In 2012, the Real Salt Lake-Arizona Academy U-16 team had just formed its newest class of promising young talent. Players from throughout Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada joined together and within a short time of meeting each other headed to Seattle for the GA Cup.
Although talented, the team couldn’t bond together from the opening whistle and lost 4-0 to Chivas USA in its first match. The reaction in the locker room told RSL-AZ Academy Technical Director Martin Vasquez a lot about his team and he reassured them that good things were still to come and that success would follow.
The first experience together as a team would not, however, be a harbinger of what was to come for a special group of young players. Now, three years later, the team is ready to compete for the USSDA National Championship for the third consecutive year, this time at the U-18 level when it meets the Chicago Fire on Saturday at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif.
“This is a group that has been together – the majority – for three years,” Vasquez said. “Over the three years that they’ve been together, they’ve won the national championship, they lost a national championship. And they broke benchmarks this year that will take many years for the other Academy teams to break them. And they’re not done.”
In 2013, the team won the U-16 championship. Then the following year they suffered a 2-0 defeat and watched as the LA Galaxy lifted the trophy. This time around, after an up and down start to the year, they have gone unbeaten in the last 22 matches at 21-0-1 and now find themselves in the final for the third consecutive year.
The playoffs have run the RSL-AZ record to 37-3-4 and in the playoffs – which feature the best teams in the country – the team hasn’t just gone unscathed through five matches, but has outscored the opposition 15-2 in the process, including a 2-0 win over the San Jose Earthquakes in the semifinal on Thursday.
There are many reasons for that success. Talented players is certainly one of those reasons, but bringing those players to the Grande Sports Complex in tiny Casa Grande, Arizona, is among them too. That has created a tremendous bond with the players on and off the field.
“They just love playing for each other. They love the game. There’s an incredible understanding of their movement and how to go to goal,” Vasquez said. “We have a team that has a huge commitment to defend. When they score the first goal, they go after the second and the third. They have developed that hunger and that understanding. They want to win and they want to win big. There’s a lot of chemistry.”
Saturday’s final will likely be the last match many of those players will play together. The final kicks off from the StubHub Center at 8:30 p.m. MT. It will be streamed live on USsoccer.com.
