With Dallas Cup and spring break now over, things at the Academy are starting to return back to normal. Our players have been working hard this week as a Seattle trip is planned for the Academy teams, U16 & U18 and a Tucson trip, Far West Regional, is scheduled for our U16 Elite team. Below are some pictures from this week’s action. Click on one picture and a slider gallery will appear.
RSL Elite Suffer A Tough Weekend
With three games in three days RSL U18 Elite knew this weekend was going to be tough. After dropping the first game, 0-4, to Carlsbad Elite Boys in California, RSL had to race back to prepare for games on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning at Grande Sports Academy. On 
Saturday afternoon RSL lost to Pumas Premier FC Academy, 0-4, and on Sunday morning RSL fought back from a 2 goal deficit to tie the game, 2-2, going into the half. However, RSL was outdone in the second half when Simi Valley Eclipse scored two more goals defeating RSL, 4-2.
Even with tough results RSL players were optimistic going into every game holding their heads high. RSL at times played fairly well holding their own against every team. Unfortunately miscommunication, errant passes and a few defensive breakdowns gave their opponents opportunities to take of advantage of which reflected in the scoreline.
Throughout the three games GK’s Jaime Payamps and Miguel Martinez made multiple goal saving stops. In RSL’s third game Aiden Tucker scored from a Te Wihongi pass and Eric Gonzalez scored a PK.
With the three losses RSL U18 Elite have been eliminated in the first round of Far West Regional. Results here.
Quotes from the games:
Assistant Coach Tony Bruce – Thoughts on weekend – “Three games in three days is tough. It’s tough to recover and you could see fatigue for us. Balls that went away that normally we don’t give away. A lot of it comes down to fatigue and just mistakes in our half. We continue to play the way we play because that is to continue to develop players. And not just have them do long balls and direct. Even when we are down 2 goals we still try to play and when you are tired and sometimes you are going to make mistakes.”
Aiden Tucker – Goal breakdown – “We had a corner and it was a good play from Te, a good pass on the ground and I tapped it in.”
Adam Ferguson – Thoughts on weekend – “I thought we played hard tough weekend. Three 90 minute games all back to back to back. It was tough but I think our team competed and we did much better than the scorelines show.”
Click on one picture and a slider gallery will appear.
Grande Sports Academy Players At NBA Game
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On Friday night, eleven academy players went up to Phoenix to check out the Suns vs Hawks at US Airways. Before the game the academy players all had some fun shooting some free-throws outside of the stadium and they all had a opportunity to take a picture with the Suns cheerleaders.
After the game the players all went down to the court to take a free-throw. Jack Gayton and Javier Avelar were to two players who made their attempts. It was a fantastic night and all the players had a blast.