2016 GENERATION ADIDAS CUP
By: Aaron Nielsen (@ENBSports)
The 2016 Generation Adidas Cup takes place this upcoming week (March 18-26) in Dallas Texas and includes a number of MLS U-17 Academy teams who qualified in a pre-tournament with international sides. The tournament consists of three round robin groups of four and then a knock out competition to produce the final placement of each club. Players must be born after January 1st 1999 to qualify and each team will play five games over the course of the competition. The last two years have seen non-MLS connected sides win the tournament with English club Stoke City winning in 2014 and River Plate of Argentina beating Eintracht Frankfurt of Germany 1-0 in the finals last year.
River Plate returns this year and are in Group B with Aspire Academy of Qatar. They will be up against two of the strongest MLS Academy sides the New York Red Bulls whose U16 USSDA side are currently first in the Atlantic Division and the LA Galaxy who lead the Southwest Division. Squads have not been released yet, but top players that qualify for the Red Bulls include Omir Fernandez who has scored 13 goals in 14 USSDA games, Zachary Ryan who has 11 goals in 14 games and Chris Gloster who has been called into the United States U-17 spring residency roster. The Galaxy top performers have been Kevin Negrete who has 16 goals in 20 games, Jonathan Estrada who has 12 goals in 19 games and team also has keeper Eric Lopez who has already signed a contract with USL side LA Galaxy II although has only seen limited action in net.
Group A includes the Mexican U-17 National Team, Valencia of Spain, the host FC Dallas and Toronto FC. With its player resources Mexico could be favourites in the tournament and Valencia should also be strong so it might be a difficult group for host FC Dallas whose U16 side is in first place in the Frontier Division. 15-year-old Jesus Ferreira is the clubs top scorer with 13 goals in 16 games with other players to watch Paxton Pomykal, Brandon Servania and 6’3 Defender Brecc Evans. Toronto don’t play in the USSDA, but hosted the Eastern Regional to qualify for this tournament finishing second to advance over DC United, Orlando, Philadelphia and New England. In Ontario, TFC Junior Academy play in the U-21 Ontario Soccer League Provincial Elite League with top performers being Shaan Hundal and Mirza Custovic. Cela Klaidi who played games in League One Ontario and Ayomide Akinola who is part of the US U-17 Residency Program.
Group C includes Universidad de Chile and Spanish club Villarreal who are joined by San Jose and Columbus. San Jose U-16 USSDA side are currently third behind Vancouver and Seattle, but won the West Regional qualifiers over LA, Real Salt Lake and Seattle. They also have Arda Brunt up-front who is currently the top goal scorers in the U-16 USSDA with 21 goals in 21 games. Other key players for the Earthquakes include Adolfo Trujillo, Ivan Valencia, and US U-17 Residency Program call-up Jean-Julian Foe Nuphaus. Columbus has two affiliates in the USSDA with the U16 Wolves second in the Mid-America Division well Crew SC are currently 10th. The Wolves are led by Faraj Mutatu who has 10 goals in 13 games and Eric Conerty who has nine goals well Crew SC have struggled to score goals but have a strong midfield of Jensen Lukacsko, Isaiah Parente and Sean Zawadzki.
For MLS sides DC United, Real Salt Lake, Chicago, Seattle, Orlando, Colorado, Philadelphia, Sporting KC, Portland and New England who did not qualfiy they will be playing in additioanl tournament with Braziian side Atletico Paranaense, Japanese side FC Tokyo and Mexican sides Chivas Guadalajara, UNAM Pumas, and Monterrey. Players to keep an eye on are Sporting KC’s Max Rusgove, DC United’s Nelson Blanco, Portland Timbers Giovanni Calixtro along with US Call Ups Michael Edwards, Christopher Durking & Chandler Vaughn (DC United), Benjamin Huynh (Seattle), Isaac Angking (New England), Adrian Villegas (Portland) and Alejandro Pereira of Orlando. There is also a U-12 tournament that includes teams repersenting expansion MLS sides Atlanta United and LAFC.
Following a tournament at this age group, it is difficult to assume which players are going to future MLS and National Team stars but in the past the tournament has featured DC United’s Andy Najar and Bill Hamid, FC Dallas Victor Ulloa and Ruben Luna and Juan Agudelo who at the time was playing with the New York Red Bulls Academy. While the Real Salt Lake team who lost the 2014 final to Stoke City included current MLS prospects Justen Glad, Danny Acosta, Adolfo Ovalle, Sebastian Saucedo and current Manchester United Academy player Josh Doughty.
As a scout it will be interesting to see how the MLS clubs do, especially against the foreign sides. The group stages include six scheduled streams on Youtube with more expected during the knock out stages. So it will give people an opportunity to see their Academy teams in action and get a first glimpse of potential first team players in two to three years time.
