City SC enters a new stage in its preseason on Wednesday when it faces Los Angeles FC as part of the Coachella Valley Invitational in Indio, California.
In its first two preseason games, as everyone was getting up to speed, City SC coach Bradley Carnell used different players in each half, so no one got more than 45 minutes of playing time and pretty much everyone got on the field. But now, with the team’s first game less than two weeks away, the time has come to give players 60 minutes or more, which means there will be a more distinct line between starters and players coming off the bench.
The team will play again on Saturday, and with just two days off in between, the rosters will likely be flipped when City SC faces New York Red Bulls.
Eduard Lowen and Joakim Nilsson have not rejoined the team from their trips to Europe to get their green cards, so they won’t be taking part.
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The game starts at 4 p.m. ºüÀêÊÓƵ time and will be streamed on the team’s app, as will Saturday’s game.
Scott Gallagher club gets grant from MLS
MLS on Tuesday announced a development grant program to compensate MLS Next Elite academies — clubs that are part of MLS Next but aren’t affiliated with an MLS team — who lose players to MLS academies and go on to sign MLS contracts or sign with clubs in another country.
One of the initial recipients of the program is ºüÀêÊÓƵ Scott Gallagher, which will receive money for losing Caden Glover and Tyson Pearce to the City SC academy and the two then signing Homegrown contracts with the team. Glover played with Scott Gallagher for two years prior to joining City SC’s academy in 2022; Pearce had been there since he was very young.
“This has been a couple of years in the planning,†said Scott Gallagher academy director Steve Trittschuh. “It’s just not us, but the Elite clubs develop players and push them to MLS clubs. It’s good for us because we’re losing those players, so it would help to have something coming back to us. ... It’s just good for the club.â€
How much the clubs will get wasn’t specified. The league’s announcement said it has already compensated eight clubs a total of more than $100,000, and Scott Gallagher is one of only two clubs (the other is the Sacramento Republic FC) to have produced two players on the original list of grant recipients. Only clubs that are part of MLS Next, the league’s academy system, are eligible for the grants. At present, there are only two unaffiliated MLS Next clubs in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ area: Scott Gallagher and Lou Fusz.
But it’s the first step toward addressing a gap in the American development system. While MLS clubs receive compensation from foreign clubs when players are moved to those teams, the clubs that developed those players weren’t getting anything, even though it was mandated by FIFA rules. It wasn’t until 2019 that MLS changed its rules to allow MLS teams to receive payment from foreign clubs if a player went directly overseas from its academy. These are referred to, in soccer parlance, as training compensation claims. MLS and the providing team could also get up to 5% of the transfer fee in what is called a solidarity payment.
The City SC academy team has attracted the best players from the clubs in the region and will continue to do so. Scott Gallagher will be a main feeder into the City SC academy because City SC’s program starts with U-15s. Top Drawer Soccer currently ranks Scott Gallagher’s U-13 team as No. 1 in the nation, and its U-14 program is ranked sixth.
“Unfortunately, it’s taken away our competiveness in older age groups,†Trittschuh said. “We keep fielding teams that will be competitive. It’s just a thing we have to deal with.â€
Trittschuh said it hadn’t been determined what the club would do with the money but said it would probably be used to offset some of the added costs of being in MLS Next.
Champions Cup underway
The CONCACAF Champions Cup kicked off Tuesday night, and the first MLS team enters the action Wednesday when the Vancouver Whitecaps play the first leg of their series with Mexican club Tigres. The remaining MLS teams don’t enter the competition until the week of Feb. 20, when City SC plays its first game against the Houston Dynamo.