CASA GRANDE, Ariz. – Over 20 players are participating in Real Salt Lake’s fourth annual Pro Combine at the Grande Sports Academy this week. The goal of the RSL Pro Combine is to identify quality players who have flown under the radar for any number of reasons.
RSL Pro Combine alumni include RSL MF Sebastian Velasquez (2011) and current Seattle Sounders FC DF Dylan Remick (2012), Colorado Rapids MF Tony Cascio (2011), Seattle Sounders FC MF Alex Caskey (2011), former New England Revolution MF Michael Roach (2011) and Columbus Crew MF Bernardo Añor (2010). All six above players – as well as three more from the 2010 class – were selected in the MLS SuperDraft.
Real Salt Lake General Manager Garth Lagerwey was on hand and spoke about the importance of the Combine being held in Arizona:
“In a broader sense this is also about us linking up and combining with our Academy staff. Our Academy staff last year said that there was a player, Devon Sandoval, who they really thought was a quality player and wanted us to look at. We brought him into the train with the first team and of course we were able to select him in the second round last year and he did quite really well with us. Events like this and working with our Academy have proven to be successful for us. We had our first Academy player start some games for us this year Carlos Salcedo. We are cautiously optimistic that we may add one and possibly even more Academy players ahead of next season. If that’s the case that’s a credit to the guys down here and the work that they put in. They won the U-16 National Championship this year and there are some special players on that team. The guys down here are doing everything right.”
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