Younger academy players still impact Disney matches

Younger academy players still impact Disney matches
December 29, 2009
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA – Temperatures thankfully rose here Monday and competition intensified for berths in the knockout rounds of the Disney Soccer Showcase presented by Chelsea Football Club.

In the U17 Showcase Division, the Academy vs. non-Academy theme continued, but with U16 Academy teams playing up a year here, a twist was added.

Steve Nichols’ Baltimore Bays U16 Academy team won a hard-fought 1-0 decision over the older Georgia State Cup champions GSA Phoenix. Michael Gamble scored a 2nd half winner on a setup from fellow standout forward Malcolm Harris for the Maryland team.

elite boys club soccer playerDisney Showcase players compete in Orlando.
Nichols said his group, which won 5-0 on day one over Illinois side Campton United, has done better here than he might have expected.

“I’m proud of our guys. We are a true U16 team and both of these teams we played the last two games were in the USYS nationals at U16 last year. We won the nationals in Massachusetts last summer but it was U15, so to play those two teams here and win 5-0 and 1-0 just says something about our team,” Nichols said. “We’re not even close to where we want to be. We just finished high school and then went to Phoenix (for the Development Academy Showcase in early December) and we’ve had I think 6 practices. We play our best soccer in June and July and the results show by winning 8 national championships, but to be where we are right now we’re happy.”

In the following match, some players from the Sockers FC Academy team were instrumental in the mixed roster’s 2-1 win over Foothill MVLA Raptors, a Northern Californian team.

Davy Selvaggi scored a late winner on a setup from Serge Sievertson. MVLA pressed for a late equalizer, but Sockers’ goalkeeper Hugo Gonzalez made a good save from Kevin Zhang’s shot to preserve the victory.

Selvaggi was involved in Sockers’ first goal as well. Early in the 2nd half he tapped a serve from Tom O’Brien to Khaliq McKenzie, who rifled a low shot into the back of the net to level the score at 1-1.

MVLA had gone up 1-0 in the 1st half when Juan Magana-Alvarez ran onto an excellent through ball from Omri Maor and finished 1v1 for the goal. Magana-Alvarez showed good close control throughout the game but at times would do well to lift his head up and explore other options.

Andy Larson was good in attack for MVLA and he also forced Gonzalez into a good save early in the 2nd half. Both Dinesh Prasad and Miguel Murillo played well in defense for the Northern Californians, as did Sockers’ center backs Taylor Cole and Marcin Modzelewski. Kai Glaser was also strong in midfield for the Chicago-area team.

Selvaggi and McKenzie both said settling down and working together were keys to Sockers’ comeback.

“We were combining a lot more with Tommy O’Brien at center mid coming up and playing good through balls,” Selvaggi said. “We just started capitalizing on some of those.”

“We started controlling the ball more and passing it better in the middle in the 2nd half,” McKenzie added. “We held the ball up top and got more people involved. The first game we were off and had to adjust a lot. Now we’re starting to get the hang of it more.”

Click here for more coverage from the Disney Soccer Showcase.
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