Much like their U18 counterparts, the U16 Development Academy teams were in action from coast to coast last weekend as a number of important division games were played.

West Conference

Team of the week: Real Salt Lake AZ

It was a good weekend for RSL-AZ as they pulled themselves back into the discussion in the SoCal Division of the West Conference. There was no shortage of attacking talent on display for RSL, defeating Pateadores on Saturday with two goals from Dylan Kelly and Ben Spencer adding the other tally. Then on Sunday, back home, they beat Cosmos Academy West 3-2 in another high scoring game. Martin Arrieta, one of the major talents of the 2013 class, scored both goals for Cosmos while Brian Bates and Dylan Kelly goals had the game knotted at 2 at halftime. Isaias Juarez would come up huge scoring the winner in the 71st minute for RSL to pull them within 7 points of leaders Real So Cal with four games in hand.

In their only game of the weekend, Real So Cal beat Arsenal FC of California 1-0 behind a 45th minute goal from Luis Perez Jr, his third goal of the season. Los Angeles Galaxy scored a fantastic result, beating crosstown rivals Chivas USA 1-0 behind a 20th minute goal from Kevin Labastida. The win brings LA 5 points behind with five games in hand.

It was an up and down weekend for Irvine Strikers as their star forward, Christian Thierjung, scored an amazing four goals in their 5-1 demolition of San Diego Surf. However, Irvine slumped to a 1-0 loss to Nomads SC on Sunday afternoon with a 79th minute goal from Manuel Carrillo deciding things

Midwest Conference

Team of the week: Minnesota Thunder Academy

In the middle of the Frontier Division schedule, Minnesota Thunder U16’s had a fantastic weekend winning two vital games to rise up the standings. Playing at home against Colorado teams this weekend the Thunder defeated Real Colorado on Saturday 1-0 behind a goal from Ismaila Jome and some great defense from Zach Hager and Erick Bloom. In their Sunday game, Minnesota beat Colorado Rush 2-1 in a back and forth game. Adama Keita put the Minnesota side ahead in the 7th minute before Cameron Mohseni pulled things level early in the second half. A 63rd minute goal from Brandon Welter decided things and brought the Thunder Academy within six points of first place Sporting Kansas City.

Sporting KC, who boasts a number of players on our 2013 players to watch list, had a mixed weekend in St. Louis defeating Scott Gallagher Metro on Saturday afternoon behind goals from Chris Tuso and Daniel Hare. They couldn’t follow up that good performance on Saturday, however, as second-placed Scott Gallagher Missouri got the better of them winning 3-1 with goals from Austin Ledbetter, Nick Jones and Ryan Merrifield.

In the Great Lakes Division, Vardar and Indiana United Academy faced off in a wild match that saw three lead changes and five goals. Thomas Sanner opened the scoring for Indiana United in the 21st minute before a Yousseff Bujaidar goal evened things up just a few minutes later. Jeffery Adkins would give Vardar their first lead right before the half while Joseph Amico equalized things for Indiana in the 64th minute. Zachary Pagani would finally win the match for Vardar in the 72nd minute pushing them into second place in the Division.

First-placed Columbus Crew Soccer Academy enjoyed a nice weekend at home, defeating FC Milwaukee 2-1 with goals from Charlie Reymann and Quinn Miller while their second game on Sunday against Sockers FC of Chicago ended 0-0.

Down in Texas, the shock result of the weekend was eighth-placed Andromeda blanking high-flying Solar Chelsea 2-0 ending an eight match unbeaten run. It was a stalemate game for Solar, playing without star forward Alfred Koroma, when two late Andromeda strikes from Brendan Pak and Abdulrahman Yassine decided things between the Dallas area rivals.

The Houston Dynamo Academy has been just kind of floating along results-wise for the last couple of months, but they made a real statement this weekend winning games against Lonestar SC and Classics Elite. Houston found themselves down 1-0 to Classics on Saturday by way of an Andrew Lopez strike, but goals from Alan Arellano, Bryan Salazar and Manuel Chavez turning things around for the Dynamo to win 3-1. On Sunday, Chavez and Arellano struck again while Raymundo Marquez also got in on the act with Houston defeating Lonestar SC of Austin 3-0.

East Conference

Team of the week: FC Westchester

What a weekend it was for first-placed FC Westchester. Facing off against New York Red Bulls on Saturday afternoon, Westchester produced a fantastic second half performance with two goals from Cesar Ceja and one from Lucas McBride to win 3-0. They produced an almost identical 3-0 win over Players Development Academy on Sunday on three second half goals. It was Ivan Martinez with two goals this time while McBride scored again as well.

Albertson SC completed a nice weekend with a 0-0 draw against PDA and a 2-0 victory over the Red Bulls on Sunday with two goals from Dylan Greenberg. In their only game of the weekend, third-placed Cosmos Academy East beat Met Oval 1-0 on an early goal from Yankuba Janneh.

In the Mid-Atlantic Conference, PA Classics move their divisional record to a perfect 3-0 emphatically defeating Potomac 4-0 behind goals from Kyle Bitterman, Connor Maloney, Dieter Bahr and Christian Kaschak. In their first divisional games, DC United were perfect, winning 3-0 over Match Fit Chelsea on goals by Edgar Zepeda, Joel Condor and Kennedy O’Shea while they won 2-0 against NJSA on Sunday with Condor and Zepeda again supplying the goals.

South Conference

Team of the week: Weston FC

Despite dropping a Saturday afternoon result to IMG Academy 1-0 behind a Pablo Aguilar goal, Weston FC has to be named team of the week in the south due to their 7-2 demolition of Clearwater Chargers on Sunday. Weston had a remarkable six different goal scorers with Eddy Milien scoring two and Alexander Marsh, Ismael Longo, Troy Manheimer, Alexander Marotta and Steven Oliveri supplying the others.

In a light weekend of action, Charlotte Soccer Academy had the major result of the weekend beating rivals CASL Chelsea 3-1 behind two goals from Benjamin Burdon and another from Hans Honer.