control these leagues.  

At the top is Major League Soccer (MLS), the US first division of soccer.  Beneath that is the North American Soccer League (NASL), made up of some of the teams that made up USL1 (a now-defunct league).  The third tier is USL PRO, which is made up of  the remainder of the teams from the old USL 1 and the surviving teams from the USL2.  Under that is the USL Premier Development League(PDL), along with the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) and parts of the Pacific Coast Soccer League (PCSL).  Beneath this there are a variety of club and amateur leagues.

All of these are a part of the US Open Cup tournament. This has historically been the way lower division clubs come the the attention of MLS fans For example the Amateur Cal FC who beat Portland before losing to Seattle in 2012, or the annual friendly between the (PDL) BYU Cougars and Real Salt Lake.  

MLS clubs have also loaned out players to USL PRO and NASL teams to give them playing time and extra development.  This is becoming more formal with an agreement that started this year entangling the USL PRO with MLS Reserves.  The stated intent is that by 2015 every MLS club will either affiliate with an existing USL PRO side, or start one of their own.

The big question now is what is RSL’s plans going forward in regards with this agreement? It is something that we will be following up here on the blog.

Eye on the Academy- Player Stock Report

By Pat Eyler

One of the requests I’ve had was to start building a player stock report for the academy players. Since there are players at two levels at the Academy (and some solid looking alumni), I’m going to split the report into a U16, U18, and Alumni.  I’ll also include a “made it” list for players who have hit the pros and where they are now.

For an initial listing, I’m just going to post the 3 players at each level that I think are most likely to end up playing at the MLS level.  As time goes on, I’ll try to flesh out some more detail on how they’re doing, who’s moving on and off of those lists.

Here we go:

U-16s

Player	Notes
Justen Glad	Has been called into the USMNT U18 camp, and played 183 minutes (including a start) for the RSL Reserves.  In addition to his defensive chops, he recently scored 2 goals against a fellow academy side Arsenal.
Sebastian “Bofo” Saucedo	A constant scoring threat.  Bofo has also played for the RSL Reserves and looked good there.  He scored a brace against Arsenal as well.
Fito Ovalle	Frequently mentioned by Grande Sports for “stout defensive play”, a 40 yard defensive run was singled out in a recent game.

U-18s

Player	Notes
Niki Jackson	A forward who’s been scoring and assisting at the academy.  He’s also scored for the RSL Reserves.  All this despite being new to the team and feeling like “it’s going to take more time to adjust to it.”
Brooks Lennon	Another Academy player to get RSL Reserve minutes.  Lennon has also been called up to the USMNT youth teams.
Corey Baird	Another member of the USMNT U-18s.  Baird is an attacking threat who seems to be involved in a lot of Academy goals.  Check out his goal here against Guatemala earlier this year:

College

Player	Notes
Jordan Allen	Ranked the #3 freshman in the nation, Allen has played 154 minutes for the RSL Reserves, with a start against the Whitecaps during that time.
Ricardo Velasquez	A three-time ACC player of the week, Velasquez has 7 goals and 9 assists this season.
Ive Burnett	A high end defender who’s starting regularly at South Carolina, where he’s also scored a goal. Burnett has played 93 minutes for the RSL Reserves.

So, who did I leave off?  What do you think about these players?

Eye on the Academy- Keeping an Eye on the Alumns

By Pat Eyler

RSL's academy has 40 alumni playing at various levels of college soccer this year. And it’s time for our monthly check in.  I’m going to keep focusing on the same set of players, unless someone crops up as a really interesting alternative.

I think there are seven players that deserve some attention and five of those are freshmen, I’ve dropped Davide Flores (a Junior) who doesn’t seem to be getting much time recently.  Even with a couple of defenders in their midst, they’ve accounted for 20 goals and 28 assists so far this season while playing for pretty good teams.

Player (Yr Pos Games/Starts)	School	Goals	Assists
Jordan Allen (Fr F/D 17/17)	Virginia	2	5
Andrew Brody (Fr M 18/18)	Louisville	3	8
Ive Burnett (Fr D 17/17)	South Carolina	1	0
Phanuel Kavita (Jr D 18/18)	Clemson	0	0
Riggs Lennon (Fr F 6/16)	Virginia	5	1
Coco Navarro (Fr F 17/17)	Marquette	2	5
Ricardo Velazco (So M/F 18/18)	Louisville	7	9
	Total	20	28

There’s also a pretty good keeper out there, Matt Bersano, R-So, GK, Oregon State University: 17 starts, 17 games, 20 goals allowed, 5 clean sheets, 95 saves - those are pretty good numbers. His GAA is up to 1.18 but he’s also climbed to 5.59 saves/game.

Ricardo Velazco was named ACC Offensive Player of the Week for the third time this season - pretty good for a Sophomore.  Andrew Brody has previously been recognized as ACC Rookie of the Week.  

Unfortunately, Velazco and Brody were part of a losing effort in their final game of the season as the Cardinals dropped the first game of the ACC tournament and will not be advancing. Jordan Allen’s Virginia squad are moving on in the ACC tournament after beating Boston College.

Eye on the Academy- Possibilities of a PDL Team

By Pat Eyler

Apparently I’m not the only person thinking that MLS development expanding into the PDL is a good thing. With the San Jose Earthquakes recent entry, there are four MLS teams that also field PDL teams: the aforementioned ‘Quakes, the Chicago Fire, the Portland Timbers, and the Vancouver Whitecaps.  Three more MLS clubs have formal partnership agreements with PDL teams:  New England Revolution (Real Boston Rams), Philadelphia Union (Reading United AC), and Seattle Sounders FC (Sounders FC U-23).

RSL Academy Coach Freddy Juarez recognized that some players  need development beyond what the academy can provide as a U-18 program, “Some players will never make the jump.  Some are ready at 16, 17, or 18.  Some will go on to college and keep developing there.”

In his latest article Leander Schaerlaekens focuses on changes that he thinks college soccer needs to make.  But in laying the foundation, he says something interesting:

The US Soccer Development Academy will soon expand to 100 clubs -- including MLS academies -- in the under-14, under-16 and under-18 divisions which operate according to a tightly regulated set of prescribed best practices. But those clubs offer no bridge to the pro game, the way MLS academies can via the homegrown contract.

Later, he adds:

A better synergy with the professional game could offer a solution. Many MLS academy products are simply not ready for a professional contract and opt to go to college instead. But once he gets there, he can still practice with the club but he can no longer play in his MLS club’s reserve team games. During his college’s summer break he can only play for the under-18s, if he’s still eligible, or the amateur under-23 Premier Development League (PDL) team.

I don’t think Schaerlaekens is calling for a league wide fielding of PDL U-23 teams, but maybe this wouldn’t be a bad thing.  It looks like several of RSL’s Western Conference peers are testing the waters, and from some comments from Coach Kreis perhaps they’re already thinking of it.

Eye on the Academy- Coaching Development

By Pat Eyler

RSL’s academy is something special, but there is always room for growth.  Some of that growth is because of things the academy does on its own.  Some of it comes from the senior team.  I recently found out about a league-wide program that looks poised to help all of the MLS academies.

Lenander Shaerlaekens wrote:

"On Feb. 25, MLS announced a partnership with the French Football Federation designed to bring the 19 MLS teams’ youth academies to a higher level by enrolling one coach from each in the 16-month Elite Formation Coaching License course. Eight weeks of classroom and field instruction culminate in several weeks of observation at the academy of a premier European club with the course completing in May 2014."

Since I haven’t been able to find much more about this program, I went to Grande Sports Academy to see what I could find out.  Coach Freddy Juarez is RSL’s participant in the program.  He was kind enough to talk to me for a few minutes and share his thoughts.

Why is the league doing this?

MLS wants to be one of the best leagues in the world, and they know that they need to make those improvements from the bottom up.  We know that the French Federation is one of the best in the world with respect to player development.  They export the most players in Europe to the professional leagues.  This is a chance to educate us in how they do things.

How have you been involved so far?

Well, it’s an eight week course, it’s very demanding.  We will put in over 900 hours of work by the time the course is over in classroom settings and on the field.

Back in March, I spent the first week of the course, 9 days, in Clairefontaine, France.  After that, I spent time at the Athletic Bilbao's Academy observing their program.

In June, we spent 10 days in here in the States.  And I just got back from 12 more days in Clairefontaine, followed by an observation period at Bordeaux.

There will be two more sessions, the next one will probably be domestic and the last one in Clairefontaine.  We’re supposed to finish next October.

It is great to see the league doing a program like this and that an RSL coach gets to participate. We will continue to follow Coach Juarez and this program and will check back in with him at a later date to see how everything has gone and will report back here.

Eye on the Academy- The Alums

By Pat Eyler

RSL's academy has 40 alumni playing at various levels of college soccer this year.  I’m not even going to try to track all of them, but there are some that really seem to be doing well and I think those are worth focusing on. Lets start with a non-field player:  Matt Bersano, GK, Oregon State University: 12 games, 12 starts, 12 goals allowed, 5 clean sheets, 51 saves - those are just crazy numbers, a 1.0 GAA and 4.25 saves/game. RSL seems to have a real gift when it comes to keepers.

I think there are eight players that deserve some attention and five of those are freshmen.  Even with a defender in their midst, they have accounted for 17 goals and 25 assists so far this season while playing for pretty good teams. In fact, I’m going to point out Eti Tavares as well. Based on his production, could he could stand to play against higher level opponents.

Player (Yr Pos Games/Starts)	School	Goals	Assists
Jordan Allen (Fr F/D 13/13)	Virginia	2	4
Andrew Brody (Fr M 13/13)	Louisville	2	8
Ive Burnett (Fr D 13/13)	South Carolina	1
David Flores (Jr M 5/0)	Loyola Marymount	1
Phanuel Kavita (Jr D 14/14)	Clemson
Riggs Lennon (Fr F 13/6)	Virginia	4	1
Coco Navarro (Fr F 13/13)	Marquette	2	5
Ricardo Velazco (So M/F 13/13)	Louisville	5	7
	Total	17	25
Eti Tavares (So F 20/20)	Arizona Western	5	11

The 5 freshman all show up in Top Drawer Soccer’s midseason ranking the top 100 freshmen in college soccer: Jordan Allen (#3), Andrew Brody (#8), Coco Navarro (#31), Riggs Lennon (#37), and Ive Burnett (#97).

Several of these players have put in reserve stints for RSL and impressed there.  Some have seen Junior National Team minutes as well. I wouldn't mind seeing some of these guys playing for an RSL run PDL team during their college summers, and someday maybe wearing the jersey of the full team.  I wonder what their college coaches would think of them getting more of the RSL family grooming that helped them hone their games thus far.