NSC'S CHIEF SCOUT CHANCE MYERS KNOWS THE IMPORTANCE OF MLS ACADEMIES
NASHVILLE – Last week, while the best players in American soccer went head-to-head in Major League Soccer and the USL Championship, the future of American soccer was on display at the 2019 Generation Adidas Cup in Frisco, Texas.
Formerly known as the SUM U-17 Cup, the Generation Adidas Cup is an annual tournament for all MLS U-17 academy teams and includes academy teams from across the world. It is designed to test the quality of MLS academies against elite international competition, as well as offer a unique opportunity for player development.
In this year’s competition, Tijuana’s (Liga MX) academy took home the Premier Division title, while Seattle Sounders’ academy won the Champions Division, marking the first time an MLS academy side has won that division under the current format.
The technical staff were watching last week’s competition closely and working to begin identifying how Nashville SC could shape its academy.
"It's easy to go and watch these tournaments and see who the best players are," said Nashville SC Chief Scout Chance Myers said. "The difficult task is to go and watch individual players who don't stand out and focus on how you see them potentially developing in the near, mid or long term in regard to your first team."
The tournament is a good indicator of how ready academy players are for the next level because of the way the MLS academies are pitted against academies from some of the top clubs across the globe. This affords them the opportunity to see how they stack up against players that could be taking the pitch on some of the biggest soccer stages in the world.
With the GA Cup done and dusted, the technical staff will continue to scout the best young talent in the country and around the world and start to get a feel for who could make their way into the Nashville SC MLS academy.
