Other than the first matches earlier this month, the biggest matches in FC Cincinnati Academy history are this weekend when the Under-15 and Under-17 Teams play Saturday morning at the Mercy Health Training Center. Because of ongoing and accelerated construction at the facility, the matches will be closed to the public.
Just as the Milford facility will house the first team when it formally opens in a few weeks, the building is also the home of the Academy, and in turn, the future of FCC Homegrown players.
“We have the benefit in being involved in a lot of firsts,” U-15 Head Coach and Academy Performance Specialist Joshua Neff said. “So, this would be the first home match for our Academy and that will be huge for them. Hopefully we play well and results go our way, but regardless, the players will remember it forever.”
Both sides will play the Chicago Fire Academy teams, who they faced this past weekend in Bridgeville, Ill. In those matches, the U-15s lost 2-1, while the older group fell, 2-0, to the Fire.
“It was not the results we expected, but it’s always two things, the results and the feeling from the game,” said U-17 Head Coach Ricardo Páez. “I think the (17) team played good soccer, especially in the second half against Chicago. So, that tells us we’re not far from one of the best teams in our conference and an academy that has a lot of years working together.
For supporters interested in going to FCC Academy games, the club plans to open matches at the Mercy Health Training Center to the public beginning in the spring half of the season.
Neff back from two weeks in France learning new methodologies
Neff, the U-15 head coach, recently returned after spending one week learning from the French Football Federation at Clairfontaine, then a week at Ligue 1 side RC Strasbourg Alsace. The trips were the start of the year-long program in which Neff will be learn from the French.
His trip was part of an on-going training education relationship between the FFF and MLS to help provide different coaching techniques and ideas to academy coaches. Those ideas and initiatives can then be brought back to academies across the country, such as the FC Cincinnati Academy.
“I was really impressed with how they presented it as, ‘This is the way we do things, but we understand you will take pieces that you think will fit your culture and install them.’ That’s exactly what I think will happen,” Neff said. “I can take these ideas and then see how they work best in Cincinnati’s culture.
“They do things really well and ideas are really well thought out,” he added. “Everything has a purpose to what they taught us.”
But for as important as new ideas can be for the new FC Cincinnati, it’s just as important for the coaches to grow in their development. That growth should translate into developing players quicker and creating a pathway between the academy and first team.
“For me personally, I don’t ever want to stop learning,” Neff said. “So, this is just another way to dig into something and learn something new.”
