Saturday, March 04, 2006

Locals getting their shot with RSL

The most recent round of cuts, where Adolfo Gregorio and Diego Walsh were shaved from the roster, put RSL in compliance with the league's 28-man roster limit. As pointed out by James Edward, that means that Adam Acosta and Joey Worthen will be on the 2006 RSL roster.

Since the story only focused on who was cut I'll go ahead fill y'all in on our pair of locals who made the team. As I am not a "native" of the area my information came from googling. If you have anything to add please comment.

Worthen is a Cottonwood High School alum, graduating in 1998. He is said to be the best product out of the Utah youth soccer system. While at Cottonwood Worthen received Parade All-American honors which helped him get on at Division-I school South Carolina - the same school that Clint Mathis and Josh Wolff attended. During his time in South Carolina, Worthen tallied 25 goals and 15 assists. He was named to the NSCAA All-South First Team in 2001. Also during his college career Worthen gained some experience with the U-20 National Team and PDL side Cape Cod Crusaders.

His success in college led to being drafted up by then A-Leauge franchise Pittsburgh Riverhounds. During his rookie season he was the only player on the Riverhounds to appear in every game that season. Worthen also led the team in assists. Worthen then moved to the Richmond Kickers in 2004 where he spent two seasons playing on the left wing. He scored 8 goals, 3 assists in 46 appearances.

There is a funny story written about Joey while with the Hounds. While it's a bit of humerous fiction, it may shed a bit of light on Worthen's playing style. There were at least three instances where when searching for material on this post that I found a story about Worthen getting sent off. Is Worthen an enforcer?

There wasn't as much info on Adam Acosta, although those close to the team have seen him train with RSL and play in some reserve matches last year. Acosta is from Bountiful and later went to the University of Redlands to play Division-III soccer. While at Redlands Acosta received All-American honors in 2003.

Ellinger likes Acosta because he produces. His track record for scoring in reserve matches is quite good. Although he is a great local talent, I wouldn't expect him to receive signficant playing this year - barring anything unforseen.

When talking about Utahns on RSL some might point out Sergio Flores. Unfortunately, the Smithfield native fell victim to the first round of cuts at preseason camp. Flores is currently back in Cache Valley, working out and preparing to go back down to play in the Bolivian league where he was before joining RSL.

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