

Posted by

Kamal Hylton ,

March 11, 2015 Email

Kamal Hylton

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@KamalHylton

Last week, I took a quick look as a couple of the “other” USL teams that should be interesting to watch. Well with the season just around the corner, I think now is a good time to look at what the three Canadian academies and its Canada content will have to offer in the United Soccer League season. Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 (WFC2) In my early evaluation, the team fans of the Canadian National Team should be following closest is WFC2. Coach Alan Koch will have a wide array of talented Canadian players for him to select from due to both his work as their collegiate scout and the clubs quality residency program that plays games as the USSDA level. Joining Koch this season are his former Simon Fraser University midfielder Jovan Blagojevic, defender Jackson Farmer, forward Jordan Haynes and midfielder Mitchell Piraux. In addition to those players, some of its homegrown talent on MLS contracts that will see time in USL are players like forward Caleb Clarke, midfielders Marco Bustos and Kianz Froese, goalkeeper Marco Carducci and defender Sam Adekugbe. This is a team that boasts major Canadian talent in all three phases in Farmer, Bustos and Clarke, as well as leadership from Carducci in goal that will be the future of the red and white, Carducci has been a leader at youth level of the national team while players like Clarke and Bustos are interesting attacking prospects. Playing in a tough conference with the likes of defending champions Sacramento Republic, what is widely considered the top American MLS academy in LA Galaxy II, and teams with a track record within the academy system like Seattle Sounder 2, Portland Timbers 2 and Real Monarchs SLC (Real Salt Lake’s academy squad) will be an adjustment for some of these players. It’s impossible to predict the standings due to the amount of new teams joining the league, however I think a good finish for the club would be 4th in the standings and getting through its initial playoff round. The young portion of the Canadian player pool will be spending a lot of time in the USL this season and beyond, if Canadian men’s national team coach Benito Floro is to make a first stop for talent scouting within the league, then this will be the spot. FC Montreal (FCMTL) Of the three teams, FC Montreal should be the most prepared to begin life in the USL due to the structure they’ve put into place. Coach Phillippe Eullaffroy has been around the Montreal Impact organization as its Academy Director since day one and has coached many of these players within the U-23 side last season at the PDL level, a team that finished 4th in the Northeast Division. With teams playing within the USSDA at U-15/U-16 and U-17/U-18 level, the move of its U-23 team from the PDL to USL will further showcase its talent and not only give its youth more playing time but at a professional level. Some players to keep an eye on are forward Frédéric Lajoie-Gravelle, midfielders Fabio Morelli, Yacine Ait-Slimane Victor N’Diaye, and Nazim Belguendouz, as well as defenders Marco Dominguez and Janouk Charbonneau. Lajoie-Gravelle led the U-23 team last season with 16 goals and was named breakthrough player of the year, Victor N’Diaye led the U-23’s with 14 assists, Dominguez has represented Canada in the past at the FIFA U-17 World Cup and Morelli is touted as one of the academy’s top attacking prospects. Joining them from the first team will be players like forward Anthony-Jackson Hamel, Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé and Maxime Crepeau, players that will not only be hungry for playing time and have experience for club and country but will provide a level of leadership to help stabilize FC Montreal’s transition into the USL. All of this works in FCMTL’s favour both this season and into the future, especially with the talent pool within Quebec becoming much deeper. Most are predicting FC Montreal to struggle towards the bottom of both the Eastern conference and the league. While I agree this first year will take a lot of adjustments and a playoff birth in its first season will be a difficult prospect, I find that to be a very harsh stance and feel most of that is just being reflected on the team based on how poor Montreal Impact’s first team was last season in MLS. I feel FC Montreal will finish just outside the playoffs in 7th place, however I see them being competitive this season and will feature some breakout talent Floro will be calling on sooner rather than later.



Toronto FC II (TFCII) This will be an interesting year for TFC II in a few different ways. As much like the first team many of its games within the first half of its inaugural campaign will be away from home as they await its stadium at the Ontario Soccer Centre to be completed. Coach Jason Bent has some known quantities on his team in homegrown MLS players like goalkeeper Quillan Roberts and Jordan Hamilton, both spending a good portion of last season within the USL at the clubs then affiliate Wilmington Hammerheads FC. Much like Doneil Henry and Jonathan Osorio before him, Hamilton is highly thought of as the “next big talent” within the academy system and has already made his presence felt at both the USL level and the national team, scoring 5 goals and providing two assists in 11 games for the Hammerheads as well as representing Canada at the 2013 U-17 World Cup and becoming a forward on Floro’s radar. Roberts made 17 appearances for Wilmington last season, posting a 1.22 goals against average and 5 shutouts in 1514 minutes. performing so well he earned his first call up to the Canadian senior squad against Jamaica at BMO Field on September 9th, 2014. Other players to join the squad will be Jay Chapman, Skylar Thomas, Manny Aparicio and Clement Simonin. Aparicio is another player to have previous USL experience with Wilmington playing 808 minutes over the course of 19 games. As for the others, they’re rookies coming in with major collegiate backgrounds. Chapman is the standout of the bunch, playing three years at Michigan State and two seasons with KW United in the PDL. For the Spartans, Chapman started in 63 of the 64 games he played scoring 12 goals and providing nine assists while for KW United he played 1833 minutes over 25 games scoring six goals and providing five assists. Spending much of their time on the road will be tough, only playing two of the first 12 games at home, but if they get out of that with a decent record TFC II will have a good chance to grab a bunch of points when it counts. The Reds baptize their new home stadium by playing 12 of its remaining 13 games at home, so how they do in the first half of the season will dictate how important those remaining games become. It’s hard to give a prediction in this case, but for me a conservative guess would be 3rd in the Eastern conference standings.



Other

Outside of the Canadian clubs, it will be interesting to track a couple Canadian national team players and former Sigma FC teammates in Emery Welshman and Cyle Larin. It’s still up in the air what Orlando City will do with Larin, but considering he wasn’t in the squad for its home opener against New York City FC I believe he will be seeing time with Louisville City FC to start his career. As for Welshman, he has signed a contract to play with Real Monarchs SLC and I believe this is a perfect fit. Welshman gets his chance to reclaim his professional career after a rough first time with Toronto FC, having a breakout year in League 1 Ontario with Sigma FC has given him this shot, but what’s even better is he’s part of a Real Salt Lake system that plays very similar to how Sigma FC approach the game. It will be fun to see these two not only progress their careers, but play against the Canadian USL clubs as well. Unfortunately with their teams in opposite conferences a Welshman vs. Larin matchup won’t happen in the regular season, however it would be incredible to see that on a big stage like the USL Championship.