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.
Pictures & Video From This Week’s Training
RSL-AZ players have been working hard this week during their spring break. Below are some pictures from this week’s training. They also played a cross and finish game and if you missed the hilarious video make sure to watch it below.
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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.”
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RSL-AZ Goalkeepers Performing Well In 2013 – Pictures
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Here at the Grande Sports Academy we have noticed a lack of GK presence on the site. Well we are going to change that right now.
Since Jan. 1st, 2013 our U18 academy goalies have only allowed 7 goals in 6 games while recording 2 clean sheets. On the U16 side the goalies have only allowed 6 goals in 6 games while recording 3 clean sheets.
On the elite side our GK’s have helped the U16’s win the Desert Classic and advance to the quarterfinals in the Presidents’ Day Cup. On the Elite U18 side the GK’s helped the team by going 3-1 in tournament play.
Goalkeeper coach Ignacio Hernandez talks about what they have been working on over the past few months saying, “The guys have been working hard. From the beginning I have been emphasizing 4 different points of improvement. Communication skills, foot skills, how to play out of the back and balls in the air. They have performed well in all of these.”
Congratulations goalkeepers for all the great and hard work.
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RSL Elite U16 & U18 Recap From Presidents’ Day Cup
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The U16 and U18 RSL Elite teams had impressive showings at the Presidents’ Day Cup hosted by SC del Sol over this past weekend. Even though both teams failed to win the championship for their age group the players and teams looked impressive throughout the tournament. Below are recaps for each team
RSL U18 Elite
Check out the U18 picture gallery from the tournament
Going into the tournament RSL knew their opening game was going to be tough. SC del Sol, one of the strongest teams in the tournament, defeated them 3-1, with two goals coming from set pieces. Based of the way the tournament is set up the loss to SC del Sol eliminated RSL from advancing to the next round. The team responded to this by winning their next three games and were so dominant in their final game against Colorado United the opposing teams Head Coach asked the referee to end the game ’18 minutes early.
Quotes from the tournament:
Martin Vasquez – What do you take away from the tournament? “We were disappointed when we went to Surf Cup because we did not take the opportunity to do well in a very prestigious tournament. This tournament is very prestigious coming in and one of the goals was we need to show better because there are a lot of college coaches here along with good teams. Obviously we wanted to go to the final and the first game was against the best team in the tournament. A tie would have been great because that gives us an opportunity to advance but we lost and it essentially eliminated us. The approach we took after this game was make the best of it in the next three games. Three wins when they obviously were the best team, no doubt. Individually some of them had a great tournament and our forwards scored a lot of goals it was a big plus. We take away a big plus from this tournament and knowing the next tournament is even tougher Dallas Cup we know that we’re heading in the right progression that we are taking.
Eric Gonzalez – You’re thoughts on the tournament. “It was a little disappointing in the end for us but the tournament itself wasn’t too bad. We played a couple of decent teams and in the first game we were unlucky that we couldn’t get a better result. It cost us the tournament but the team put a good effort and were happy with that.”
Aiden Tucker – You scored 5 goals, how does this feel and what are your thoughts? “It feels good. We played well this whole tournament especially the last three games we played as a team. Together we kept possession and this is the way we played and we did a really good job and if we keep doing it in practice we can do it in Dallas Cup as well.”
Friday, February 15th, 2013
U18 RSL Elite vs SC del Sol 98 Boys Armstrong (AZ) – 6:00pm, 1-3
Saturday, February 16th, 2013
U18 RSL Elite vs MN Thunder Academy Elite 94/95 (MN) – 1:45pm, 5-0
Sunday, February 17th, 2013
U18 RSL Elite vs Calgary Foothills 95s (CND) – 8:30am, 4-1
U18 RSL Elite vs Colorado United White 6005 (CO) – 1:45pm, 4-0
RSL U16 Elite
Check out the U16 picture gallery from the tournament
RSL U16 Elite wanted to build on their previous tournament championship victory last week. In the first game the team losing came back from a Duncan Storey strike and a Miles Stary header. After this RSL cruised to victories in their next two games winning their group and securing a place in the quarterfinals. Playing against SC del Sol in the QF’s, RSL looked strong throughout the games. A finesse shot by Tevin Lowe just outside of the 18 with his left foot gave RSL a 1-0 lead. They held on for the rest of the match advancing to the semifinals. This matchup was against Colorado Rush. After a nail-biting first half controlled by Rush, RSL started to pick up the pace in the second half. Tired legs ultimately doomed them as Rush scored the game winning goal with 10 minutes left. RSL sent everything they had forward and a last second header by Tevin Lowe was blocked by the Rush GK.
Quotes from the tournament:
Assistant Coach Michael Kraus – How do you some up the tournament and how has this team grown? “It was positive. It was physically exhausting playing 5 games in three days and it took a toll on them but mentally they battled last night. Today they battled for a good part of the game. when we still got behind we had the energy and mental toughness to push at the end and try to even it out. Over the last 6 months they have been getting better and playing much better soccer. The results weren’t there in the beginning but now they are playing good soccer and have combined the mental toughness and mental fortitude to go with it and now the results are coming.
Miles Stray – What is your take on the tournament? “It’s positive because in the beginning of the year we played a lot of these teams and didn’t do very well, tying or losing. We came back and it kinda summed up the fact that we have progressed over the 6 months that we have been here. It is about winning and we want to win. But the main point is to become better and get to that next level.
Miguel Martinez – Tough loss, how do you feel the team did? “We had really good games did what we could. We played our best after all but we were just tired and they were more mentally tough than us.”
Friday, February 15th, 2013
U16 RSL Elite vs Real Colorado National (CO) – 7:45pm, 2-1
Saturday, February 16th, 2013
U16 RSL Elite vs Ballistic SC U16 Boys (ID) – 8:45pm, 2-0
Sunday, February 17th, 2013
U16 RSL Elite vs LV Premier ’97B White (NV) – 12:00pm, 6-2
U16 Quarterfinals – U16 RSL Elite vs SC del Sol 97 – 7:oopm, 1-0
Monday, February 18th, 2013
U16 Semifinals – RSL U16 Elite vs Rush Colorado – 10:15am, 0-1