The Impact U16s ended their USSDA season on June 6 with a 4-2 win over Beachside SC. Despite the team not qualifying for the playoffs, some goals were still reached by the group. The Impact Academy director Philippe Eullaffroy and Impact U16 head coach Wilfried Nancy took a look back on the 2014-2015 season.
Philippe, what is your level of satisfaction of the season on a whole?
P.E.: The U16s will always be a team that struggles, meaning that it’s the first USSDA group. They are young players applying our principles in a strong competition and they are half way through the process of learning our identity on the pitch. Obviously, we can have some bad games where we lose by not implementing our principles, but we can also go through a period where everything goes well and we have quality games. That’s what we saw from this group this year, interesting games and average games. The best example is the last game of the season, where we played against a good team that made the playoffs. The players expressed themselves and we saw what we wanted from them. If we look back at the last three years, we came from a distance in terms of this quality on the pitch. There are some games they could have dealt with better and we hope that the next generation will be able to manage games better.
Q: What kind of progress have you noticed over the last few years?
P.E.: In the first year, for the U16 or U18, we had a hard time. Last year, the U16 qualified for the playoffs. This year, it was more difficult, but our performances were closer to our second year. The goal is to qualify for the playoffs four out of five times, knowing that it’s a team that is in constant development. It will always be a team that will have a more difficult time then the older group to get results. It’s normal in our learning process from the U13 to the U18. The progress is there, but again we have to take a step back to look at the last three years.
Wilfried, what’s your level of satisfaction after this USSDA season?
W.N.: Looking at the results only, we had to make the playoffs and we didn’t. But if I talk about progress, we reached our target. If I compare the first half of the season, from September to December, to the second half of the season, we saw a major improvement on every aspect of the game. I can’t be satisfied with only this though, because I think we could have done better.
Q: What are the game principles that were applied correctly?
W.N.: Before everything else, a huge progress was made on the attitude and behaviour side, with more intensity. The group I had at the beginning of the year and the one I have now reached another level. There was improvement in the four phases of play (when we have the ball, when we don’t have the ball, the defensive and offensive transition). The players understand faster what they need to do in these situations. Achievement is not always there, but that’s the next step. Keep in mind this is a U16 group.
Q: Are there some aspects you are not happy with?
W.N.: I’m not satisfied with the attitude of the older ones in the group. They had a hard time performing with consistency. In general, for the group, there were also many individual mistakes. As coaches, we have to make them move forward, but it was really repetitive.
Q: What can you tell us about the USSDA?
W.N.: I expected this to be a tough year. We were playing less MLS teams and more private academies. It’s not easy to play against private academies. They are well organized. They can counter attack quickly and they are physical teams that never give up. If the players were not giving 100%, we were in trouble. We had good opponents. I love this league because it’s an interesting development tool that helps us progress against different teams with different styles. The league is really organized and it gets better every year.
Q: What’s the next step for the U16s?
W.N.: We have a showcase in Indianapolis on June 22. This will help us prepare for next year. We will also put together clear targets defined by what we want to achieve in games.
