Thursday, July 9, 2009

Galaxy Finish Sixth at SUM U-17 Cup

The LA Galaxy Youth Academy returned from Colorado today after finishing sixth in the Third Annual SUM U-17 Cup at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

The Galaxy, opened the tournament on Saturday, falling 2-1 to the eventual runners-up FC Dallas. The next day, LA claimed their first points of the tournament, drawing 1-1 with D.C. United before beating the eventual champions 4-2 on penalties.

All teams had the day off on Monday before returning to action on Tuesday for their final games of the opening round of the competition. The Galaxy took on the Chicago Fire and exploded offensively in the first half, scoring five times en route to a 5-4 win over the Fire.

After each team had played three games, the final standings were set with the top two teams playing for the championship and the rest playing for final positioning. The Galaxy were drawn into the 5 vs. 6 game, where they fell 2-1 to Houston to complete the tournament with a 1-2-1 record.

To read recaps of all of these games, as well as all other games at the SUM U-17 Cup, click here.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

How many teams participated in this tourney? I hope we didn't finish 6 out of 6...

Edge said...

where are the training pictures ? you guy dont post many of those anymore

charlesj27 said...

Actually, it's a good, strengthening, and learning opportunity for many of the MLS clubs' youth academies to get the opportunity to face off against each other during the summer season. I'm glad that our U-17 players got this opportunity to go adn participate. My feeling is that the staff/coaches will have quickly found out at the level of training, education, staffing, experience that are available to these youngsters at that age level within the MLS club structure. Remember, these young, aspiring hopefuls are getting to know first-hand what it truly means and especially requires to be professionals and to be very good at what they do in the professional environment. Our club is learning what deficiencies in the youth academy system it must address and take care of. There are a lot of strong, committed, incredibly-driven youngsters and parents in this great country spread out all-over. But, it takes so much practice, coaching, games, and fortitude to make in up the academy ladder: from U-15 through U-23s. This is why when college rookies hoping to make it into the MLS and don't after a season quickly learns that their efforts and survival from that point on has to be in the PDL or USL-II.

charlesj27 said...

Can we please get updates adn pics on this week's training sessions? Are the players, coaches, and trainers getting ready, geared-up for the physical, mental, and absolute attitude foray that they are going to face against our rivals, Chivas USA. Our players better be amped, alert, and ferrociously strong & defiant from the get-go! This game is going to be about how the 11 v 11 will start and disrupt and disturb one another. Our players have to be in that battle-ready zone.

Anonymous said...

Yup, they did.

Anonymous said...

There were 10 teams at this year's SUM Cup, don't all MLS teams have academies yet? And what was the format? How could we be the only team to beat the "champions" but still finish 6th. SUM should do a better job of covering this event.