Real Salt Lake U-16’s played Chicago Sockers to a scoreless draw on Wednesday night. RSL needs to defeat FC Dallas on Friday to advance.
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Real Salt Lake U-16’s played Chicago Sockers to a scoreless draw on Wednesday night. RSL needs to defeat FC Dallas on Friday to advance.
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Frisco, TX (June 25, 2013) –Real Salt Lake U16 Academy scored a goal in each half and cruised to a 2-0 victory over FC DELCO in their opening game of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy Playoffs on Tuesday night.
Picture gallery from the game here
Led by the play of Sebastian “Bofo” Saucedo and an aggressive backline, RSL is now tied for first place in their group with FC Dallas who also won their opening game.
RSL’s opening goal was thing a beauty. In the 20th minute, Diego “Diablo” Silva, playing LB, collected the ball near the midline and passed it up to Fito Ovalle while making a run on the wing. Ovalle played it back to Silva, who continued his run, and passed forward to Saucedo who passed it back to Silva. He took two touches and slotted the ball far post. FC DELCO’s defense could do nothing but stare at the new perfect precision passes RSL produced.
Saucedo doubled RSL’s lead 48th minute when he went box-t0-box, after a FC DELCO corner, and fired a screamer from the right side across the face of goal.
FC DELCO pushed players forward as time was running out but physical play led by Justen Glad, Dillon Nino, Jason Eng and Moises Rodriguez thwarted any potential attack DELCO produced.
Unlike their older counterparts, the U-16 team wasted no time establishing their identity early in the game. Early shots by Brooks Lennon, Josh Doughty and Sacuedo threatened the DELCO goal but were all just wide of the net. Fito Ovalle, arguably his best Academy game to date, controlled the middle with poise, crisp passing and constant tackles. He alone stopped numerous DELCO attacks which resulted in the chances RSL had early on.
As the half progressed, DELCO woke up near the end and sent in a few shots that could have equalized the game. The first was in the 26th minute when a dipping ball, heading near post, was saved by a leaping ‘keeper Chase Bishov. Seven minutes later Bishov made the save of the game when an DELCO player had a open look on the left side of the net. Bishov raced out and made himself as big as possible and saved the shot with his feet.
After halftime RSL made two changes. Rodriguez playing LW switched with Silva and Jack Gayton was brought on for Doughty. This proved to be vital as DELCO brought on a few physical players. Their strategy didn’t pay off as Gayton and Rodriguez matched their opponents and essential cut off and stopped any attack DELCO had which forced them to play of the wings.
This worked into RSL’s strength at Glad and Nino cleared every cross and challenged any player who broke free in the middle. RSL continued to play lockdown defense for the remaining minutes in the second half and preserved the shutout giving them the all but important opening victory in group play.
Hungry might be the best way to describe RSL’s performance and if this game was any indication as to how they will play for the remainder of the playoffs coaches will be pleased. Constant praise was coming from the bench for individual performances. With the U-18 team already eliminated from the playoffs the U-16’s look like they are ready to keep things positive going forward for the Real Salt Lake Academy.
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Game recap
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Grande News, Performance News, Real Salt Lake, Soccer Academy
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Grande News, Performance News, Real Salt Lake, Soccer Academy
Thirty-two teams qualified for the playoffs and were divided up into eight groups with four teams per group. The teams in the group will play each other once and the winner of the group will advance to finals week that will be held between July 14-20 in Houston, Texas.
Real Salt Lake Academy teams are one of six teams in the country to have their U-16’s & U-18’s qualify for the playoffs in each of the past three years. Other teams are: CASL Chelsea FC Academy, FC Dallas, Chicago Fire, Concorde Fire, Crew Soccer Academy.
Below is how the teams in RSL’s group finished the 2012-2013 season.
Playoff Finish | Games | W | L | T | PTS | GF | GA | PTS/G | |
Real Salt Lake | #7 | 28 | 19 | 5 | 4 | 61 | 73 | 35 | 2.18 |
DC United | #9 | 25 | 17 | 6 | 2 | 53 | 72 | 29 | 2.12 |
CASL Chelsea FC Academy | #17 | 25 | 14 | 7 | 4 | 46 | 37 | 28 | 1.84 |
St. Louis Scott Gallagher Missouri | WC #11 | 27 | 14 | 9 | 4 | 46 | 50 | 31 | 1.70 |
Previous results for the U18′s:
2011-2012: RSL finished second in the group winning 2 games, losing 1, scoring 4 goals and conceding 2.
2010-2011: RSL finished second in the group winning 2 games,losing 1, scoring 7 goals and conceding 3.
The U16′s go into their group as the second best team. Below is how the teams in their group finished the 2012-2013 season.
FC Dallas | #3 | 27 | 21 | 4 | 2 | 65 | 70 | 18 | 2.41 |
Real Salt Lake | #14 | 28 | 17 | 6 | 5 | 56 | 68 | 34 | 2.00 |
FC DELCO | WC #4 | 25 | 14 | 7 | 4 | 46 | 47 | 29 | 1.84 |
Sockers FC | WC #9 | 27 | 13 | 7 | 7 | 46 | 39 | 22 | 1.70 |
Previous results for the U16′s:
2011-2012: RSL finished second in the group winning 2 games, losing 1, scoring 9 goals and conceding 5.
2010-2011: RSL won their group winning 2 games, drawing 1, scoring 13 goals and conceding 3 goals. In finals week they finished second in their group winning 1 game and drawing 2. They advanced to the third place game and defeated Real So Cal, 8-7, on penalties. Video of that here.
ALL GAMES LOCAL TIME (Dallas)
U18 Schedule
Monday, June 24th
Real Salt Lake vs St. Louis Scott Gallagher Missouri – 9:15pm at FC Dallas Sports Park Field #15
Tuesday, June 25th
Real Salt Lake vs CASL Chelsea FC Academy – 9:30pm at FC Dallas Sports Park Field #15
Thursday, June 27th
Real Salt Lake vs DC United – 11:00am at FC Dallas Sports Park Field #15
U16 Schedule
Tuesday, June 25th
Real Salt Lake vs FC DELCO – 7:15pm at FC Dallas Sports Park Field #12
Wednesday, June 26th
Real Salt Lake vs Sockers FC – 9:00pm at FC Dallas Sports Park Field #9
Friday, June 28th
Real Salt Lake vs FC Dallas – 11:00am at FC Dallas Sports Park Field #7
Grande News, Performance News, Real Salt Lake, Soccer Academy
The U.S. Soccer Development Academy Playoffs kickoff in less than a week for our U-18 & U-16 Academy teams. For a select number of players it will mark the third consecutive year they have qualified for the Playoffs while a few others will be making their second trip. The majority of our players will be making their first ever playoff appearance and here at the Grande Sports Academy we thought it would be interesting to hear from the different groups. Below are quotes from these three different groups of players.
Note: The U-18’s kickoff on Monday and the U-16’s on Tuesday.
Coco Navarro (Third trip to playoffs) – “The past two times were really exciting and this might be my last time with the team this year so I’m looking forward to it and hopefully we get to nationals. But we will take it one game at a time.”
Diego Silva (First trip to playoffs) – “I’m so excited. I’m ready to see our team step up and hopefully we can go to finals week.”
Isaias “Junior” Juarez (Third trip to playoffs) – “Really excited. I think this year has more motivation than other years because this is the last year we have a chance to go out and win the national championship with the guys who have been here for a few years. So I think this year has a lot of special feelings and this is the last year of playing with some of the guys so we want to make it a special year.”
Fito Ovalle (First trip to playoffs) – “Now that we know the teams we’re going to play I’m excited to prepare for them.”
Trevor Hyman (Second trip to playoffs) – “I think the thing that’s really important to realize is that we are taking the same team with us as last year just with 2 extra guys. Tigran Tiraturyan, who’s on the 18’s, we are taking his experience and Jose Hernandez who is a younger guy is really gunning to show what he has at the playoffs. But i think we are realizing that every game really counts and the playoffs are a whole different beast than the regular academy season. We need to set the tone early, score goals and make our name out there.”
Jonathan Stadler (Second trip to playoffs) – “I think this year, the most important thing for us to do is to stay composed and learn from our mistakes last year. We should have advanced last year going off of the knowledge of the first year guys. The guys that have been here for three years believed that they should have made it to nationals and won the championship. They bring a lot of knowledge and experience into that and having played one year before of playoffs helps all of us be better prepared and ready to go into the tournament ready to play and ready to advance.”