The following appeared in the latest edition of The Sovereign, Real Salt Lake's matchday program.
For years, Real Salt Lake has been known for its duo of U.S. National Team regulars, Kyle Beckerman and Nick Rimando. As time has passed and the next wave of players has cycled into the national team picture, a new dynamic duo has started to emerge for club and country in the Claret-and-Cobalt and Red-White-and-Blue.
While players like Gyasi Zardes and DeAndre Yedlin have earned recognition for the MLS Academies for their time with the U.S. National Team, RSL’s Justen Glad and Jordan Allen are at the tail end of the first classes of Academy alums earning spots with the U.S. Youth National Teams that are now nearing the brink of breaking into the full national team through breakout performances at the club level.
Glad and Allen, 19 and 21 respectively, will be told in the coming months and years the same things they were told since they first came into the scene for the U.S. National Team. Someday THEY could be standing with their hand over their heart while the Star Spangled Banner plays at a World Cup. Since arriving at RSL, they have learned the virtue of patience, but with an urgency to succeed that is nourished by a common drive that has them both contributing greatly to RSL’s success now.
“The league is much more mature in terms of the ability, the talent level and the demands on the athletes,” Real Salt Lake General Manager Craig Waibel said. “They’re part of this first generation of Academy kids. The process of how many of these Academy kids are ultimately going to be successful pros over a longer period of time – we still don’t know. It’s fun with the first generation, but they certainly all show potential to be long term pros.”
Allen and Glad came to RSL only a few months apart, but spent only a few months together at the club’s highly-touted Arizona-based Academy. At that time, Academies started on the rise as more and more MLS teams started implementing the youth system to develop players from within their own systems. Whereas the path for the previous generation of players was to develop at the club level and head off to college, the Academy system provided a more focused path to the pro ranks.
“We just got lucky with our timing. These MLS Academies started developing right around our 15- and 16-year-old age group and the transition was easier,” Allen said. “We played in the Reserve League and if you do that before you’re immersed in it you have a little bit of a taste.”
After both turned pro prior to the 2014 season, they became fast friends, not only going through the same struggles as young players trying to find their way in a man’s game, but also in dealing with injuries in their first season. While there is a difference in maturity – some teammates worrying about mortgages and feeding families while they are playing X-Box and ping pong – they have also brought a youthful exuberance to the locker room that reminds those hardened veterans that the game is intended to be fun.
Having one another along for the ride has eased the transition for both, even while they venture to different Youth National Teams at different times.
“I think it’s huge. It was nice having someone I can relate with who has been in the same situation or has already gone through it. And also having that person to hang out with outside of soccer,” Glad said.
That comfort level is something both point to when weighing the options of playing domestically in MLS or venturing abroad to play in Europe or elsewhere. While both certainly see the merits of playing in some of the league’s top worlds, being a part of the continued growth of soccer in America while also being in a situation that keeps you happy off of the field has its benefits as well.
And for as similar as their paths have been, Glad and Allen are also very different in how they have tackled their obstacles. Allen is originally from Rochester, New York, and spent a year in college between his time with the Academy and RSL while Glad moved a few times as a kid before settling in Tucson, Arizona. His family has since moved to Salt Lake City and comes to every home game, whereas Allen has only played professionally in front of his family a handful of times.
Their work ethic and competitiveness unite them, though.
“I think a big thing that negates any differences we have is that we both have the same goals. After practice or on a day off we both want to do work or get extra touches,” Allen said. “We both want to have the most successful career possible and when you have somebody around the same age that’s pushing the same way, it’s a little bit different than getting advice from an experienced guy that maybe doesn’t want to work quite as hard on a specific day. We’re just trying to work hard every single day.”
Glad Emerges
Justen Glad has long been a player that has projected well to the pro level. With his athleticism and spongy ability to retain information that is presented to him – both in live action and through words from his coaches and teammates – he has shown an aptitude for the game that is further emphasized by his classroom aptitude.
Once a Stanford-bound student of the game, Glad instead opted to turn pro at 17 years old when he signed as a Homegrown player in 2014. Injuries kept him from getting much more than time on the training field in his first season, but the versatile, defensive-minded player was able to draw so much from spending time around players like Nat Borchers – whose resemblance to Glad as a lanky, red-headed defender drew many to refer to them like father and son – Kyle Beckerman and others that it was far from a lost year.
He saw his first official action with Real Monarchs in the club’s inaugural USL season in 2014, scoring the first home goal for the club. In total, he would play seven matches with the Monarchs and seven more with Real Salt Lake. Those 14 pro matches have helped him emerge as not just an MLS starter, but one that MLSsoccer.com’s Matt Doyle labeled as Best XI for the first half of the season.
Glad earned an opportunity to start alongside Aaron Maund and the two have formed a resilient center back partnership. They are both not without flaws, but complement each other so well that often one's faults are easily masked by the other.
“When you’re really going to get tested is in these game situations. For my development, it’s been crucial for me going forward. If I make a mistake, I’m not going to make the same mistake later and in the past few years I didn’t get those games so the mistakes were more often than not,” Glad said. “I think it’s been a breakout year and I hope I can keep it going.”
Through the first 17 games of the 2016 season, Glad had 12 starts, with RSL going 7-3-2 with a 1.25 goals against average, as opposed to the 1-2-2 record with a 2.40 goals against average when he didn’t start.
Allen Shines
While Glad has become adept at putting out fires on RSL’s back line, Jordan Allen has proven to be the spark that can set RSL alight – whether as a starter or coming off the bench.
Allen is in an odd predicament. Playing behind the potent trio of Juan Manuel Martinez and Joao Plata on the wings and Javier Morales as a no. 10, he has had to fight for every chance to see action on the field. Because of that, it can be more difficult to break in at the MLS level, where many teams put the bulk of the high-end of their salary cap space into attacking players. That has hardly held Allen back though.
The “Swiss Army Knife” – as he is referred because of his ability to play on any line in many different roles – signed as a Homegrown player after the 2013 season after a championship season with the University of Virginia and was relied upon quickly as a super sub by Head Coach Jeff Cassar. However, in just his second MLS appearance, he was rashly taken out by a challenge against San Jose and the ensuing ankle and knee injuries wiped out his rookie campaign.
Fighting back from those injury woes in his second season, he started in 11 of his 23 appearances in his second season, manning the wing and outside back roles at different stages. Now with a more defined attacking role, Allen still utilizes his shapeshifting ability to play several roles, but his future is in an attacking position.
Like young Americans abroad, nothing comes easy and when the opportunities arrive, it is with hardened steel that Allen is able to attack his chances to shine.
“I get to learn. The three people in front of me … you can argue they’re all All-Star level players. Being around them and seeing what they do on a daily basis, I can incorporate it into my game,” Allen said. “I’m competitive and I want to take away their spot. If I do, that means that I’ve improved to a high level and that encourages me to work harder and get better every day. If I do and I get to their level, then things will be looking up.”
Through those challenges, he scored three goals through RSL’s first 17 games, putting him among the league’s top 21-and-under scorers. However, when he looked at the team’s scoring leaders and saw Yura Movsisyan and Martinez with six goals and Joao Plata with five goals, he wanted for more.
“Just not seeing myself at five goals bothered me. I want to be in the same conversation as them always,” he said. “I thought I needed to contribute a little more and that’s something I’ve been focusing on this year a little bit more.”
