FRISCO, Texas (Friday, Oct. 17) – FC Dallas’ U.S. Soccer Development Academy teams recently opened the 2014-15 season with a combined record of 7-1-1.
All three teams are back in action again this Saturday, Oct. 18, in Houston against the Dynamo Academy. The U14s and U18s are scheduled to kick off at 2 p.m. while the U16s match is set for 4:30 p.m.
Coached by Chris Hayden (U14), Luchi Gonzalez (U16) and Francisco Molina (U18), the three teams have outscored opponents 28-8 in the first nine matches of the season. Both the U18s and U16s won its respective divisions last season. For the U18s, it was FC Dallas’ fifth consecutive Texas/Frontier Division title. The U16s have won its division the last two seasons.
U14 Roster
GOALKEEPERS: Michael Collodi, Trevor Jackson. DEFENDERS: Dylan Kline, Chris Fuentes, Eric Romero, Joe Nelson, Matt Mazur, Julian Hinojosa. MIDFIELDERS: Alan Velasco, David Ortiz, Caleb Meyer, Adrian Morales, Roba Negeri, Melic Belong. FORWARDS: Adriel Serrano, Jesus Ferreira, Imanol Almaguer, Jalen James.
“At this level, we are focused on developing players for the future and improving our players’ performance during the four phases of the game,” said FC Dallas U14 head coach Chris Hayden. “Our goal is to develop and retain as many players as possible for next year and beyond. We train every day, so we have a great opportunity to help players cultivate great training habits and thus improve their performance on the field. We expect to have some of these players play on our first team at some point in the future.”
U16 Roster
GOALKEEPERS: David Abonce, Ben Hale, Elias Munoz, Carlos Avilez. DEFENDERS: Austin Ashley, Reginald Cannon, Christian Cheatham, Alex Gerondale, Hector Montalvo, Edwin Munjoma, Robert Sayler, Brandon Terwege. MIDFIELDERS: Benjamin Granillo, Damian Hernandez, David Martinez, Connor Presley, Adrian Ramos, Orlando Rodriguez. FORWARDS: Isaac Albaradei, Duncan James, Giovanni Montesdeoca, Juan Ramirez, Homero Vazquez, Devin Vega, Toshiki Yasuda.
“Toshiki Yasuda, Giovanni Montesdeoca and Damian Hernandez are a few of our top players in the U16 division this season,” said FC Dallas U16 Academy head coach Luchi Gonzalez. “Hernandez is a center midfielder and the internal leader. The group has a lot of depth, which will be our strength this season. A lot of different players come in and out of the lineup and we’re able to keep the level high. There is a lot of competition during training. The boys are really pushing one another and that brings the best out of them.”
U18 Roster
GOALKEEPERS: Charlie Furrer, Matthew Karasinski. DEFENDERS: Joel Avilez, Ryan Barlow, Eric Davies, Camden Lepley, Philip Ponder. MIDFIELDERS: Irvin Dominguez, Alejandro Martinez, Weston McKennie, Sadaq Mohamud, Miguel Ojeda, Alex Radilla, Jose Ruiz, Martin Salas, Alejandro Zendejas. FORWARDS: Antonio Aguilar, Coy Craft, Gonzalo Marquez, Christian Ramirez, Oscar Romero, Jose Salas, Caleb Young.
“Our goal for the year was set by the players,” said FC Dallas U18 head coach Francisco Molina. “It is to be one of the top four seeds in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy. We also want to have a strong showing at Nationals. We are returning six players from last season’s U18 team and 14 players have come up from our U16 team. We’ve added three international players in Andy Ruiz (Guatemala), Saadiq Muhomad (Somalia) and Gonzalo Marquez (Peru). Alex Zendejas recently signed a contract with the first team. He and Weston Mckinnie are in Residency with the U.S. U17 National Team. Overall, we have a well-balanced squad. There is depth at every single position on the field.
