Dallas, TX – In the bristling heat with some days that had severe windy conditions at the US Development Academy playoffs and showcase, I assessed the incoming college freshmen grouped by conference and school for the games that I was able to attend. On each day, there were two groups for playoffs and I was able to attend a few of the showcase matches as well.

The level of parental participation and organization is vastly differently between clubs. For example, Irvine, Lonestar, and St. Louis Gallagher Missouri have a parent that hands out lineups of their teams and they are available to answer questions for both college coaches and media. These parents were extremely instrumental in helping me to fill any gaps that I had on their teams. I would suggest other clubs might want to copy this model to better inform/sell their players.

MAC

Akron

• Brian Gallego
  Bryan Gallego (New York Red Bulls) – is faster than I expected. He is good on the dribble and is an option coming out of the back. At the start of the second half, a weak Gallego pass was intercepted and went the other way until Brandon Adler cleaned up the mess.
• DeAndre Yedlin (Seattle Sounders) – is lightning fast. He has absolute blinding speed. Kofi who? Zip fans don’t love him too much; he might not be at Akron as long as Kofi Sarkodie. He is very slight and he’ll need to be stronger to battle the older and more physical developed college players. He’s a player to keep an eye on.

Northern Illinois

• Hugo Gonzalez (Sockers FC) – allows the ball to stay active in his box when he should catch or tip it high/wide. I wasn’t impressed.

Western Michigan(m)

• Connor Furgason (Derby County Wolves) – is at best an adequate 1v1 defender with raw technical skills and slow feet. He is best in the air. He scored a goal heading a Gabe Mateo corner kick between the legs of Liam Stapleton (St. Louis Scott Gallagher Metro).
• Jason Grant (St. Louis Scott Gallagher Missouri) – strikes a driven corner kick. His shots while dribbling are uninspiring – both wild and without velocity.

MPSF

Seattle(m)

• Kyle Silva (Shattuck-Saint Mary’s Soccer Academy) – isn’t a bad player, but he didn’t positively impact this game. At best, he’ll be a complementary player on an average team. He completed a few passes. Silva maintains a balanced defensive position on New England’s Felipe Fagundes.

MVC

Daylon Schiffel

• Daylon Schiffel (California Development Academy) – came on late in the second half and he immediately served a ball across the field to Connor Hallisey. He and Grant Silvester squeezed Christiano Francois off the ball.

Creighton

• JT Seger (Lonestar SC) – is one of the best players on his team. He’s good at serving dangerous set pieces. Though, he kept dropping too deep into the defense.

Evansville

• Patrick Hodges (St. Louis Scott Gallagher Metro) – has acceptable speed, but he wasn’t effective with awareness turning over the ball to Gabe Mateo (Derby County Wolves). Hodges had a hard time containing TJ VanSlooten (Derby County Wolves).
• Kevin Schafer (Shattuck-Saint Mary’s Soccer Academy) – started horribly completely missing the ball on a cross (like his center back teammate). Schafer had a poor clearance that was dangerous but was saved by a poor pass by New England Revolution Bryan DaSilva. He and David Abidor were able to close down Cole Denormandie (New England Revolution) midway through the first half. But he was able to get by these two defenders in the second half and score a goal. Overall assessment – work-in-progress.
• Andrew Schall (St. Louis Scott Gallagher Metro) – made a physical tackle on TJ VanSlooten (Derby County Wolves) just as he was breaking through the defense. He did this several times.

SIU-Edwardsville(m)

• Travis Hoguet (St. Louis Scott Gallagher Metro) – is an exceptionally fast and powerful dribbler shedding 3 spectators (er., Derby County Wolves defenders) on his way to scoring the game winning goal.

Northeast

Kory Leis

• Kory Leis (Lonestar SC) – is a mediocre defender, but he is good at defending in the air.

Monmouth

• Derek Luke (Players Development Academy) – was beaten for the third goal seconds before half time with speed by Matthew Wiesenfarth (California Development Academy).
• Matthew Jeffery (Players Development Academy) – is a big defender with slow feet and virtually no technical skill. He crushed Grant Silvester (California Development Academy).

America East

New Hampshire

• Cameron Bielski (New England Revolution) – was invisible for much of the game. He stands around as a spectator if he isn’t on the ball. He’s best when he’s playing a very short game with quick passes and he’s the center of activity.

Stony Brook(m)

• Keith McKenna (Albertson SC) – is a beefy forward who was involved in a late controversial play. He hit a corner kick that Michael Lobben headed into the goal. The AR said that the ball went over the goal line. Given the wind, the position of the AR and that McKenna kicked the ball to loop back into the middle of the box, I can’t contest the call and I believe it was correct.

PREVIOUS ANALYSIS: ACC, Atlantic 10, Big East, Big Ten, Big West, CUSA, CAA, Atlantic Soccer, Pac-12

COMING THURSDAY: Horizon League, Ivy League, MAAC

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