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Nation’s best youth teams prepare for Winter Showcase

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                                                                     Photo by ISI Photos

A total of 44 youth programs from around the nation will converge on Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas this weekend for the U.S. Soccer Player Development Academy’s Winter Showcase. Led by five MLS Youth Academies, the showcase will feature a total of 88 games over the course of two days at the Pizza Hut Park youth fields.

College coaches from across the country will join U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley, U.S. Under-20 national team coach Thomas Rongen and new Director of Development Academy scouting Dave Sarachan at the showcase, which will take place on Sunday and Monday.

"We’re anticipating that it will be the best showcase yet as far as the whole package goes," Sarachan told SBI on Thursday. "To have all the best teams in one location is important, but also having the chance for all the coaches to get together in one place over the course of a couple of days is invaluable for sharing information."

Youth teams from the Red Bulls, Columbus Crew, Colorado Rapids, Chicago Fire and D.C. United will compete in the event as well.

Here is a list of the participating clubs.

Created to help establish a more unified system for player youth development in the United States, the Player Development Academy is U.S. Soccer’s first major step toward trying to harness the vast soccer talent in the United States.

"When you take a step back and look at the size and scope of this country, it’s a daunting task," Sarachan said. "It’s not something that’s going to be accomplished in a short period of time, but with the right resources, organization and expertise, we can go a long way toward establishing a better player development system in this country."

For more information on the showcase go to http://www.ussoccer.com/teams/acad/index.jsp.html.

Comments

  1. Forgive my ignorance, but I’ve been around and around the web and cannot figure this out: What, if any, difference is there between Super Y and Development Academy? My U14 son just made a Super Y team and I’ve been doing some research and have found that locally there is also a Development Academy Team formed by a competing club. Any info would be much appreciated!

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  2. One reason the Texas teams will not be participating (just a thought, no actual information) is because they are in the middle of their high school season. Almost every team plays either on Friday or Saturday and many clubs do not practice together often during the HS season. The HS season goes from January untill almost Easter.

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  3. Dano – The Texas youth teams have excused themselves from the Development Academy. You can blame the youth programs down there if you like.

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  4. As an appendage to my above statement, although this is one of those few occasions where it’s nice to have the stadium in the burbs, I would much prefer it in downtown ___ (your city goes here).

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  5. Speaking of Dallas and youth teams, what happened to the Dallas Cup? I thought that was used for scouting youth in the US system. Still this showcase is a smart idea.

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  6. What a cool idea. This is one of those times when you can honestly say that building MLS stadiums outside of city centers is a good idea. Having all of those fields surrounding Pizza Hut Park with an MLS team located there must make for an amazing experience for everyone involved. Hopefully this will lead to deeper American talent in the future, can’t see it hurting.

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