Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - Episode 100: An interview with LAFC academy director Todd Saldaña

Episode Date: September 27, 2019

Todd Saldaña joins for a wide-ranging discussion on the early success of the Los Angeles Football Club academy, how they're developing players, what kind of outreach they've received from the Mexican and U.S. Soccer federations, and many other things. Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the scuffed podcast. I'm Adam Bells in Minneapolis. With me is Greg Velasquez in Des Moines. We talk about U.S. men's soccer. Our guest today is Todd Saldane, the Academy Director for Los Angeles Football Club, a former U.S. Soccer Federation Technical Advisor for the Southwest Region, and a former scout for Juergen Klinz and the U.S. men's national team. Lafc's Academy is new and has become an instant contender in the Development Academy. The oldest team, now competing at the U-17 level, had the most. wins of any U-15 team in the country last year, and L-AFC had several players called into youth national teams, including three of the 18 players at the U-15 Concaf Championship late this summer. So I'm excited to hear what they're doing. Todd, welcome to the podcast. Adam, thanks very much. No, we're hearing you read all that, this is a nice little reunion to what we've done over the last

little bit, but no, thanks for having us. We're super excited about what's going on at LFC. Yeah, I'm super excited to have you. First question, I think I read that the academy coaches at LASC are involved in scouting new signings for the first team, and you personally helped look at Diego Rossi. Is that right? Can you talk about it? Yeah, no, that's true. It's very beginning stages, too, of developing the first team.

I mean, we were, the academy staff and the academy had already begun, so we were the guys in the office with John Thorrington. And, you know, we were fortunate. We have pretty international staff also, so there were guys that have experiences in different places. And so John had asked us to help out with the scouting where we could. So most of it was done through Weissout and just resources and people, you know, contacts we knew. But yeah, it was an honor for them to ask us. And obviously it's part of sort of the fabric of the club. It's why you feel so connected is, you know, we're academy people, but yet we're helping with the first team.

So that kind of gave us all a great feeling to get to be involved in that. So, yeah, it's true. And, you know, I can't take lots of credit, but it was exciting to be able to scout Diego Rossi and, you know, watch a lot of video and contact people about him and compare him to a couple of other players sort of similar and come up with a report that they ended up using. So how does the scouting work inform the work you do with the academy players, does it?

Yeah, I mean, it really intentionally put together a group to help us with the scouting and also create a program for our scouting. So, you know, knowing, you know, we got to hit the ground running, you know, we put together a group of five scouts sort of by the districts and regions in Southern California. We ran a couple of events that were strictly for unaffiliated soccer groups and met with about 90 unaffiliated youth league presidents. And obviously we knew we had the Development Academy and a couple of the traditional leagues here to look at.

But no, we really hit the ground scouting quickly. Obviously, my work as a TA, give us a head start too. But yeah, that's a weekly process, weekly meetings, assignments every week to make sure we're getting out there and seeing as much as we can. Well, since you kind of mention it, Let me jump ahead and ask you about the LAFC invitational. I think that's what you're referring to, right, with the unaffiliated.

Correct. So how does that tournament work and what's the point of it and what have been the results? Well, the reason that we ended up doing that event and, you know, sort of being really connected to a lot of the unaffiliated leagues is because we, you know, we made an effort to call in all the presidents and our, the first offices we were in. you know, we invited 30 in a night. We had about three nights of 30 presidents and asking them what would, what would they like to see from us and kind of tell us the pitfalls of the scouting of their leagues before and in what ways could we do it differently. And so, you know, we, you know, after listening to them, you know,

they wanted to be involved in events. They liked to compete, you know, they want to show what they have, but, you know, they want to do it in a way that they're, they know why they're doing it. They were there to show off their talent, and they knew that we'd be scouting, and they knew that we'd be asking them, you know, to see some of their players. There'd be no secrets, no surprises. Our scouts are there. And so we ran an event at Bell Gardens, the soccer complex there, which is another one that a lot of unaffiliated leagues are very familiar with.

And, you know, it was basically listening to them. What would they like to see from us? And, you know, the idea came through that collaboration with the presidents to do. event. So we're, we haven't done a lot of them. We've done a lot of small, smaller events since, but we're, we're kind of ramping up again to do something bigger that includes them again because it went so well. Yeah, I mean, wasn't one of the players you found in that, uh, invitational Antonio Leon? He, no, he actually wasn't playing in that. But there was another one, Kevin Jimenez, we have a few other boys in the academy that came through that.

Some younger ones as well, some very talented younger players, too, that were just off to the beginning, but we were able to bring them into the academy pretty quickly. And one of them's names Amir Ponsiano, who was another one of the, you know, he's one of our 2007 players, but he was playing in that as well. So now there was a lot, and it gave us a lot of guys to also track. and really gave us all of the coaches and the presidents of the leagues as of this really great resource now that we can call or they'll call us with a player that they have that they like us to look at. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah.

How much are you trying to align the youth team playing styles with the style of the first team under Bob Bradley? It's evolved now even closer. When we first started, obviously, we didn't, Bob hadn't even been hired yet. So a lot of the thoughts behind how we wanted to play had to do with myself and John Thornton sitting down, you know, on the marker board and in him, you know, having his thoughts and ideas on what he thought the first team might look like and also just my experience as well. And what might work really well in Southern California, obviously, his style of players we have here. And then once, you know, Bob got into his first and second seasons, myself. and our director of coaching Enrique Durand sit in all the meetings down in the mornings

and really get a first-hand view of what they're doing every day at training on top of watching training regularly and watching the first team play. We've now got a clear vision of what will fit into our team. So it's evolving slowly into closer look of what Bob and our LSC team looks like. But we still, I think, are how to play. plan going in. And it's not far off from what Bob had planned also. So it's really not been that

difficult to take it a little further step towards their play. What's your like 30 word or 50 word explanation of that plan? Like what's the style that you guys are trying to get get the boys plan? Well, I mean, it's very, I mean, I think again, now you watch our first game, you watch our teams. It's like, you know, very possession-based soccer team for sure. And very proactive defensive team also that wants to be in their half, win the ball early. But, you know, play methodically, possess the ball, pick the right moments to go forward. Obviously not necessarily very direct style of play. But, you know, we're at the academy still teaching, you know, some variety because

because also we think it's important. You know, we also want guys that are ready to play into a national team if possible. You know, they need to be able to play our style. but I think also they need to be able to adapt and be ready to play if they get called upon. I mean, we're really trying to, you know, get our academy players in any national team that they might be eligible for. So, you know, it could be El Salvador, it could be the U.S., it could be Mexico. So, you know, they need to be able to adapt, but clearly they get to see our first team play every week, and they get to hear the principles of that style.

Okay. When do you – well, how involved is Bob in the academy? Is he around much? Is he paying much? The beauty of our setup at LASC is that we are right in the same room with the first team staff. And Bob, you know, so far for me is a guy that's out in the open air with the rest of us and talking the game and talking to his staff and having meetings with his staff. But also, like I said, you have Enrique Duran and myself in the morning meetings when they're going over training,

going over the players, upcoming matches, post-game. You know, so we're, I mean, they've invited us in to everything they're doing. So I look at that as Bob's impact is allowing us to see firsthand everything that he's doing. There's, you know, we talk on the side at times. You know, he's from the beginning would come into some of our meetings and listen and add some things. But I think all of our staff would feel like it would say the same thing. They feel like they know him. They see him in the office, talk to him.

They hear him. It's a very open door. The practices are right below our offices. We stand on the balcony and watch and listen to him. I think it's just been all access is the reason why it works so well and how we feel connected to the first team. But Bob has been really, you know, he's been really gracious in opening the doors to us in that way. There's no really closed door meetings.

We see all the emotions. We see everything that goes along with it. So I think just all access has been the reason why it's gone so well. But any of us, I feel like you'll walk up to him and ask him a question or talk to him because he's right there standing in front of us most days in the office and down below when he's training. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm sure you get this question a lot and maybe it's annoying to you.

But when do you hope to get your first academy player, a first team debut? Is there like a target year in mind? Well, I mean, it's, again, I think it's hard to peg exactly. when a player is going to be ready. I think we have guys that have shown that they're capable. And I think now that we're playing U-17, but also, you know, keep in mind, our U-17 is almost entirely a year young. So we're talking about, you know, mostly 15-year-olds right now. So the oldest player we have is 15, which, you know, depending on needs and position and things like that, it's not easy to step into first team. Like you mentioned Tony Leone, who's

one of our very top players playing with the youth national teams. But it's not easy to put a defender in an MLS match, I think, versus being able to throw in an attacking player at times or even an outside back at times. A centerback is not an easy one to put in. But I would say we're certainly getting closer. And we have, you know, three to five of our academy players that are 15 getting somewhat regular training with the first team now.

So for me, it's important to familiarize, you know, Bob and Mike Sorber and let John Thornton see our guys compete in training to begin with. So they're getting familiar too. And now they're getting to show what they can do. And I think in time, you know, the choice is going to be to choose one to sign a contract. And then it'll be time to give them an opportunity to play. I think in what you've seen so far, there's a good connection there. But it's a very high level of play, a very, also I look the way our team plays. You need to be technically very good. You need to be very intense. intelligent and, you know, a 15-year-old doesn't always quite have that experience to step into a team like that.

It may take a little bit more time. But we're getting closer and I think the quality is there. Like I venture to say some of them in, and this is no insult to other MLS teams, but I think our market is so strong that they would probably already have signed up because of these guys. Yeah. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, Los Angeles is where it's at. I think it's pretty clear. Or maybe Texas or Texas.

Yeah. Well, so on Tony, you know, I think a lot of people in my little world are aware of him because it's not very often you have a gigantic 15-year-old centerback who looks really good. You know, like U-17 teams at the national level often struggle to find a pure centerback. So can you give us a little scouting report on him? Yeah, he, I think like I said, the sort of X factor for me with Tony is that, you know, the mentality is so strong too. I mean, he trains hard, he's competitive, he's, you know, he wants to learn, he listens,

he's, he's got a lot of positive things outside of what you just mentioned. I think, you know, listen, he's a, you know, you're also a little concerned when a kid is that big young and you, you know, you concern yourself with, okay, what's his, what's his height going to be, you know, when he's 17 and, you know, trying to predict that, but also the parent, The dad is tall. The uncles are tall. Very likely he's going to be, you know, at least 6-2-6-3. But, you know, you have a guy that's very athletic.

He can pass the ball, which also, I think, is going to align with what we're doing. You know, like I said, he's very competitive. And now he's getting the experience, you know. So, I mean, all the things he's done with us, he's training with our first team now, some of the weeks, some of the days of the week. You know, the national team travels, being able to go overseas and then doing stuff with the U.S. here, like the Concord Cap event that he had. But, you know, there's not, he's just gaining experience now.

I think in terms of talent, it's clear he's on track to be a professional. You know, he's the top center back in his age group in our country. So that tells you something. There is, without saying too much interest outside of the country in him, already people are tracking him. And along with, like, what we're doing with him, I think, you know, you have a guy that is on track to play professional soccer, hopefully with a national teams for a long time.

To me, it's just about gaining more experience for him. I think the talent is there. What do you do with a player like that? You know, considering what you said earlier, it's really difficult for a young centerback to step into a professional soccer team, particularly the best team in the league right now. Right.

What's going to happen with him when he's, you know, two years from now when he's 17, he's still probably not going to be ready for LASC's first team. You wouldn't think, maybe, but what's the path going to look like? Well, and that's, again, you know, I think there may be a chance in two years. By the time he's 17, for me, that's a lot of time in youth development. So, you know, we're already, like I said, he's spending time with the first team. He's having time with some of the coaching staff from the first team.

We're showing him, you know, we have a, you know, individual development plan for Tony. So outside of what he does on the regular basis with the academy, we also have our own plan for him, which includes extra work on the ball video, some strength and conditioning, things that we think they're going to help develop him. But have him watching first team video and less breaking down video that he can see and learn from Eddie Segaro, Walker Zimmerman, guys that are playing in our first team. And pushing him to watch as much top-level soccer as possible. And again, having him spend time now with professionals. And, you know, I said it to our, you know, to our staff and Tony's first training session that it was almost a perfect day.

You know, it's like he won a couple tackles. He got beat real bad. He missed a pass or two. He made a couple amazing passes. And for that to start leveling out where he's having more success with that experience against that level player. I mean, you know, the fact that he's already playing internationally, all of these things add up to a guy that's going to have the experience.

And he's getting the attention from all. our staff in terms of his individual plan as well. So I, you know, he figured he's going to have quite a few more international trips with the national teams over the next two years. He's a player that's in a youth World Cup year. So he's going to get an opportunity likely to play in a youth World Cup. Right. And these things to me add up to the experience he needs to being ready.

Okay. Okay, great. Switching gears a little bit. You spent time, I think, at some of the best academies in Spain, clubs like Barcelona, Villarreal and Valencia. What are the biggest differences between those academies and the development academies in California and what do Spanish academies do especially well?

And can it be replicated in the U.S.? Again, I think what we fight against typically is culture. You know, I think you can't deny what's going on in terms of the culture of the game in our country. I mean, again, I think that's going to be our battle, which, again, I think we underestimate how really young a soccer country we are. But certainly the training, you can watch how they train their players. You can watch

the determination of these kids. You can watch, you know, boys growing up when the history of the game is in their family, up to their grandparents. And, you know, their dream is to play for that team. And they don't have, you know, all the other options that maybe we have here, you know, in Spain. There's such a, such a history. But, you know, the training, listen, I think we've all learned a lot from how the teams train. The U.S. soccer has been, you know, sending their TAs. I'm not the only one to overseas to track what they're doing there and watch the training and just the environment.

But, you know, to me, I just think they're engrossed in a soccer culture. It's very hard for us to replicate that. But yet, you know, to me, when someday when the MLS Cup finals being played and none of our leagues are playing because everyone wants to watch. that final, I think that's going to be the day that we've progressed to the point where all soccer players are die hard trying to get into a first team and get into a professional team and train in that manner. But, you know, we we have to work hard to replicate the environment more for me than just the training because the training, you know, listen, guys are on

YouTube now watching training from every, you know, top team in the world. I used to watch live training when Landon Donovan and Yergen-Kinsman guys were training at Byron Munich, I could watch them training live. So you can get a lot of information from watching, oh yeah, watching all these things. But the environment part is the difficult part and that's where my job's here too is to make sure it stays extremely competitive. You know, we're bringing in new players on trial

every week in our academy. You know, we're setting more really specific personal goals for each player. We are trying to, not just make it hard, but make it serious in a way that they know we're not going to be satisfied with just showing up and training

like you would with a recreational club. I mean, this is a competitive environment, so our job is to make it harder. So we often play two and, you know, one and two years up. We play friendlies outside of the Development Academy all the time against top teams, all types of teams older than ours. So our players face a lot of competitive

situations, I think more than probably most, which is, it's another filter also. Players are going to be able to keep up with that and also enjoy that or they're going to struggle with it. And to me, those are players that may not be suited to be professional. So we add challenges. And I think that's one of the things that we all have to do because it automatically isn't happening here in terms of the competitiveness and the diehardness of players wanting to be at that next level. So that's our job. I think environment is as important as the training. Yeah, totally. Totally makes sense. What's the, maybe that's the answer to this, but what's the most important part of developing kids into pros and what's not as important as people think it is?

Well, I think we're learning more and more, especially in our club, that, you know, athleticism is a peace, you know, but intelligence becomes a huge deciding factor and intelligent meaning decision making and, you know, managing pressure and knowing how to gauge how you defend, you know, and I think those for us are starting to be, you know, even bigger deciding factors who love, you know, obviously we have a lot of great athletes in the U.S., but I think now we're, you know, we're looking at it in that way too. It's like when we're scouting, you know, what kind of. decisions they make, how is their first touch? Of course, there's a certain amount of athleticism you

need, but I think we've overplayed that in the past. And now, I think especially, you know, again, I like that in our first team in our academy now that we are looking at quite a few other qualities versus just athleticism before. I think it was people would go out and see a kid that's running past everybody or who's dominating the field. And now, you know, we're looking to see what he does with the ball, the decisions he makes. And, you know, so I would say, decision-making and mentality are starting now. Technical ability's got to be there, of course, but over just pure athleticism. I think we're seeing that those qualities are where we're focusing more than before.

Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. The U-15 team, as I kind of mentioned at the top of the show, was very successful last year. Had the most wins in the age group. How important are results? And what's your philosophy on that sort of results, development dilemma, I guess I'll call it.

Well, I mean, for me, it's not really a dilemma because we, you know, and again, I can speak about our program. I mean, it's a player development program. It's not a team development program. Now, it's easy for me to say because I think also we have a lot of talent here. And I think there's, you know, without question, we work very hard on developing the player. Those players combined together are going to win a lot of games. And they have. But I never have yet come to my staff and said, hey, you guys need to win the league or you need to win this tournament or you need to win a match.

It's really all about every week what we're talking about is how the players are performing. We have, you know, certainly we have the way we like to play is foul play, principles. You know, competitiveness is a part of that. And wanting to win and be successful is a part of that. but that's not what we're discussing every week. Yet, of course, we all are naturally coaching at this level, or working this level because we are competitive, but that is not the goal is team development.

For a youth academy, it's player development. So, you know, to me, it's not our dilemma right now. Of course, I'm sure, you know, Bob is, our team is playing in a certain way, but also, you listen, ownership alike to see them succeed playing that way. course we as well but now that is not what we talk about um we love to win we love to win and we do not like to lose but that's not the discussion on monday after the matches it's about the players and how each guy performed and what could we do with them this week this month the rest of the year to help them develop further but we have so you know i'll say plenty of talent that those players

put together in a match are going to win plenty yeah right how do you assess that's more of our That's more of our concern. Last year, like you mentioned, we won so many games. And guess what? This year we're playing them all up a year so that they will not win every game. Right, right. So how do you assess your coaches, your academy coaches? What are the benchmarks for success?

Yeah, it's, again, it's based on player development. And it's, you know, how many players do we retain? How many players can play up a year? we do have an IDP and individual development plan for every player. So we rate the players at the beginning of the year, reassess the middle of the year, and do a final assessment at the end of the year. So for me,

that is where I look at how, whether our coaches are succeeded or not, if we're seeing improvement in their individual plans and guys that are getting opportunities, like I said, to play, we have a discussion on who will play up every week. And so that's a marker for some of our staff also to see how many guys can you put up a year and then be successful playing a year up. You know, so there, you know, there are the criteria in how we evaluate the staff is based on the improvement of a player. Okay.

What type of continuous education do you require from your coaches just like keeping their licenses up, essentially? Yeah, I mean, that's part of it. But, of course, I guess so we're so fortunate. teacher right in front of us all the time with our first team. And, you know, I, again, that's something I look for in hiring. It's, you know, obviously they, U.S. Soccer and the Development Academy is requiring a certain amount of licensing, but that's just one criteria. I mean, I'm really looking for guys that are hungry to keep learning and gain more knowledge.

And of course, just what they can get from us will be the beginning, being our own staff, myself, or, you know, Enrique Duran, who we have our experience, guys that are hungry to to take anything they can get from us to begin with. And then that's step one. And then it's guys that want to see what our first team is doing. And then it's, you know, seeing which guys are getting their work done so they can sit down and make sure they watch a championship game. So we can talk about that afterward.

And then, you know, I've had guys that have asked within the staff saying, hey, you know, I want to study some more. Is there something you guys can recommend? And we have, you know, we do have some partnerships developing with LASC now. So I think you'll see some trips of our staff going and seeing how some other clubs work. I mean, again, we've signed two guys from Fenneral. So, you know, I think you won't be surprised to see some of our staff down there to see what the magic is going on in their academy to, you know,

a guy like Diego Rossi or Brian Rodriguez now can play in our first game at 19, 20 years old. There's something amazing going on there. And it may just be environment as well, but, you know, we promote it. And, you know, we give guys time off if they need it. We have a couple of our staff working in the national teams, too. Our goalkeeper coach particularly has been taking quite a few trips with the U.S. youth national teams. And so we make time for that as well.

But, again, we're looking for guys that are hungry and, you know, seek it out themselves as well. But as a club, we'll start doing some things outside of the country. But right now, I think there's a lot going on just inside our business. buildings. I want to go back to those 90 league presidents who visited. And I wonder what the response was. Like, had they been, I mean, was there any sense in which they had been neglected up to that point and hadn't been reached out to in that way by anybody else? Well, I would, you know, without being negative or overly negative, their biggest concern to me was people coming into their league and just approaching players and, you know, in essence, taking the players

into their, you know, their youth club or their academy without even comment. And, you know, they want to, like I said, the least we can do is give them credit for providing a place for these guys to play. You know, some of the, you know, unaffiliers have exceptional coaches that, you know, unpaid guys that are given their heart and soul to help these kids play and some of them were just neighborhood boys and uh i think that was the thing that bothered them the most that people would just come in talk directly to the player you know kind of remove them from their league and never say a word and um you know to me that was you know that was important to hear i mean i also know sometimes there's a thought that you know when an academy or a club approach a player that the

you know they're protective and they don't want him to leave and they try to keep him there longer. But I have not found that so far because of the way, you know, we had an open approach to them. We said, listen, we'll call you first. And we hope you'll, you know, you'll get behind this boy to come have an opportunity with us. There's also not a guarantee just because we identify them. So they may be back. We hope you'll take them back with open arms. It's like, yeah, that can be part of the process too. Not everyone makes it. But, you know, because I think we opened the door and we have this conversation. We did an event was clearly going to be recruiting and IDing players. And there was no question. We had them put together a selection team for an age group. So they sent their best.

It was like, let's show you what we have in our league. And let's see if MLS, it's almost the trophy was, does MLS pick or does LAFC pick one of our players? And that ought to be the goal. But I think because of the way some of the scouting recruiting was done before, they were they were burned by that process. So that was the biggest thing they mentioned. It just didn't like people coming in, you know, out of nowhere and just, you know, going straight to the parents and the player and next thing you know, they'd never see them again. And all they could really ask for is to get some credit and some respect for it. And we made an effort, you know, even with the clubs that players came from, you know, they are, we had to them all make sure there was a gracious thank you. Last year we did videos on Instagram where each player, new player came on and said, thank you to their former coach, former club, you know, just to make sure they know we are aware of where this boy began his development. Man, a little respect does go a long way, doesn't it? Really, it did.

I'm telling you, it still is. And so, you know, and I, listen, I worked in a youth, you know, youth club for quite a few years. The L.A. Galaxy South Bay was a club that I developed. And it was a pretty, you know, it was a pretty large club at that time. And so I was going through that process, too. So I, one of the first galaxy teams that were formed was kind of players that came from my club. So I've been there too where people are coming in and recruiting and, you know, I, you know, fortunately, I was a player myself.

I wanted to see that these boys got opportunities and my club was very close to the galaxy and made every bit of sense that if they were good enough that they should play there. But it's, you know, in doing it right, that should be recognized. Nice. How much do you recruit? Well, let me ask this. These independent leagues, my understanding is they're mostly Latino leagues, right? Is that? Okay.

I just don't want to take this. Yeah, I would say, you know, I would say mostly, but we're, you know, we're making an effort to be like the first team and like the club's mantras. I mean, we've gone into almost all the communities. And in the leagues themselves, you know, again, that's, you know, like I said, people, you can different. differentiate some of the leagues by whether they're, you know, being run by someone that's, you know, from El Salvador or someone that's from Mexico or someone's from Honduras. And we have kids from all those different communities too. So it's Hispanic leagues, but mostly. But we're also now that real connected to the black and African groups in LA as well. I feel we probably have more, you know, the black players in our academy than than most that I've seen. And some of them are islanders. Some of them are, you know, kids that were born here. Their parents were, you know, in American sports growing up. And we have such a variety that, you know, we're not, we're paying attention to that.

We're going to be involved in a clinic coming up that's going to be very much in the black community. But I, like I said, you know, purposely want to make sure, again, it's awesome. It's not just to say we have one, but there's talent in, you know, the Japanese community, the Korean community here, you know, is, it's a little bit more under the radar where the Hispanic leagues are on every corner that there is a field to play on, where, you know, some of the other is Japanese, Korean, even the African groups and black groups are a little bit lower under the radar. So we've got to seek it out. But, you know, I, you know, I don't sleep at night because I don't want to miss talent, you know. And so we're still working in all those

areas, too, to broaden it a little more. But Hispanic, it's... population is so massive and so clearly soccer mad that it's easy for us to find. Right. How much do you recruit directly against the galaxy? And how does that typically go? You know, so far I haven't really, you know, I don't really feel that kind of competition yet. You know, we're out there doing our thing. I think we came out, you know, with all guns blaring at the beginning,

to find talent and put our teams together, and I think it's going to be a healthy competition. But so far, I feel like they were obviously very established in where they were with their teams. We were coming in brand new. I didn't feel like that was what it was about competing with them. I think it will become more like that, but I think as we become more established.

But so far, yeah, you'll all hear about it from kids that were scouting that, hey, you know, Galaxy are interested as well, and that's all great. But, you know, I think we feel with the way we're trying to play, our staff, other things that, you know, our profile will be a little different than theirs. So I think that come time, we'll be looking for a little different player. What are the plans for introducing a U-19 team? Is that going to happen, I guess, like two years from now?

Well, it's been a natural progression. So, you know, we've added a team every year. And so that's, you know, currently my expectation is that we'll be doing that again. I mean, it hasn't been confirmed by the club. But, you know, we're planning for that. Obviously, we have an 04 group. It would be quite a jump to move into under 19. But we do have a couple very talented 2003s on our radar and are obviously very aware

and could put together an amazing team predict. quickly. But, you know, I'm ready. If the club is ready for next year, then I'm ready to put together a group that's going to play at that level. But, you know, right now the focus is obviously on this 04 and a couple of the 03s that we've brought in. But it's a natural progression. And, you know, everyone asks a lot about USL as well. It's like at some point, you know, to have all the tools, which would be, you know, under 11 right now to under 19 and a USL team would be the ideal scenario for us to have every tool to develop a player that's ready for the first team. So, you know, we've seen it progress year by year so far,

which has been a nice steady, steady progress. So, yeah, my expectation will keep making another step forward each year. But we'll see as we get closer to the new year, whether that's going to be 100% of the plans. Right. Okay. How do you instill a culture of, you know, play for LAAFC until I'm ready for a jump to a top five league in Europe, rather than just this, like, get to Europe as soon as possible. That seems at least somewhat prevalent among, you know, talented young players in this country.

I mean, just across town, Alex Mendez and Ullianez left the Galaxy without, you know, ever signing a deal. And there are, you know, there are plenty of other examples. Brian Keo at D.C. United is now at Orange County. Right. How do you, um, does the question make sense? No, it does. It does. But I also, you know, and we've had these conversations inside our office. And, you know, John Thorrington signed with Man United at 18. And I signed a professional contract at 18 here in L.A. And, you know, we have guys with experience growing up as, you know, supposed top youth players. I think, you know, in the galaxy might even say this now. I think, you know, Alex and Uli, who were also, they were guys that were in my training centers during that time also. Frankie Amaya, you know, there were, Julian Arajo was actually in my training centers with a guy we found through, you know, our scouting and youth national teams when I was our TA on

the West. Taylor Booth actually was a guy that was new into the national teams during that period. So I got to see a lot of these guys, too, are now signing and considered overseas. But I think the galaxy would probably tell you that, you know, maybe the decision to sign them was where they missed a little bit versus just the player's ambition. I think those boys, were wanting to play for Galaxy. I think the decision to sign them may have been what was missed. I think, you know, many people thought they had the talent,

but for whatever reason. Or, again, I'm not on the inside. It could be the type of offer they're getting that they feel makes sense for them to sign. But again, I think that's, to me, being sure and making that assessment that they're capable and ready to play for our professional team, we need to make the move in time.

And I think we're staying very closely aware of that. But we also, in John said it goes, we hope we develop a player that could play in a top team in Europe. Of course, we'd love for them to continue to develop with us first and then make that move when they're 100% mature enough and ready. But part of the goal is also to develop a guy that can play at that level. our level and that level eventually. But of course, like I said, we don't want to miss out on the continued development,

a chance for them to put some time into our program before. But I think we have to be very clear on our assessment. And if the time is right, make a clear decision that, yes, this is a player we can play for our first game that we're going to sign him. Or in some cases, you know, if they decide to leave, it's understood that they weren't players that we chose for our first team level. So I think the assessment part is super important, and we need to be very clear on that and be intentional about, you know, really being sure we keep them or if there are better

opportunities for them elsewhere and they don't suit our club, which may sound crazy because people think automatically, you know, if they could play someone in Europe, they must be good enough for an MLS team. Well, I don't necessarily think that's always true. I do think there's quite a push in Germany particularly, you know, coming in and picking up players that they feel have the potential to play over there. And they're willing to make the investment. But I think you'll see as time goes that, you know, there may be a case where we're not interested in finding a boy and he finds his way overseas. That's all fair.

But we need to be very clear on assessment. So nobody, you know, as we say, gets away before we have that opportunity with them. And I think enough's happened now. You know, FC Dallas, RSL, I think, have seen some players leave that they may have wanted to sign, but made the move maybe based on that. I think most of them would have signed for their MLS team. Yeah, had the move been made more decisively by the club, essentially. That's my opinion.

But I don't sit in there, Pete, either. So I'm not judging. We're now just getting to that moment ourselves. Right, right. How has the have the Mexican and U.S. soccer federations been by and announced themselves to you? Yeah. Yes, they have. No, when I first started, you know, Juan Carlos Ortega, who's now the involved with L.A. Galaxy,

was in charge of the youth in Mexico. We had meetings. He came and watched our teams. So one of our goalkeepers was in every camp last year for the 2004 group in Mexico, Donovan Paul Marys. And now one of the newer people in their organization has been in to meet us. And now they've made it very clear. They're focusing very hard on the U.S.

And they plan to do some training centers and some ID camps in the U.S. Yikes. Yeah, well, one's going on right now in the inland area in Southern California. So who's been more aggressive, USSF or at the FMF? I've had more contact with U.S. soccer. I mean, we have, you know, I guess he's called the player ID manager in the Southwest, Henry Bronner, who's, we talk to regularly. We're in regular communication. You know, we want players to play for a national team.

And obviously, U.S. has been the easiest to access. You know, again, we had a meeting with the FMF a month ago, kind of them telling us their intentions, the youth aspect. And, you know, for me, the goal is to have as many of our players as possible playing internationally. That's an experience. And when I was a TA, it was interesting. There were some clubs it was difficult to convince them that, you know, there's nothing for a player than putting on a national team jersey and playing against another country for an experience that you as an academy cannot give them. So international experience, the pride of playing for your country, there are certain things that, you know, again, I, nothing to speak negatively about a academy, but you cannot produce that.

So, you know, that's a goal of mine also to make sure they're being seen and evaluated and hopefully chosen, even if it's like playing in a Concord Calf event or just representing them in a friendly, you know, we're looking to do that. But U.S. we've had the most access to. Obviously, the FMF has made it clear that. they're around and they know what we've done so far in MLS academies and that they'll be watching and that they're going to be putting on some events here in the U.S. Yeah, I mean, there's obviously quite a good connection with the Galaxy too right now as well because of, you know, Dennis DeCloser used to be the technical director for the entire federation. So.

Mm-hmm. Exactly. Now, we're, I, yeah, I'm trying to be mindful of that as well that, you know, with the Hispanic population here in LA, that that can be an excessive. exceptional recruiting tool also to be that connected to the FMF and be able to get players a chance in Mexico if they're not getting a chance here. So I'm aware of that. Same reason why we want to stay very connected with the FMF also and make sure we've

provided all opportunities to our guys. But we're aware. Yeah. Okay. Just a couple more questions. Thanks for all this time. how is how do you think the the DA overall is doing I mean you talked about the you talked about some of the extra things you guys do to bring your to put put your kids in tougher situations

and give them higher levels of competition let them play for national teams but how's the level of competition within the DA like is it good enough yeah I mean the DA for me has been is it's been a great place for us to work on developing our players and I and I've said this a couple times to other people that have been a little more critical of the DA. Listen, the DA is a tool for us to develop players. Now, age groups are age groups. If I want a tougher game for my players, then we're playing kids up. The teams we play against are challenging and, you know, they have got good coaching and

there's certain standards that U.S. soccer is asking from them. So I know we're going to get a good match. Now, I need to evaluate the level of the club that we're playing against and say, okay, is this the right game for a true age group game? Last year, we sent an entire younger group to play against a club because we felt like that was going to be the right game. No insult to the other club, but the league is organized. You know, it's been consistent for us.

We have to choose how we want to use the league and the age groups. Now, I'm happy to see this year, you know, they've created another competition, what they're calling the DA Cup, that has put more of the top, clubs in the bracket to play each other so that we do get matches against mostly or more the top level ones, obviously MLS group, but also academies that have shown they can compete with the MLS groups. So, you know, they are making an effort.

I see that I was in on those conversations a couple of years ago trying to figure what's the best way moving forward. You know, does MLS have its own bracket? Do we, you know, tier the group so the top groups are playing against each other, not losing the integrity of the league, you know, and maybe some clubs saying, hey, we're in the league because we want to play the top teams well. I think it's a good idea to make them also realize they need to compete at the high level if they want to play against the highest level teams in the DA as well. So it's improved with the DA Cup. And again, I see our job is

to make sure we're using the league in the best way possible. And that will certainly probably be for us playing a lot more players up. Okay. All right. Well, I'll just end with a request. You know, when you do get that U-19 team up and running, you guys should stream the L-AFC Galaxy U-19 matches on YouTube. Oh, man. Listen, they've been, you know, Barn-Burner competitive matches from the beginning. Our first U-12 match we ever had with them,

the beginning of the 3252 was there with drums and singing and smoke and just short of lighting a bonfire during the match. So, no, they will be, this is, it's such a great thing for L.A., but it has become even on the youth side, one of the best derby's classicals, I think, in the U.S. now. So we would love that too. The boys, they can't wait for those games. So, and I'm sure, same for Galaxy. So it'll be, we'll try to do it justice like the first team matches have been,

even though haven't always turned out perfect for us, but man, who couldn't watch that, who didn't want to watch that game? Most entertaining games all year. Yeah. For sure. Anything you wish I would have asked you or something you brought up? No, I mean, not necessarily. The only thing I would probably add to all of this is I think what I'm noticing is there's a lot of critique going on of whether it be MLS, whether it be U.S. soccer, the DA. You know, my objective is, you know, if we're insulting those things, then you're insulting me. And that's not in a negative way, or you're critiquing me. So my attitude is, listen, I'm involved in this game at a high level.

It's my job to improve the things that we all critique. And I could spend a lot of time blogging negatively. But for me, it's our job and all of us to keep improving the game here. And whether that's us trying to develop a player that can, you know, play overseas or play for our national teams at a high level, I feel that responsibility. And I think, you know, more of us maybe should do that versus, just critiquing how a U.S. soccer is operating. Listen, I'm on the ground every single day with a staff,

with a great group of players, in a great club. And so, you know, just keep working at it. I feel that's our responsibility. I just feel like often we're, it's easy to criticize. And maybe this is, you know, I've been around, you know, I played in the first Youth World Cup with the U.S. ever qualified for a long time ago in 1981. So I've seen a lot of it,

but that's a choice you know i i want to keep progressing this and i don't want to waste my time on being critical of everything because i'm a part of that too so that's just my personal statement no that's a good reminder it's a good reminder i think i can slip into being too critical sometimes too and i never played in a youth world cup so no worry um well thank you so much for your time todd i really appreciate it it's it's fascinating to hear what you guys are up to and well I'll be watching. Thanks a lot, Adam. I appreciate it.