USL Pro and NASL have been playing for a month now, but it was this past weekend that showcased some of the excitement and potential for both leagues. The Ottawa Fury won their first game of the season 4-0 over the Carolina Railhawks with Oliver Mintel, a player who trained at PSV Eindhoven and played in Portuguese Super Liga, scoring a hat-trick. Meanwhile, new expansion club the Sacramento Republic played their home opener in front of 20,000 plus, and unfortunately for their fans they lost the game 2-1.
The new clubs have brought increased excitement to both leagues with Ottawa and the Indy Eleven being competitive through their first three games in NASL, even though both teams fell short to a club with a lot of NASL experience in the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. I feel the overall success of both expansion clubs will be them getting used to the quality of play in the NASL and them gelling as a club. I still have high expectations for the Fury as I mentioned in my NASL preview, and I like some of the newer moves the Indy Eleven have made since my preview, including the signing of AJ Corrado who I had ranked in my 2014 MLS Draft Prospect list.
On the USL Pro side, all three expansion teams have won games, although this can also be a product of the schedule where these teams have mostly played each other as well the OC Blues who have struggled so far. On the positive side, both Oklahoma and Sacramento have shown an ability to score goals, which was a concern going into the season. The standout team, at least on the pitch, have been the LA Galaxy II who are tied in first with Orlando on 14 points, although they have played a number of times at home and more games overall than the rest of the teams in the league.
With USL Pro offering their games on YouTube, I have gotten a chance to watch quite a few and would suggest the LA Galaxy II are the most entertaining with their combination of youth and prospects. The club is playing a very offensive brand of soccer and the only issue has been their attendance with only 400 seeing them play at home a week ago. Personally, I think these youth and prospects heavy teams provide the best brand of lower league professional soccer in North America, however, perhaps like other sports, having the team play in another city other than the 1st team club home will be a better method to encourage people to attend.
In terms of Canadian MLS interest, Toronto FC affiliate the Wilmington Hammerheads has only played three games so far compared to LA Galaxy II’s seven and they have a record of 1-1-1 with Toronto FC Home Grown Player Quilan Roberts in net each game allowing five goals while making eight saves. Meanwhile, TFC draft pick Daniel Lovitz has played every minute scoring a goal and an assist, and Manny Aparicio has yet to make an appearance. With Toronto having large depth issues with the first team its unlikely more players will be loaned out unless they are part of the TFC Academy team and signed to a Home Grown contract in the coming months.
Probably the biggest disappointment has been the play of the Vancouver Whitecaps affiliate the Charleston Battery, who only have two draws in six games. They have had a tough early schedule, including playing Orlando twice, although another issue has been the integrating of the Whitecaps loanees. One bright spot has been Mamadou Diouf who scored the first goal in USL pro this season and so far has 6 shots in 181 minutes of play, however, because the Battery have such great depth they have had to share minutes which was an issue the Rochester Rhinos suffered last year.
On the positive development side all Whitecaps loanees have played, including Omar Sagaldo, who at least looks healthy but hasn't made an impact and might struggle for minutes as the season progress with Dane Kelly returning to health. The Battery have a busy May with six games scheduled, all against the tougher teams in the league, including a home-and-home with Wilmington. They will need to turn it around this month if they are going to finish as high as I projected in the preseason and be a playoff side.
Last February I wrote an article on the top 20 overlooked players by the MLS, and like my previous college related articles, I will try to continue the goal of making people aware of players who I feel have the potential to be playing in the MLS. Fittingly, four of the players who performed strongly in the first month, not only in my opinion but also receiving awards, were in my list of twenty, while the fifth is a Canadian who was loaned out to the detriment of his MLS club. I do not include Kevin Molino and Darwin Ceren as they have already been given MLS contracts by Orlando and their performances in the first month have shown why.
Kyle Porter
After a great 2013 season, which was well documented on RedNation Online, Kyle Porter was surprisingly loaned out to DC United affiliate the Richmond Kickers at the start of the season. Porter showed his quality scoring three goals in two games with the Kickers, having six shots in the process and was named to the USL Pro team of the week twice. All of this during a time when DC United has struggled to score goals in MLS until this past weekend. The Kickers have a number of interesting DC United prospects, who if not given a chance by United, should be key players on expansion MLS clubs over the next few years.
Danny Berrera
I had Danny Berrera as my number one prospect overlooked by MLS. He is now the key playmaker on the San Antonio Scorpions in the NASL who became the first team to beat the Cosmos in New York this past weekend. Berrera is playing an attacking midfield role in a very talented lineup that includes Canadian Shaun Saiko, El Salvadorian Richard Menjivar and former Whitecaps and Toronto FC striker Eric Hassli. Berrera has two assists so far and Hassli scored on his rebound to beat the Cosmos 1-0. Disciplinary issues are still a concern as he also has two yellow cards in the first three games of this season.
Miguel Ibarra
Minnesota are the only team in both NASL and USL Pro to win all of their games so far this season and partly to the midfield play of Miguel Ibarra. This season the NASL have elected to use a different statistical provider whose information has been quite poor, although via game video Ibarra has been in the centre of most build up play from defense to offense for Minnesota and also scored a goal this season. Doubted mostly due to size, it's time for MLS to start noticing what the twenty four year old could provide to a team.
Daniel Steres
I had Steres listed as number six in my overlooked players after scoring seven goals and three assists last season in USL Pro with Wilmington. Since he has joined the LA Galaxy II as one of their senior player signings he has already scored two goals as a central defender. Steres has also taken a leadership role with former Toronto FC player Logan Emory trying to organize a team who are new to the pro game. Playing on LA Galaxy II will improve his profile and I imagine he will be with a MLS club next season.
JC Banks
JC Banks is a player I have liked for a number of seasons, although he struggled a bit last season with Rochester including missing some games through injury. Banks actually played Indoor Soccer this past off-season in the MISL which also included Ottawa Fury players Tony Donatelli and Sinisa Ubiparipovic. These additional games has helped JC going into this season and he already has three goals, including one against the Chicago Fire reserves. I don't expect Banks to continue scoring at this same pace although a decent goal total will improve his awareness to MLS scouts.
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