Sueño Four Invited to Join FCD Juniors
March 25th, 2008 . By: Buzz CarrickFCD announced today that four players, Gabriel Funes, Alexei Reyes, Noel Luna, and Rafael Martinez, have made the final cut of Sueño 2008 for Dallas. One of the four players will be named the Sueño winner. All four players have been invited to join FC Dallas Juniors. So what the heck is FCD Juniors, you ask? Good question. Here’s what we know. FC Dallas Juniors will be elite level teams coached by the main FC Dallas staff and operated under the FC Dallas umbrella below the professional side. These clubs will not technically operate inside the FC Dallas Youth Club system, but instead be a stepping stone between the Youth Club and the professional team. The idea is to be grooming these players to someday take a place on the FC Dallas roster. According to our sources there will initially be one team each at the U16 and U18 levels that will primarily participate in the US Soccer Development academy. These four Sueño players named above are the first invited to join FCD Juniors. The rest of the roster will come form other sources, including the FC Dallas Youth Club. Local club Solar SC is also a member of the Development Academy and given their presence in the Mid-American Conference this seems the most likely place to find FCD Juniors playing in the future. Chicago Fire, DC United, Colorado Rapids, LA Galaxy, Chivas USA, Columbus Crew, and New York Red Bulls already have teams in the Development Academy. Still under discussion by HSG and FCD are future elite teams in other age groups as well as a possible PDL team. Also still under discussion is the possibility that FCD Juniors will be financed by FCD, in effect making the teams fully scholarship and free to the players. FCD already has teams in multiple age groups that function in the FCD Youth setup at the Classic League level and in MLS-run Tournaments. These teams will remain intact inside the FCD Youth club as it functions now and will almost certainly be the primary feeder system to FC Dallas Juniors. Here’s the press release that FCD put out on the Sueño finalists. FOUR SUEÑO PLAYERS INVITED TO JOIN FC DALLAS JUNIORSMajor League Soccer and FC Dallas today announced that four Sueño MLS finalists in Dallas – Gabriel Funes, Alexei Reyes, Noel Luna, and Rafael Martinez – have been identified by FC Dallas as the first players invited to form the FC Dallas Juniors, the club’s newly created developmental elite team that will directly prepare players for the professional team. These four players were selected following an added round of Sueño MLS in Dallas, in which 12 finalists played a game against the current FC Dallas U-17 team last Friday. One of these four players will be selected as the winner of Sueño MLS in Dallas, which will be announced live on Univision’s Republica Deportiva on March 30, 2008 at Pizza Hut Park. Shortly following Republica Deportiva, Telefutura Network will broadcast live the inaugural match between FC Dallas and Chivas USA live from Pizza Hut Park at 2 p.m. CT.
Name Age Pos. Hometown Notes Gabriel Funes 16 F Arlington, TX born in Argentina, brother also made the Final 18 Noel Luna 17 F Ft. Worth, TX LA native has sacrificed vacations for soccer Rafael Martinez 16 M Dallas, TX born in New York, moved to Texas for soccer Alexei Reyes 16 F Dallas, TX born in Mexico City, started playing at age 2
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Buzz, thanks for the effort…I do appreciate it. But as little as I understood the FCD youth/Junior/pre-pro set up before…I understand it even less now! Perhaps I’m still reeling from that crazy game Sat night. EVerything I’ve read elsewhere says the the Youth teams themselves are to be MLS clubs feeder teams.
Buzz,
I’m sorry if I’m wrong but I asked a few weeks back about the development academy and I thought you had said that Solar was in the Red Bull League or some other academy league that rivals the US Soccer version? Again, sorry if I’m misquoting you.
I’ve seen several of these players in the Boys Classic league and they are quality. But they are not the only ones that are good, meaning there are many names missing from even the Sueno tryouts for the Latin players.
How does FCD fill out the roster? Where does this team play? Wouldnt it make sense to gill out a PDL roster with these type players, college guys coming home for the summer, high-level amateur players, etc…..?
Obviously the youth system is very complicated. I’ll try to answer what I can, and I certainly am not an expert on the youth leagues.
FC Dallas Youth is a club system that is set up and run by a separate group of people, not FC Dallas. FCD is affiliated with it, they don’t run and operate it. Although some of the FCD players and coaches coach for FCD Youth. FCD Youth plays in the Classic League with Solar, Texans, Andromeda, etc etc. There are certain teams in the FCD Youth set up that have represented FCD to this point in MLS sanctioned tournaments. Notably the U17s coached by Marco Ferruzzi. I believe, but am not positive, these may have been all-star like teams pulled from various teams in FCD Youth.
This FCD Juniors teams will be owned and operated by FC Dallas. Exactly how many and several other factors are still to be determined. FCD Juniors will play in the US Development Academy. Solar also plays in the US Development Academy. Texas, as far as I know, does not. I think it’s safe to say that much of these teams that have already represented FCD will make up the core of FCD Juniors. The idea it appears is to make elite level teams that will be above FCD Youth (ie not playing in the classic league). The idea is, I believe, to have the FCD Juniors clubs receive high level pro coaching and training even in the developmental stages.
Solar and Texans ALSO play in the Red Bull U17 League. It’s a youth league set up immediately after MLS announced the formation of youth teams, leagues, and tournaments. I imagine as a response to help those independent clubs stay competitive. You can read more about it here…
http://www.redbullnl.com/boysU17/#/en/
TT, I don’t know many of those answers, but yes it makes sense to have a PDL team of college players that have come out of the FCD Youth systems. But if FCD is going to have a PDL team, I think they would want to let certain of their young pros play on it as well as high school elite players that can play up.
Thank you for the clarification. Like you said, confusing stuff.
No problem. I’m sure that doesn’t even begin to cover it all. It will take some time for it all to shake out.
Buzz,
Will these players be exposed to the draft? The proverbial, why develop a guy if you may loose hiim in the draft?
So, are they given contracts? They have given up on college scholarships? Can we see these guys with Josh, Brek and Ibby in next year’s Dallas Cup Supergroup?
in order for a player to sign directly with the pro club, a full pro contract to be on the 28 man roster and thus eligible to play in MLS games, the player has to be on the “home grown” list submitted to MLS. Any player that lives in the designated area can be on the list if they agree, even players from other clubs like Texans and Solar. These “Home grown” players can skip the draft and sign directly with FCD. FCD can sign two of them per year.
I think it fairly safe to say many of the FCD Juniors players, if not all, will be on the “home grown” list. A player can always turn down the contract offer if/when they receive it and opt for college.
Being in FCD Juniors, or the US Dev Acd does NOT cost college eligibility or scholarship potential. They do NOT have to sign a contract to join FCD Juniors. Most of the players will go to college.
One important question i don’t know the answer to is, can FCD sign directly ‘home grown” players that went to college or does that end the FCD claim.
And pwip, I’m not sure why you couldn’t see Josh, Brek, and Ibbe play in Dallas Cup. European teams send full pro players. The only question would be liability and risk. Although I would think the US Dev Acad would limit pro players from participating in their games. Dallas Cup is a different question.
One more thing, you can’t put a US pool player on your home grown list. They have to have been on the list prior to getting put into a US pool.
Also a player has to have lived and played in your region for a year before you can add him to you list, so no cherry picking of seniors.
thanks buzz. my thinking about the PDL team would be to consider players like Omar Gonzalez, Jonathon Villenueva, Corbin Bone, cameron Brown, Dane Saintus, all the SMU/Tulsa/UAB types that are free during the summer and create a PDL team. Most of these players already come back and train with FCD in the summers and they could play in the PDL like players from the Chicago-area play for Fire PDL, etc.
That would also give competition to DFW Tornados given that they have to go to El Paso, Louisiana for games.