Sounders Academy at SUM Cup in Houston

by Dave Clark on Jul 24, 2010 9:52 AM PDT in Sounders: Academy, U23 PDL and Reserves

SUM Cup you say? That's one of the Academy competitions that MLS teams participate in during a given year. This one is a U-17 competition, which means that the Sounders team won't be one of their two official academy teams as they operate a U-16 and U-18 team right now. And honestly do we really need a team for every single year? Why not half years?

This year Houston is hosting the SUM Cup, rather than Colorado, as this Academy event will coincide with the All Star Week for the foreseeable future. That's a great move, as it gets the kids around the best players in the league, as well as see the league infrastructure and its corporate partners. A solid move as some of these guys will still need to be convinced to become players in MLS. Seeing the level of professionalism around the league should help.

The Dynamo site has a recap of yesterday's matches. You can see there that Seattle surprised the Dallas Juniors yesterday earning a Penalty Shootout win. The tourney has two quirky rules due to a highly compressed schedule. Those penalty shootouts to make tie-breakers just a touch easier, and only 30 minute halves as the teams will play three games in four days during the Group Stage. The Finalists will play 5 games in 7 days.

Before the tourney Seattle was at best seen as a dark horse, you can read the complete Group B preview here, but the following is the selection on the young Sounders Academy.

Similar to Philadelphia, the Seattle Sounders are new to the academy scene. Seattle officially became a U.S. Soccer Development Academy program for 2010-11 after taking the previous membership held by the Washington Premier Football Club. The bad news for Seattle is they have not had the opportunity to develop their own players. The good news for Seattle is that the Washington Premier Football Club has some strong players that will be able to step in right away and help.

First and foremost is Dominique Dismuke, a 5-foot-11 forward who scored nine goals in league play last season. Dismuke will rely on former WPFC teammate Troy Peterson to find him in space and create chances. Peterson will also be relied upon to find the back of the net after scoring six goals of his own last season. Look for Seattle to remain competitive in its first tournament against other MLS academies, but in this strong a group, they appear unlikely to advance.

Day One really showed us nothing about Group B as it was all draws and PK wins.

Pos.	Group B	W	L	T	SO	Pts	GD
1	Columbus	0	0	1	1	2	0
	Seattle	0	0	1	1	2	0
3	FC Dallas	0	0	1	0	1	0
	Philadelphia	0	0	1	0	1	0

The other Groups can be seen here.

Reports over twitter yesterday were that the Houston Dynamo Academy clearly played the best, how much of that is because they are the hosts we will never know.

Here'sMLS Insider's Recap to include a short video of Sounders Keeper Rodney Greiling.

We'll throw up FanShots of the results as we get them.

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Comments

Two official teams?

Thanks for the academy update. It’s good to hear how the youth system is doing. I was a little confused with the first paragraph. So, the Sounders have two official academy teams (U-16 & U-18).

In this tournament are they fielding another U-17 team that isn’t recognized by MLS? What does that mean for future players coming out of the U-17 team and potential Sounders roster spots for the future?

Or are they the U-16 team competing at a higher level with some local U-17 players?

by Dizzo on Jul 24, 2010 10:19 AM PDT reply actions

They picked players that qualify for U-17 from their U-18s and U-16s

They also have a ton of players in the Regional Training Center Programs, and who are getting training through the Youth system as well.

I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Dave Clark on Jul 24, 2010 10:25 AM PDT up reply actions

Thanks for the clarification

Dave, thanks for the clarification and sharing the tournament roster with us. :-)

by Dizzo on Jul 24, 2010 2:57 PM PDT up reply actions

From the Sounders here is the travel squad to SUM Cup in Houston

Stefan Bangsund, Jacob Beck, Ike Crook, Dominique Dismuke, Michael Gallagher, Rodney Greiling, Prince Gundersen, Tolussa Hassan, Aaron Kovar, Ian Lange, Sam Langston, Chris Miller, Kurtis Pederson, Troy Peterson, Jordan Schweitzer, Travis Strawn, Taylor Stapf, Austin Sweeney, Keenan Townsend, DeAndre Yedlin

There is also a U-16 tournament called the Surf Cup down in San Diego.

Here is that roster
Conor Adkisson, Stefan Bangsund, Jacob Beck, Jeffrey Collings, Ike Crook, Mikhail Doholis, Michael Gallagher, Prince Gundersen, Tolussa Hassan, Jesse Klug, Ian Lange, Samuel Langston, Odason Pelogi, Jordan Schweitzer, Michael Steele, Austin Sweeney, Jordan Thompson, Keenan Townsend

I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Dave Clark on Jul 24, 2010 10:27 AM PDT reply actions

Sounders Academy Setup

by MMAWrestling on Jul 24, 2010 11:05 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs

I always wondered where ODP stood on the pyramid

Now I know.

by chrisperry1983 on Jul 24, 2010 11:32 AM PDT up reply actions

Ages and Teams

And honestly do we really need a team for every single year? Why not half years?

Actually, there is a fairly well-document age bias on most youth teams, a tendency to over-use the oldest eligible players. Having half-year teams would be one way to address that issue (not saying I know if the bias has shown up in this contest, only that it’s something that pops up regularly).

'Gentlemen' he said,
'I don't need your organization,
I've shined your shoes,
moved your mountains and marked your cards,
but Eden is burning.
Either get ready for elimination,
or else your heart must have the courage,
for the changing of the guards.'

by Sgc on Jul 24, 2010 1:02 PM PDT reply actions

Absolutely

I experienced this both as a player and as a coach. When you only have a team every two years – especially in adolescence where the difference between a 13-14 year old boy might easily be several inches and 30 pounds – it is going to be really difficult for the younger kids to get significant playing time. They will really only see big minutes every other year.

Add this to the fact that we put an absurd amount of emphasis on winning for our top player from age 10 and up, and you have a recipe for a bunch of big strong athletes who know how to hustle but never really develop top-level technique.

by brokejumper on Jul 24, 2010 3:52 PM PDT up reply actions

Except that the point of the Academies is not to win games

but to produce players

So, they shouldn’t have those kinds of problems.

I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Dave Clark on Jul 24, 2010 5:15 PM PDT up reply actions

Talking about club teams

I think these academies are the only way to move forward in US soccer and the club teams are an incredibly inefficient allocation resources in terms of player development.

by brokejumper on Jul 24, 2010 6:39 PM PDT up reply actions

There are rules to combat this

Such as a minimum/maximum number of starts for each player on roster.

by TheTank123 on Jul 24, 2010 9:51 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions

Quick Question

On these youth teams, are there requirements about where the players draw from? Do they have to be local players/US based players/or players based from anywhere in the world that they academies scout and sign?

I love the idea of these youth academies, not just for the Sounders but for the future of the USMNT and American soccer in general.

by 02Coug on Jul 24, 2010 1:54 PM PDT reply actions

There is a catchment area

IIRC it is 50 miles from the home team’s stadium.

Each level of the Academy is allowed to have two players from outside that area.

I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Dave Clark on Jul 24, 2010 5:16 PM PDT up reply actions

that seems so small...

Why can’t they allow the teams to get players regionally? I mean, this keeps so many areas of the country out of catchment.

by jacobcda on Jul 24, 2010 5:59 PM PDT up reply actions

2-0 over Philadelphia Union

Down in Houston watching my nephew play. Ugly game yesterday but they looked better today.

To clarify some of the above questions, for some reason this tournament allows for players born in 93 and younger.

by TheTank123 on Jul 24, 2010 8:52 PM PDT via mobile reply actions

Thanks for the update

I’ve been trying to find the recap of the days matches, but that makes it quite likely that Sounders are 1st in their Group

I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Dave Clark on Jul 24, 2010 9:00 PM PDT up reply actions

Columbus won also

They do an odd scoring system where a straight win is worth 3, SO win worth 2, SO loss worth 1, and a straight loss worth 0. As of now they are tied with the Crew so the winner of that game will go on.

The winner of the tourney gets to go to a tournament in Spain while the second place team gets an automatic spot in the SuperGroup at the Dallas Cup.

If you have any more questions about the tourney, the Sounders FC youth teams, or Academy in general I’d be happy to answer anything I can…I’ve turned into a youth soccer junkie ver the years :-)

by TheTank123 on Jul 24, 2010 9:30 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions