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It was a bit of a downer month for the development of Vancouver Whitecaps prospects (most months are if i’m honest). But let’s get into it in any case.
Anthony Blondell:
Last month we got conformation that Blondell is indeed alive. This month we learn that he may have rediscovered his shooting boots. Blondell played 75 minutes and scored against Cobresel, played 90 minutes and scored against Unión La Calera, played 90 minutes against Colo-Colo, and played 90 minuts and scored against Curicó Unido. Huachipato currently sit 11th out of 16 in Chillean Primera Division.
U23s:
The under 23 development team was scheduled to play two games against FC Edmonton. Unfortunately the CSA stepped in to prevent these games from being played for some unknown reason. Whoops! So all we’ve got is a closed door game against the University of Washington which is alleged to have finished 1-1 (there is no information available on the website regarding who played or scored). Also apparently this happened:
Whitecaps U23s beat VMSL side Rino's Tigers 4-2 at UBC tonight. 'Caps went two up before being pegged back to 2-2. They grabbed a third before half time. Rino's then changed 10 of their 11 players for the second half, but 'Caps could only manage one more goal for a 4-2 win. #VWFC
— AFTN (@aftncanada) April 25, 2019
The Whitecaps have yet to acknowledge that this friendly happened but i’ll take Michael’s word for it.
Next month there is a friendly against TSS Rovers scheduled. After that there are no more games listed on the website. Who knows if there are more games lined up or if they only managed to get games scheduled until May. Honestly I wouldn’t put it past them to run into a problem that everyone and their dog could have foreseen by not having their development team in a league.
U19s
Scoring Leaders:
17 games
Alade: 7
Fry: 6
Raimbault: 5
Vasco Fry is scoring quite a lot of goals for a centre midfielder, which is encouraging. New Zealander Thomas Raimbault has also scored at a pretty impressive rate considering about half his appearances have come from the bench. Although he leads the team in scoring i’m a bit disappointed in the scoring rate of Alade. 7 goals in 17 appearances as a 2000 born striker isn’t good enough if you want to make the jump to MLS.
U17s
The under 17s put in a pretty impressive performance at the Generation Adidas Cup. Based on results they seem to be the strongest group of the three academy teams.
GOALS:
— Farhan Devji (@farhandevji) April 20, 2019
Emiliano Brienza: 4
Kam Habibullah: 4
Massud Habibullah: 4
Owen Antoniuk: 3
Simon Colyn: 2
Brandon Cambridge: 1
Frixos Petsas: 1#GACup #VWFC
Chituru Odunze had four clean sheets throughout the tournament, while Ben Alexander (only 15 years old) had one himself.#GACup #VWFC
— Farhan Devji (@farhandevji) April 20, 2019
Scoring leaders:
17 games
M. Habibullah: 12
De Brienne/Cambridge: 5
Brienza: 4
One thing you hope to see in prospects is year on year improvement. Massud Habibullah, the less hyped of the Habibullah brothers, has shown that in spades. In 17/18 he scored only 2 times in 14 appearances. In 18/19 he has 12 goals in 17 league appearances, 4 goals and 2 assists at the Generation Adidas Cup, and earned himself a call up as an alternate player for Canada’s u17s.
U15s:
Scoring leaders:
13 games
Afework: 12
Pereira: 4
Hardman: 3
I urge caution at reading to much into these totals as we’re literally talking about 13 and 14 year olds but, man, there sure is an early candidate for the golden boy of this generation.