Major League Soccer named four Real Salt Lake players to the roster of the 2016 Homegrown game.
RSL's Danilo Acosta, Jordan Allen, Justen Glad, Phanuel Kavita dot the 20-player roster that will take on Mexico's Under-20 National Team in San Jose on July 27 as part of the MLS All-Star festivities. No other team has more than two players on the team.
Craig Waibel, RSL's general manager, was delighted.
"The invitation of four RSL homegrown players to this event is a phenomenal development for which the entire Real Salt Lake organization should take great pride," said Waibel in a statement. "Credit should go to the setup implemented by our owner, Dell Loy Hansen, whose support of our academy and investment in our development infrastructure is unparalleled."
To qualify for the game, players must be age 23 or younger and come up through an MLS club's academy. RSL uses their academy stationed Casa Grande, Arizona, and it's USL team, Real Monarchs, to develop talent.
"In Casa Grande, Arizona, Martin Vasquez and his staff are doing a fantastic job of preparing our kids mentally, physically, tactically and technically to challenge for professional minutes, at both the MLS and USL levels, within one, two, three years," Waibel said. "Obviously, with our structure, the Real Monarchs play a huge role in developing both the individual and the collective, so Freddy Juarez and his staff clearly deserve a ton of credit as well."
Allen has been an RSL mainstay — as a forward, midfielder and defender — for the past two seasons while Glad has become on of the team's first-choice center defenders. Kavita has found playing time for both RSL and Monarchs as a wide defender while Acosta has been a steady force for the Monarchs.
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