Carmel United builds on 2008 national title

Carmel United builds on 2008 national title
May 4, 2009
When we last looked in on David Costa, he was celebrating with his Carmel United U16 team after they had won the inaugural USSF Development Academy national championship at Home Depot in a spellbinding victory over PDA.

Now coaching many of the same players with the club’s U18 Academy side, Costa is continuing to enjoy coaching the talented group, even as he learns some of the nuances of the evolving Academy format.

One aspect of this is that with multiple age groups being blended into a team, some of last year’s championship squad are still involved with the U16s, while others have moved on with Costa to the U18 side. On Saturday at Butler University, players like Lance Davis, Austin Oldham and A.J. Corrado were still with the 16s as they played a scoreless draw with Chicago Magic. The U18s, featuring members of the championship team including Tyler White, James Vollmer and Tyrone Martin, won 3-0 over their counterparts from Todd Bailey’s Chicago Magic.

Carmel United club soccer player Tyrone MartinTyrone Martin
Costa acknowledged that roster selection with the multiple age groups can get a little complicated, but stressed that the club’s approach to the league is to remember the overall mission of development.

“We are trying to remember the developmental purpose of the Academy so we’ve used guys like Vince DiPrimio, Matt Ingham, Austin Oldham, A.J. Corrado and Dylan Mares with the 18s when we’ve had the chance,” he said. “But we’re still working with the U16 team and that group doing well on the field is important too. In some ways as we move ahead you might see it more like the U18s being the first team and the U16s being kind of a reserve team, but that only goes so far by comparison.”

For the larger group of defending champions, Costa sees a real difference in psychology and self-confidence that was brought about largely by last year’s championship campaign.

“Last year it was a thing where it was convincing to believe they were as good as they needed to be. This year, they expect to win. They have a swagger about them,” Costa said. “As we look at these things, our goal is to get to nationals and once you’re there anything can happen, but even for the new guys, it wasn’t hard to get them to buy into that because they believe they can do it as a part of this group. All the guys understand they have to do everything as a team to be successful at this. The last month and a half we’ve really started to come together. The guys who were injured are healthy now and training has really picked up. They’ve all bought into the fact that they can repeat as national champions and be as successful as they want to be, but it’s just going to take a lot of work.

“They understand their roles. If they don’t at this age then none of us are doing our jobs,” he continued. “They’ve bought into their roles and even though a lot of guys are playing different spots on the field, they understand what it takes to play each position in our formations. That’s a maturity they have this year that they didn’t have last year. They can figure it out right away. They figure those things out without me telling them.”

On Saturday, the Carmel U18 squad looked quite good on the campus of Butler University, knocking the ball around well against a talented Chicago Magic team that included top college recruits like Kevin Bick (Indiana), Milan Tica (Yale), Tim Zimmer (Northwestern) and Harry Shipp (Notre Dame).

Bick’s future IU teammate Harrison Petts had an especially good game from central midfield. Petts opened the scoring with a nice finish late in the first half after some good work and a cross from the right by Matthew Sanner. In the 2nd half, Petts turned provider, sending in a precise corner kick that Carmel’s Michael Wignot headed home skillfully to make it 2-0. Petts then returned the 1st half favor from Sanner, neatly cutting a ball back for the Carmel striker to finish from close range and a final score of 3-0.

Carmel goalkeeper Jon Dawson produced a highlight-reel save to rob Philip Galounis of a goal on a rasping shot from 25 yards out. Tyler Thatcher and Corey Fundenberger were also good on the day for the Indianapolis-area side, with Geoff Bowman and Connor Holloway good on the day for Magic.

Carmel’s U18 side looks to be in good position to finish in the top 3 of the Academy League’s Great Lakes division and thus qualify for the June playoffs in Greensboro, NC. Magic are early in their divisional schedule so it’s hard to say about them. Word around the field Saturday is that Carmel and Empire United will be excused from a planned flight to Dallas next weekend for non-division games, as continuing concerns about the swine flu are cutting into the athletic schedule in Texas.
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