Perhaps Irvin Raul Parra is just another player who slipped through the cracks of U.S. youth soccer or maybe he is a success story for U.S. Soccer Federation’s Development Academy.  

The midfielder from Inglewood, California is a relative unknown on the national landscape with no appearances on any youth national team. 

His story is all too common in U.S. Soccer’s scene – a technically sound player who does not triumph with athleticism, but truly understands the game. 

He fell through a crack. 

Last week, Parra, at the tender age of 18 years old, led FC 08 Homburg to the league crown in Oberliga Sudwest.

While the fifth division of German soccer is not what dreams are made of, Parra is living his dream despite some setbacks along the way. 

He was a starting member and key piece for Pateadores U18 Development Academy squad last year, which was due to a partnership established between South Bay Force [Parra’s original club] and Pateadores. 

The deal allowed South Bay Force’s top players to play in the Development Academy, an opportunity they would not have had without Pateadores. 

Thanks to the contributions from the South Bay players like Parra, Javan Torre, Jose Villarreal, and others, Pateadores U18 won the 2010-11 Development Academy National Championship. 

The title also marked the end of the road for the South Bay players with Pateadores, as the deal between the two clubs expired at the end of the season. 

South Bay’s players moved over to Los Angeles Galaxy Academy, which had struck a new deal with the non-Development Academy club, and promptly signed Villarreal to a professional contract. 

However, the new team did not work as well for Parra. The midfielder had trouble cracking the starting lineup. 

“I didn't have playing time,” Parra told TopDrawerSoccer.com about leaving the MLS Academy. “The coaches wouldn't give me time to play, they didn't let me show what I can do.”

Thanks to his previous success with Pateadores, Parra, who has a similar style of play to Toronto FC’s Luis Silva, had already been scouted by an agent in the Development Academy and signed to an agency following the National Championship run. 

His agency gave him the chance with FC 08 Homburg, where Parra signed his first professional contract earlier this year, but moving to a new country is rarely easy on a young player.  

“The difficult part of moving to Germany is just that I’m young and I miss my family,” Parra said. “But I stay strong and keep doing what I love to do which is play the beautiful game.”

Parra is excelling in the competitive environment of German soccer. 

“Every time [on the field], its competition and I like when I have competition because it can get me better,” he said. “It has been a fantastic season. It has made me grow as a player and as a person.”

The Southern California talent notched six goals and four assists in 16 games during his first season with FC 08 Homburg. 

The most meaningful of those goals came two weeks ago when Parra found the back of the net in a 1-0 win over SV Alemannia Waldalgesheim. The victory clinched the league crown for Homburg and secured promotion for his club to the Regionalliga next year. 

“It was just a great experience,” Parra said about tallying the game-winning goal. “After the game, Josue [Joe] Liotte, the team’s captain, told me, ‘I believed that you were going to score today.’ It was a special feeling.”

Initially, Parra signed a contract through the end of this season, but he has since renewed the contract and will be with Homburg in Regionalliga Sud/Sudwest next season. 

He hopes that the promotion will help draw the attention of the U.S. Soccer Federation for a camp call up in the future. Parra is eligible for the current U20 Men’s National Team cycle. 

“I’m working, playing, and doing everything I can to get a call up to the national team,” Parra said. “[Hopefully], I can get more of a chance now that I am going to play Regionalliga this year.”

Former ACC stars score for their professional clubs in Sweden

On Monday, former North Carolina Tar Heel standout Billy Schuler scored his first league goal for Hammarby. 

The winger hit a swirling effort that deceived the keeper and nestled into the net in a 2-2 draw against Falkenberg. 

“I did not hit it completely in the corner,” Schuler told HTV after the game. “But I got enough bend on it to fool the keeper.”

Hammarby is currently in third place in the Superettan, which is the second flight for Swedish soccer. 

In the Swedish top flight, former Virginia attacker Brian “Cobi” Span also scored his first league goal in Djurgarden’s 1-1 draw with Helsingborg last Wednesday. 

Djurgarden is 11^th in league standings after 12 games, as it has suffered through a spell of five draws in a row.

Ben Lederman and FC Barcelona Alevin reach semifinals of Torneo Alevin Futbol XIX

U.S. youngster Ben Lederman helped FC Barcelona Alevin [U12] reach the semifinal round of the Torneo Alevin Futbol XIX last weekend. Lederman notched a goal in the first game for Barcelona at the event against Sporting Gijon, which you can see here.

Lederman also featured in the other games for Barcelona, which can be viewed in full here. 

Barcelona's run in the seven-a-side event came to an end in the semifinal round with a 1-2 loss against Atletico Madrid. The club from the capital went on to win the event behind the stellar play of Fede and Salomon Obama, brothers from Equatorial Guinea.

J.R. Eskilson is a staff reporter at TopDrawerSoccer.com. Send him an email.