FC Dallas Academy teams prepare for Playoffs

FRISCO, Texas -- Pizza Hut Park will host 64 youth teams this weekend when the 2010-11 Development Academy Playoffs come to Frisco from Friday, June 24 through Tuesday, June 28.

The 32 U-16 and U-18 teams were arranged into four pots based on overall seeding and then drawn at random into eight groups of four.

FC Dallas U-16s

The U-16s will play three teams in group play they didn’t face in the regular season. The squad kicks off tournament play Saturday at 11 a.m. against CASL Chelsea FC Academy of North Carolina.

The FCD U-16s allowed only 19 goals in the regular season, which led the Texas Division, and will need a big game from its defense and goalkeeper and co-captain Caleb Underwood when it faces Chelsea. Chelsea scored 53 goals in 25 games in the regular season, led by midfielder Fernando Castellanos’ 13 tallies.

The team will compete in two other matches – Sunday against St. Louis Scott Gallagher Missouri at 8 p.m. and Tuesday at 11 a.m. against Illinois-based Sockers FC.

St. Louis scored 47 goals in 21 regular-season games with six players finishing with four goals or more. Dallas will need top scorers Bobby Edet and Victor Portillo to find the back of the net and defender and co-captain Alex Frankenfeld to lead the defensive effort to in order to top St. Louis.

Dallas will wrap up group play against Sockers FC on Tuesday morning and will again need its scorers to be in top form. Like Dallas, Sockers FC allowed few goals in the regular season, finishing with just 14 allowed in 23 matches.

FC Dallas U-18s

In all three of its group-play matches, FCD will face high-scoring teams with stingy defenses. Dallas will need its defense to be in top form and its attack, led by Daniel Garcia, Jose Perez and Victor Pinal, to capitalize on scoring chances.

The U-18s first match will be Friday at 7:30 p.m. against Cosmos Academy West. Cosmos allowed a SoCal Division-low 32 goals in 28 games while scoring 46 of their own. Dallas will need its defense to shut down the Cosmos attack in order to best their West Coast opponent.

The U-18s will face a team they beat in the regular season in Indiana United in its second group-play match on Saturday at 6 p.m. In their regular season meeting FCD defeated IU 2-0, with goals coming from David Robledo and Home Grown forward Jonathan Top. IU finished the regular season in first place of the Great Lakes Division with 50 goals-for and 33 goals-against in 23 games.

The U-18s conclude group play Monday at 11 a.m. against Real Colorado. Dallas defeated Colorado 2-1 in November off a Daniel Garcia brace. Colorado finished the year with four players scoring six goals or more, and scored 47 as a team in 21 games.

In both age groups, the winner of each of the eight Playoff groups will advance to the Development Academy Finals Week, which will take place in Milwaukee, Wisc., July 9-16.

Follow @FCDallasYouth on Twitter and like the FC Dallas Youth Facebook page for in-game updates and post-game photo galleries. Stay tuned to FCDallas.com for match recaps from the FC Dallas Academy teams’ Playoff games.