2022-03-06, 10:10 AM - Word count:
The following extract was taken from the blog of a professional scout in the New York area.
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| Once again, I've made a trip to Long Island for another edition of the monthly Empire State Academy Cup, where teams from the states of New York and New Jersey have regularly tried to showcase the best young talents of the region for the past fifteen years. Personally, these tournaments are always a blast to watch and you're almost always bound to find some talented players here and there that you'll then go on to see at the university level and, perhaps, the professional game. This month, I already had some players in mind, including a female player that has been linked to Saint Louis-Billikens for quite a while, left midfielder Dottie Summerfield, but as it turns out, she opted to not play this tournament due to academic matters - which meant this one tournament was drier than usual. Still, between glasses of tea, I was able to find a couple of curious talents that I'll divulge about to anyone willing to pay for my findings. To give you, who's reading my free material, something to wrap your brain around, I'll gladly speak of this rough center-back I've seen play. Squall Vercetti, reportedly born in Windsor, Ontario but currently living at an orphanage in the Big Apple, played a total of four games for the Long Island Kicking Crew as they bowed out on the Quarter-Finals. Throughout the matches, the defender (which I believe to be a free deal from a mentor) showed a lot of heart and guts, frequently cutting advances from opponents and even landing an assist on a heavy cross from the back. Still, his downsides are quite visible - he's not a people person and he has repeatedly pushed off teammates that tried to recommend him to do things. His wild streak even included throwing a girl (Newark Rockets' winger Angela Delvecchio) out of the field with a push at some point. Additionally, once his team was eliminated, he reacted by punting the ball at a teammate's head, striking another on the gut before leaving the field, escorted by the police. Anyone willing to deal with his troubled emotions will probably be able to mould the kid into a center-back of decent respite, though I obviously hide better prospects in my paid subscription service (for a mere $9,99). |
