Real Salt Lake’s nationally-renowned academy program is set to take part in the 10th installment of the Generation adidas Cup hosted by FC Dallas this week. The tournament is Major League Soccer’s showcase for the nation and world’s top youth talent to be put on display. This year’s tournament will kick off on Friday and run through April 15 and is held at the Toyota Soccer Center at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, featuring 34 total games streaming live on MLSsoccer.com.
The RSL U-17’s will be one of 19 Major League Soccer academy teams to feature in this year’s tournament alongside the world’s top academy sides. Placed in the tournament’s top flight, the Champions Division, RSL will compete in Group A against Independiente del Valle (Ecuador), Real Madrid (Spain) and hosts FC Dallas.
Head Coach Martin Vasquez and RSL will open their competition when they take on Real Madrid on Friday at 1:30 pm MT, a match that can be streamed live on RSL.com. Two days later RSL will take on hosts FC Dallas at 1:30 pm MT, then finish the group stage of the competition when they face Independiente del Valle April 11 at 5:15 pm MT.
RSL has competed on the tournament stage every year since the tournament’s inception in 2007, winning the competition in 2008 and reaching the final on two other occasions (2010, 2014) all while developing professional-ready players along the way. Vasquez and the staff at the academy continue to grow bright stars such as midfielder Taylor Booth who stand to make their mark on the national and international levels alike.
Since 2008, the RSL Academy has developed premier players who have made the jump to MLS and abroad after featuring in the Generation adidas Cup, some of whom currently reside on RSL’s first team roster including: defenders Justen Glad and Danilo Acosta and attacking talent in Jordan Allen, Jose Hernandez, Brooks Lennon, Ricardo Velazco and Sebastian Saucedo. Goalkeeper Lalo Fernandez was with the academy for the 2011 and 2012 seasons and has been with RSL’s first team since his signing in January of 2012.
Glad starred in the 2014 tournament, leading the team to the final before falling to English side Stoke City. Glad, who signed a Homegrown contract before the competition began, solidified what sort of talent RSL’s academy produces year-after-year.
Lennon became RSL’s first academy prospect and Generation adidas participant to sign directly for an English Premier League side when he signed with Liverpool in the summer of 2015. Netting 31 goals in the 2014-15 campaign for the academy, Lennon cemented his place as one of the academies all-time brightest prospects.
For the first time, the Generation adidas Cup will include live, in-game Video Assistant Referee (VAR) testing, as Major League Soccer and the Professional Referee Organization (PRO) remain at the forefront of this global initiative. Under the protocol required by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the universal decision-making body for the Laws of the Game, MLS and PRO will incorporate the initiative into select matches with VARs utilizing video technology to help referees identify clear errors or serious missed incidents in four game-changing situations -- goals, penalty decisions, direct red cards, and cases of mistaken identity. The philosophy of the testing will be to create minimum interference with maximum benefit.
All of RSL’s matches at the Generation adidas Cup will be streamed on RSL.com, starting when they kick off against Real Madrid on Friday at 1:30 p.m. MTS.
Watch the RSL take on Real Madrid below:
