Halfway There - Quakes Academy Teams are 26-7-5 Collectively Going Into the Winter Break

Although all three teams lost their final games, they can all have their heads held high with fantastic first half's to the USSDA season. The 18s ended on a rollercoaster ride of a weekend, winning their game vs the Crossfire academy 4-0 then losing the next day to first place Vancouver 0-4. The 16s tied Crossfire 0-0 then lost to Vancouver 1-2 in a heartbreaker. The U14s tied #1 ranked FC Golden State in a academy showcase at the Stubhub facility. They later went on to lose to Chivas and Galaxy.

18s Finished: (9-2-1) Second Place

16s Finished: (6-3-3) Second Place

14s Finished: (9-2-1) Ranked Second Overall in the Country

The academy get back into it starting in January after a quick showcase in Florida.

My Analysis of the first half for each team.

U18s

The 18s are having a great season so far, individual standouts are Centerback Jorge Lara (UC Irvine commit) shutting it down in the backline and adding 2 clutch goals. Center midfielder John Partida (cal poly commit) being a general in the center of the park, winning balls on defense and starting quick attacks, also doing an excellent job going box to box. M/F Amir Bashti (Stanford commit) being lethal in attack scoring 6 goals and creating most of the offensive opportunities. M/F Philip Hausen (Harvard commit) only a junior in high school, but has been racking up the goals in his Quakes career. Having missed a significant amount of games due to injury, Philip still has 4 goals. Last but not least, Forward Zac Penner with 6 goals. Individually, these players are outstanding, but if they want to win the championship, they are going to have to start to connect better more consistently to breakdown their opponents. Also, they are going to need to sure up the back line. Jorge Lara has been outstanding, but the other guys on defense need to step up. 

U16s

The U16s have been decent so far. They are having a lot of trouble scoring, but the defense is keeping them in it. If they can unlock the goal scoring, they will be a force to recon with. The coaches have seen this and that has motivated their decision to bring back down 15 year old phenom Ivan Valencia from the 18s to the 16s. Ivan is the player I am most excited about. He began the year with the 18s and was a standout player, scoring 4 goals with the big boys at such a young age. He's a winger/forward hybrid, so good at dribbling, scorching pace, and a great defensive mind and willingness to get back and win the ball. He can do it all. He has to work a bit on his finishing and final third movement, but he is definitely worthy of being called one of our most interesting prospects. 

U14s

What can I say, these boys can play. Beautiful passing, excellent organization, dominating possession.. One could easily mistake these kids as the Barcelona U14s. JJ Foe Nuphaus, Adonis, Diaz, Oscar Govea, Jason Yanez, and Mario Rocha have all been absolute class players and will be an exciting core to look forward to in the future. If I had to choose 1 kid to focus on, it would be RB #34 Mario Rocha. Mario is the youngest of the U14s, but you would not know it by looking at him. He's one of the biggest players on the field, but what stands out about him is not his height, it's his technical skill combined with defensive ability. He looks like a forward out there, dribbling kids with ease, but always getting back on defense and being a shutdown defender. He looks to be what is the future of fullbacks in modern soccer.

For All Academy Info