The Earthquakes Under-15/16 and Under-17/18 academy teams continued their bright start to the new season with a sweep of the LA Galaxy on Saturday at CalState EastBay’s Pioneer Stadium.
Both squads prevailed 2-1 in a circle-the-date doubleheader, and the gung-ho U-17/18s followed with another smasher -- a 2-0 win over Chivas USA on Sunday at Mustang Soccer Complex in Danville. The U-15/16s fell 3-1 to Chivas USA.
The Quakes' three academy teams are 8-1 overall as players keep marching toward their goals, individually and collectively.
A handful of the Galaxy’s U-17/18 players were coming off a national championship at the U-15/16 level. They expect to win. It didn’t happen this time. The young Quakes wouldn’t let it happen.
“Overall, the collective team effort – these guys are playing as a team,” technical director Chris Leitch said proudly. “That’s the big thing. We had guys step up and everyone was engaged and into it from the start.”
Dazzling U17/18 attacker Amir Bashti, a Stanford commit and U.S. youth national team player, and center back Caleb Michael scored in Saturday’s triumph. Bashti had two goals for the weekend and earned additional high praise from Leitch for tracking back on defense – a forte of Quakes forward Chris Wondolowski.
Beating the Galaxy is always a big deal to Quakes fans, at any level.
“L.A. has a lot of confidence and pretty much believes it can beat any team in the league, and rightfully so, they’re a very good squad,” Leitch said. “They had a very good winger. They had a couple of dangerous guys that we did just enough to keep at bay. Outside of those key guys for L.A., we were able to impose our will on them and play a pretty sound game. It was pretty good to see the reaction of those guys.”
The opportunistic U-13/14 team (3-0) remained unbeaten with a 3-1 win over Ballistic United-Pleasanton at JohnMise Park on goals by Oscar Govea, Ricardo Ortiz and Jessy Garcia.
The U-17/18s (3-0) are in a virtual tie the Vancouver Whitecaps (4-0) for first place in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. Consider it more of the same from a unit that gave notice of its special qualities last season.
In the U-15/16s win over the Galaxy, the Quakes stunned the visitors on a goal by Kaya Fabretti off a Rei Dorwart assist in the first minute. Diego Alonso scored the second goal in the 40th minute off another Fabretti assist. Dorwart was excellent throughout the match. Newcomer Armon Ojuola continued to show great promise as he adjusts to the program.
U-17/18 center forward Zach Penner was also dangerous on the attack, doing all the little things well to set up his teammates. Center back Jorge Lara was a model of consistency and grit throughout the weekend. Leitch, a former Quakes senior team defender, appreciated the effort.
“He’s just solid back there,” Leitch said of Lara. “He’s a guy that just game in and game out, he’s relentless. He’s an absolute flat-out competitor.”
Leitch said his U-17/18s team’s defensive shape was hard to break with its back four and midfield four. The forwards also kept the Galaxy honest by creating scoring chances. Against Chivas USA, the Quakes U-17/18s had two first-class goals and some calming goalkeeping in the second half from national team keeper JT Marcinkowski. Phenom Ivan Valencia, just 14, scored off a volley into the upper corner in the 32nd minute, and Bashti sealed the victory with what Leitch called a “cracker of a shot” after the ball went over a defender’s head.
Valencia continues to excel playing up basically two age groups. Leitch saysValencia has definite national team potential.
"He's doing well. He's in the starting 11 for our U18 team," Leitch said of Valencia. "He's in multiple positions. He's an attacker. He works very hard. He's gonna have to adjust a little bit. This is definitely a challenge for him. He's gonna have a little less time than he's used to having. The game's a little bit faster. But you can already tell early in the season that he's going to get even more comfortable."
Leitch added that the point of the program is to push players out of their comfort zone at times to see how they respond: “Ivan’s done very well with that," he said.
The U-13/14 squad continues to find ways to win while players adjust to the academy game.
“It’s good to battle and get results when you know there’s still a lot of progress to be made with that team,” Leitch said.
