Los Angeles Blues News Release -- www.labluesprosoccer.com
Monday, January 30, 2012
FULLERTON, Calif. – With the IMG Academies in Bradenton, Fla., playing host to the USL PRO Combine presented by Umbro over the past four days, Blues Associate Head Coach Shayon Jalayer touched base from the Sunshine State to share his observations. Even though in recent weeks the Los Angeles coaches have identified numerous potential additions to the 2012 roster, the hope was to spot a few more viable candidates at the combine. 
“The overall quality was good,” Jalayer said. “It was hard to really gauge the caliber of the field players on Thursday and Friday, because those days consisted mainly of goalkeeper sessions and technical drills. The exercises already showed that a number of the guys are of good technical ability, but the weekend really provided a chance to see them play and assess their tactical understanding.”
The 102 participants from North America and abroad tried to impress in three 80-minute scrimmages on Saturday and Sunday.
“One of the things that make this opportunity so valuable is that we’re getting a look at guys who are based farther away from Southern California and maybe didn’t have a chance to join us for our offseason training,” the Blues Associate Head Coach continued. “There’s something to be said for non-California guys in that their style of soccer might be a bit different and a lot of them are used to playing in hot, humid conditions, which is definitely an asset in USL PRO.”
Last year’s combine produced a number of high-profile players, among them former Dayton striker and recent Blues signing George Davis IV, current New York Red Bulls goalkeeper Jeremy Vuolo, 2011 USL PRO Rookie of the Year Luke Mulholland and Brock Duckworth (both Wilmington Hammerheads), Mark Wiltse (Charleston Battery) and Andrew Welker (Harrisburg City Islanders). Jalayer is hopeful that a combine player will rise to similar prominence with Los Angeles this year.
“We’re still always hoping to find guys who can immediately impact our team,” he said. “Even though we seem to be moving in a good direction with our roster, you want to turn over every stone and make sure there are no players slipping through the cracks. This is an event that is very well organized and gives us a chance to comprehensively evaluate some more great talent.
“We’d like to come out of the combine with at least one good player. If it ends up being two or three, then that’s even better. We feel very comfortable with the guys we have signed or are hoping to sign, but you also have to take into account that some of them may opt against joining the Blues. That’s why we want to make sure that we’ve done our part to see some more players who could step in and help us.”