Last weekend, The RSL Academy U-17 and U-15 sides traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to play in the Fall Regional qualifiers of the 2019/20 Generation adidas Cup. The two each played in Group C of their respective divisions and played three matches against the academies from Philadelphia Union, New England Revolution and D.C. United.
U-17
The RSL U-17s topped its group with three straight wins beginning with a comeback 3-2 win over the hosts, Philadelphia Union U-17 after going down by two goals in the match. The RSL U-17s would go on to dominate New England with a 4-1 win before completing the trifecta against D.C. United, 1-0. The RSL U-17s stand as the only team in its group to win all three games played last weekend, holding 9 points and a +5 goal differential behind goals from Ken Bellini (3), Chris Garcia (2), Frankie Martinez (1), Christian Nydegger (1), and Zach Booth (1).
U-15
The U-15 side came out on top of Group C with 8 points and a +4 goal differential after picking up 2 straight wins and win off the resulting penalty shootout after a draw. The first contest saw the RSL U-15s pull out a 2-2 draw its Philadelphia Union counterpart, but capture two points per tournament rules after winning the penalty shootout 5-3. The Utah side went on to shut out New England’s U-15s 2-0 before completing the weekend tournament with a dominating 4-2 performance over D.C. United. Julio Benitez (2), Marcus Vazquez (1), Anwar Torres (1), Harvey Sarajian (1), David Lopez (1), Marcos Torres (1), and Aldo Carmona (1) each scored for the U-15 side over the weekend.
The 2019/20 Generation Adidas Cup qualifiers will pick up with a second leg in February, which the RSL Academy will host at Zions Bank Stadium. For videos of the Academy performance, visit @RSLAcademy on Twitter.
