Facing a veteran Major League Soccer opponent Saturday night, San Diego FC started a pair of defenders and a goalkeeper who can’t legally order an alcoholic beverage in California.
The same applied to a teenage midfielder from Brazil who entered in the second half.
So SDFC’s talk was real. This is a franchise that’s committed to developing young players.
How’s that coming along?
Give the club’s youth movement a passing grade or better for one season-plus, while appreciating that an MLS education has its costly moments for players who are younger than many collegians.
The ups and downs common to young players showed up Saturday in SDFC’s wild 3-3 tie against FC Cincinnati, before an announced crowd of 24,984 that saw Marcus Ingvartsen score deep into stoppage time only for the visitors to answer with a quality goal in the final seconds.
High marks go to the youth movement’s top performers.
Center back Manu Duah, 20, and outside back Luca Bombino, 19, have held starting jobs since the franchise’s inaugural season.
It’s to Duah and Bombino’s immense credit that their presence in the starting lineup Saturday, opposite Brazilian star forward/midfielder Evander, 27, was assumed.
Both players now stand as solid MLS starters. Each has logged several very good matches over the season-plus.
It’s clear that San Diego FC scouts and general manager Tyler Heaps rightly identified Duah as an MLS difference-maker, leading Heaps to draft the Ghana product after just one year with UC Santa Barbara. They saw that Duah’s athleticism and diligence would allow him to adapt to both MLS and a move from defensive midfielder to center back.
A similar general forecast for Bombino, obtained from MLS powerhouse LAFC, hit the mark.
We’re finding out this year about goalkeeper Duran Ferree, 19, who backed up a pair of veterans last year.
The Del Norte High School alum made his 12th MLS start Saturday, and once again reacted to shots as fast or faster as many MLS goalkeepers.
Ferree’s quick hands and feet have enabled at several above-average saves.
On the other hand, the 6-foot-2 teen whiffed in his attempt to snatch a corner kick to set up a goal that broke a 1-1 tie.
The new young guy on the scene is Pedro Soma, who scarcely played with SDFC last year.
The Brazilian 19-year-old, availing himself of increased playing time relating to captain and defensive midfielder Jeppe Tverskov’s injury, has shown an adult’s strength and advanced composure in the past two matches.
Saturday, three days after he set up a goal in the 5-0 win over disjointed Austin FC, the midfielder drove a perfect long through ball to Amahl Pellegrino. The wing finished for a tying second goal in the 66th minute.
San Diego FC has supported its young players with veteran standouts headed by the Danish tandem of Ingvartsen and Anders Dreyer.
“It’s nice to see young guys stepping into the pitch and just deliver for us guys,” Dreyer said this week. “It’s amazing. I enjoy it. I know they enjoy it, but they also are ready to work even harder. After they get a success, they want to get more of that. It’s about hard work, and it pays off in the end.”
Player development was a primary calling card of SDFC coach Mikey Varas, whose teaching ability helped get him this job and a spot on the U.S. Men’s National Team Staff.
Varas described the first stage of a young professional’s progress.
“They get in the game,” the coach said, “and they just want to make sure that they can hang, and they can maintain the game. Because that’s the first test.”
The next step? “I can have a big effect on the game,” Varas said.
From Duah and Bombino, that effect has skewed toward good.
Soma and Ferree are showing promise this year.
But the whole SDFC team will probably take away a sour lesson from Saturday’s match: Instead of earning three points, Varas’ club erred just enough to get punished by opportunistic Cincinnati.
The final goal was a tremendous effort.
A perfect long pass curled between SDFC’s tall tandem of center backs, Duah and Christopher McVey.
A 6-foot-4 forward headed it to a teammate, leaving Ferree helpless to deny a tying goal virtually at the final whistle.
Count that as two points lost for SDFC, which will finish this phase of the season Saturday at home, against Vancouver in a rematch of the Western Conference final that the Whitecaps, exploiting San Diego’s youthful back line, won 3-1.