Big Win! Columbus Crew 2, FC Dallas 0-April 1st, 2011

Last night's game was big for the Columbus Crew. After last week's disappointing draw with a weakened New York Red Bull side, the Crew came back in a big way with a 2-0 victory against FC Dallas.

Eddie Gaven Down the Sideline (Josh Couper, www.thecrew.com)

The Crew dominated possession in the first half against a very strong FC Dallas side. Eddie Gaven, my man of the match (I had made that decision even before his goal in 2nd half stoppage time) played with an intensity we have come to expect from him, with outstanding runs down the right-hand side. In my stupidity I dropped Eddie Gaven from my FC Manager fantasy team ESPN.com. Going to have to correct that.

Also, for the third game in a row, Robbie Rogers played very well as Eddie Gaven's complement on the left side, earning an assist on Gaven's goal.

This was the second clean sheet in a row for the Crew. William Hesmer had to make several saves and the back line of Rich Balchan, Chad Marshall, Julius James and Sebastian Miranda held off a strong offensive push by the FC Dallas front line, although much of that push in the 2nd half was due to give-aways by the Crew's defense (see below). Even though the Crew had a one man advantage for almost 57 minutes after Jackson Goncalves of FC Dallas was ejected for a second caution, the 2nd half was a 50/50 affair, with the outcome never until Gaven scored the Crew's 2nd goal in stoppage time.

I like the line-up the Crew started with last night. It was the same as the match against the Red Bull last Saturday, essentially a 4-2-2-1-1. The same personnel started, with the only change being Miranda and Balchan switching sides. The Crew created plenty of chances, although they still struggle getting off quality shots in the penalty box. But first order of priority is to stop the other team from scoring, and the Crew are accomplished that.

A few other thoughts:

- The defense, especially James and Balchan, gave the ball away much too often in the second half. This allowed FC Dallas to continue to aggressively counter-attack.

- The return of Emilio Renteria was huge for the Crew. His energy and drive provided a real spark in the second half.

- FC Dallas started Ruben Luna, one of their home-grown signees and a graduate of their US Soccer Development Academy program team. Last time I saw Ruben Luna was against my son Michael's Development Academy team last Fall. Kind of cool.

Big win for the Crew!

US Soccer Development Academy Begins To Pay Dividends!

Juan Agudelo and Gale Abossoumonde were the first players to get capped with the US Men's National Team who played in the US Soccer Development Academy Program. Juan Agudelo scored the winning goal in a 1-0 defeat of South Africa. Looks like the program is starting to pay dividends!


http://www.ussoccer.com/News/Mens-National-Team/2010/11/Mens-National-Team-Takes-1-0-Win-in-South-Africa-to-Round-out-2010.aspx

Random Thoughts, Soccer, my Son etc......

I haven't blogged in a while, but have been making notes on some random thoughts I wanted to comment on:

Ohio Elite's graduating seniors-The season is over for Ohio Elite's US Soccer Development Academy teams. Most of the U18 team has graduated and are moving along to college. These young men should be very proud of their accomplishments and Ohio Elite should be proud of the development of these players. I'm looking forward to watching these players in college. Go to http://www.ohioelite.com/ and check out the team page for U18 Development Academy for a list of where these young men will be going to school.

By the way, also check out the team pages for the Ohio Elite U18 Girls Academy and U18 Girls' Gold for a listing of the graduating Ohio Elite girls who will be playing college soccer-amazing! Congratulations to the entire coaching staff and the players. http://www.ohioelite.com

US Soccer Development Academy-As a charter member, Ohio Elite just completed it's second season as a member of the US Soccer Development Academy. Player development is the goal of this program, and if one measure of development is the number of players continuing their careers in college, than Ohio Elite's 2nd year in the program would have to be considered a resounding success. And despite other clubs' in the Cincinnati area spreading misinformation about Ohio Elite (see Ohio Elite's coaches' blog), tryouts have been a resounding success, with more players than ever before coming out to play in the program. In addition, Ohio Elite continues to add to the best coaching staff in Southern Ohio, as Dave Schureck, Head men's soccer coach at Xavier University in Cincinnati and Director of Advanced Youth at Northern Warren County Alliance Soccer Club has been added as the head coach of next year's U15/U16 Development Academy team. The young men will now take their summer breaks, and join their high school teams for the Fall. I am anticipating another great season in the Development Academy next year.

I still love Twitter-If you are on twitter, and you are a soccer fan, follow these tweeters: DallasCup, ussoccer, topdrawersoccer, tweetmls, thesoccerdon, americanoutlaws, mlsinsider, mlsrumors. My favorite tweeter is obxlaw, just random tweets from a pretty funny guy. Also check out celebrity tweeters like the_real_shaq, johncmayer, miacarruthers, rainnwilson, pennjillette, andersoncooper. Oh, and don't forget to follow me, jiresell and my son, brianjsell.

Stanley Cup-Pens Win! Wow, and on Hockey Town's home ice!

Finally, my middle son (son #1) graduated high school last weekend. Congratulations! He is a writer, music lover and technology fan. He has decided to travel to Europe by himself this summer, backpack and Eurail pass in hand. I think we are going to see a Jack Kerouac "On the Road" style book come of this adventure!

Jiresell.....signing off!

US Soccer Development Academy Spring Showcase Observations

This past Memorial Day weekend I was able to go to the US Soccer Development Academy Spring Showcase held in Sarasota, Florida. Some observations:

-I don't think I have seen better coverage of a Development Academy Event, or any other youth soccer event. US Soccer had a huge amount of coverage, as did TopDrawerSoccer.com. Also several people were using Twitter to post highlights. (follow USSoccer, DallasCup, Topdrawersoccer and Ohioelite for regular updates amongst many interesting Tweeters) I Twittered the play by play of the Ohio Elite Soccer Academy matches for the benefit of the parents who weren't able to attend.

-I am impressed with the way many clubs travel to these events. Ohio Elite, for example, books all the travel for their teams. They boys, coaches and chaperone's fly together with a very specific and coordinated itinerary. Everyone eats together, stays at the same hotel and travels to the fields together. Very professional approach, but in addition the boys were able to go to the beach on their day off and the movies one of the evenings. As a parent I really like this approach, and I understand many of the other clubs travel the same way.

-The exposure these young men had to the US National Staff, college coaches and scouts from professional clubs was unbelievable. Every game had a US National Staff coach observing it. And after each game the US Coaches spent a great deal of time with the club coaches reviewing the match. I personally counted 19 college coaches at our U16's first match versus PDA out of New Jersey.

-All of the boys went through a Nike Sparq Training session. They were tested again and received their results so they could compare them with the testing they went through at the Winter Showcase in December.

-US Soccer also had two matches where a team of Development Academy Players were chosen to play against the U17 National staff. In addition, the U20 National Team played Costa Rican National Team. These matches were free to everyone to watch.

-Lastly, I have to admit I had a pretty good time in the Tampa/Sarasota area. Two other fathers and I made the 14 hour drive from Cincinnati and rented a condo at Indian Rocks Beach. Went to Ybor City one evening, ate at PJ's in Indian Rocks beach three times (might seem extreme, but the seafood was great, and they had Landshark Lager on tap). We also ate dinner at Crabby Bill's in Indian Rocks beach and made good friends with some folks from Bristol, England who had been at the bar since 11am that morning having watched the last of the EPL matches of the season. I am amazed at their stamina!

As I have blogged before, if you have an opportunity to tryout for a Development Academy team in your area, do so!

Signing out........Jiresell

A Big Weekend in Southern Ohio Youth Soccer

This past weekend was a big one in Southern Ohio youth Soccer. The Ohio South Youth Soccer State Cup Championships took place. Congratulations to all the winners!

It was also a big weekend for the US Soccer Development Academy teams in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Ohio Elite Soccer Academy's U16 and U18 teams played the Solar SC and the Dallas Texans Development Academy Teams. I continue to be impressed with the high quality of play, the pace and ultimately the level of competition that the US Soccer Development Academy provides for the young men who have an opportunity to participate.

With the State Cup Champions being decided, the season closes down for most of the local youth soccer teams. The Development Academy Teams have a big Memorial Day weekend coming up, the Spring Showcase in Sarasota, Florida. I went to the Winter Showcase this past December in Lancaster, California and was very impressed with the event. The Spring Showcase promises to be bigger. More US National Staff present than any previous event, more college coaches, and every Academy Team in the country will be participating. National youth team friendlies will also be taking place. I will be traveling down with a couple of other folks to watch the matches and root on the Ohio Elite Soccer Academy teams who will be playing three matches over the four day event.

Tryouts for the local clubs in Southern Ohio are also upon us. It is always an interesting time of the year as rumors to begin to fly around the soccer community. The most interesting thing to me is that most of these rumors are proven to be inaccurate, and are usually perpetuated by individuals with motives beyond the individual development of the players themselves.

My point? Players and parents should look for the clubs/teams that give the players the best chance to develop to be the best soccer players they can be. Also look for club/teams who have a track record of getting their players recruited and signed to the next level (College, etc.). Clubs and coaches should encourage their players to tryout for teams that will provide them opportunities to push themselves, get out of their comfort zone and play the best competition, even if it means losing some players to other clubs/teams. (No one would deny their players a call-up to National or Regional pools, would they?)

My shameless plug: Tryout for the US Soccer Development Team in your area if you are of age. (U16: calendar year 1993 or younger, U18: calendar year 1991 or younger) In Southern Ohio there are two clubs to look to, The Ohio Elite Soccer Academy in Cincinnati, Ohio, or the Columbus Crew in Columbus, Ohio. Based on the investment US Soccer has made in the program, the amount of clubs who apply each year to join (this year 250 applied to join, and 6 new clubs were added to bring the total to 79 in the program) and the staff support (this year National staff coaches have been present at at least 10 Ohio Elite matches) the opportunity to play in the US Soccer Development Academy is the best way to develop as a player and prepare for a soccer career beyond the youth ranks.

Signing off.......Jiresell

My #2 Son's Year in Soccer-US Soccer Development Academy

My #2 son has had a great opportunity this year. He is fortunate enough to have tried out and made one of US Soccer's Development Academy Teams. We live in the Cincinnati, Ohio area and my son plays for the U16 (birthdates in 1992 or younger) Ohio Elite Soccer Academy Team based here.

US Soccer started the Development Academy in 2007 to focus on player development. They have very strict specifications that participating clubs have to adhere to, training a minimum 3 days per week, a minimum of one weekend off per month, no more than two games in two days etc. It seems as though US soccer is really looking to have a very high training hours/game hours ratio.

It has been an interesting year. My son's team has travelled to Houston, Los Angeles, and Detroit so far this year. They will be travelling to Sarasota for a National showcase Memorial Day weekend. The quality of soccer is unbelievable, and by all accounts my son's team is playing the best competition available in the United States. If you are familiar with youth soccer, then the names will be familiar to you-Vardar (Michigan), Derby County (Michigan) Wolves, Carmel United (Indiana), The Columbus Crew, CASL (NC), Richmond VA Strikers, Solar (Texas), Scott Gallagher (St. Louis) etc. Oh, and the players on these teams are the best their regions and clubs offer!

So why am I writing about this? Well, when you play the best competition, sometimes results on the field are hard to come by. The boys have a win and a draw so far this year, with some games that we should have won, and many losses mixed in. That can be tough, especially on the parent.

My son's teams have participated in the traditional youth soccer leagues (Midwest Regional League, local leagues) and high level tournaments, including State Cup in the past. They have played many of the team's mentioned above in those games, certainly with better results on the field than they are having now.

But here's the thing: My son is having a great time in the Development Academy! He is playing at a very high level of competition. He is getting visibility to college coaches not only at the showcases, but at regular season games. In addition, US National staff coaches regularly attend games and training sessions. He wouldn't trade it for any other opportunities.

So the moral of this story. My son is developing into a better player. He is having fun. And he is getting more opportunities in soccer by playing in The US Soccer Development Academy than he would anywhere else.

By the way, don't just take it from me, ask him!

Signing off......Jiresell