The scrimmage, which wrapped up the Herriman leg of RSL preseason camp, was set up to give first-team members game-like minutes before heading to Tuscon, Ariz. It achieved that, while also serving as the physical representation of the continuity throughout the organization.
“We want to be fully aligned from our Academy straight up to the first team playing virtually the same,” RSL coach Mike Petke said after training Thursday. “If not anything [else], the same objectives, the same characteristics.”
The organization is well aware that not every Academy player will end up on the first team, so Academy coaches teach their players a wider variety of styles and formations, Petke said.