Atlanta United 2, Academy teams developing next generation of first team players

If you’re not already paying close attention to Atlanta United 2 and the Atlanta United Academy, now’s a better time than ever to tune in. More and more players are getting opportunities to show their talent at the top level, and iron is sharpening iron from the youth levels up to professional football.

The health of Atlanta United’s Academy and 2s team is a necessity to support the first team. A number of Atlanta United’s first team players got their start in the club’s academy — Matt Edwards, Will Reilly, Jay Fortune, Noah Cobb and more.

Javier Perez, Atlanta United’s Director of Methodology, spoke about how the Academy teams and Atlanta United 2 have showcased their propensity for talent development. He sees the best of the club’s talent day in, day out, and he wants to foster an environment of healthy competition and performance.

Particularly during a season with international breaks and injuries, Homegrowns have played huge roles for the 5-Stripes first team this season and will continue to be impactful going forward. Academy players are more motivated than ever to be at their best in hopes of being the newest call up.

“Absolutely, they feel it, they see it,” Perez said. “… It sends a message to everybody else, that the next one could be me.”

For the 2s, the halfway point comes after they play Inter Miami II Sunday, June 29. Head coach Steve Cooke and his squad are outside MLS NEXT Pro playoff spots but just seven points off a berth.

The season, even just at its halfway point, has been a historic one for new opportunities. Seven Academy players have made their debut with Atlanta United 2, a total that already equals last season’s count.

“That tells everything,” Perez said. “That tells that we are a club that gives opportunities to the younger players, to talented players, not any random player, but players that we think they have opportunities to contribute into our first team. We need to put these players in a situation sooner rather than later that they can get [professional] experience without having too much pressure. The second team is the preferred platform to do that.”

Those reps at the professional level with Atlanta United 2 are invaluable for standout academy players. They oftentimes get the chance to play alongside first team players — the list of first teamers that have made an appearance with the 2s this season is in the double digits.

Those debuts demonstrate not only the Academy’s ability to produce talent worthy of MLS NEXT Pro appearances but shows how ATL UTD 2 players have had opportunities with them at the highest level. Cooper Sanchez, Nyk Sessock, Rodrigo Neri and now-first-teamer Dominik Chong Qui have all signed Short-Term Agreements to join Atlanta United for select MLS matches this season.

“Someone has to play the game,” Perez said. “Someone has to get there. Our job at the Academy is to make sure that, for the most part, they are our players.”

Atlanta United’s Academy teams themselves capped off a successful season from top to bottom. Their calendar in MLS NEXT play runs from August to June, and a playoff follows a lengthy league campaign like in MLS.

The Academy has five teams — Under-13, Under-14, Under-15, Under-16 and Under-18. The four youngest teams all won their league campaigns. The U15s, coached by Steve Covino, won the Southeast Division with 34 points from a possible 39. The U16s, headed by Williams Bates, won their division with a 2-1 result over Philadelphia Union’s U16 squad on the final matchday to secure the league regular season title.

A new facet of U13 and U14 tables, Quality of Play index, uses an analytical formula provided by sports statistics company Taka. It measures teams from these age groups on factors such as offensive and defensive actions and team identity. It’s a revolutionary pilot program that aims to promote youth development independent of physical attributes.

Atlanta United’s U13 and U14 squads both topped their league tables with the highest Quality of Play score. The U13 team, led by Colby Childress, was nine points clear of the next best, and the U14 team, coached by Bruno Ramos, beat out Charlotte FC’s U14s.

Regular season success wasn’t the end of it for the U15 and U16 sides. They both went on MLS NEXT Cup Playoff runs and made it to the final of their age brackets.

There are plenty of standouts to highlight, but Perez pointed to Dominik Chong Qui, Braden Dunham, Kaiden Moore, Santiago Pita, Jonathan Ransom and Cooper Sanchez.

“I always try to give them references, players that they can look at, players that they can see the level and how that looks like,” Perez said. “When I see, for instance, Santi Pita, I see Vitinha that just won the Champions League with PSG.”

Perez has been in the game a long time in a variety of roles. He coached Real Madrid academy teams, United States Men’s National Team squads and other MLS clubs as an assistant before coming to Atlanta United. His experience has led him to look for three attributes when evaluating talent: character, skill and support.

“Number one, character, and this is the most important one, mental strength, determination,” Perez said. “This is the core aspect that I look into a player, someone that wants to make it, someone that is here looking for the opportunities, not because the parents are telling them to do that, not because it's cool.”

He went on to explain how support is sometimes underrated when evaluating a player’s likelihood of success. Whether it’s parents to help them commute before they can drive or a mentor providing them valuable guidance, a robust ecosystem can make or break a young player’s career.

As the Academy offseason gets underway and Atlanta United 2 treks on with their season, there’s no telling who will be next up to get a chance to shine at the professional level. For Perez, his focus lies on getting the most out of trainings to best develop the next generation of Atlanta United players.

“We have full support from management, from Garth [Lagerwey], from Chris [Henderson],” Perez said. “You can see that with these improvements already, it is paying off a lot. Now we enter into a second phase, which is improving the training methodology, and I think that's going to be a second extra push that is going to put the Academy in a different scale.”