FC Dallas U17 Boys for Dallas Cup 2021

On to post two in our short series on the rosters for the FC Dallas Academy teams in the Dallas Cup. MLSNext has so little info available this is the first time I’ve even gotten rosters for the 2020-21 FCD Academy sides.

Listed here is the entire roster for Dallas Cup – and a few names to watch – with each team. I started this project with U19s.

The U17s, despite being the 2004 and 2005 age bracket, are – for FC Dallas – pretty much just 2005s. The 2005s are the first of two very deep classes at the club and all but four of the 2004s are up with the U19s for the Dallas Cup – and two of the 2004s still here are – to my knowledge – DPs. (DPs are players who move between the Academy and Premier depending on event and roster need.)

Who’s Who

This roster is crazy good. I could write about so many of them but I will try and limit it to just a few names.

Nighte Pickering – Got the FC Dallas first-team training camp invite when Ricardo Pepi and Jesus Ferreira were gone. Played with North Texas on Saturday. Pickering is a high-9 striker and goal poacher. He’s led this group in scoring for 4 seasons.

Diego Hernandez – The first 2005 to play with North Texas when he got a minute last year. He’s training with them again and I expect him to play more although there are a fair number of linking mids in that team already.

Jordan Jones – Linking mid. He’s also trained some with NTX. He’s big, powerful, and extremely hard to knock off the ball, similar to Tanner Tessmann.

Anthony Ramirez – Probably the best ball handler in this group, he would be a pure 10 but FCD system doesn’t use them. Plays as a false-wing usually. Has pro skill but is undersized and where to use him may be an issue.

U17 Dallas Cup 2021 Roster

No.	Name	Pos.	Note
14	Salim Chavez	M	2005.
31	Aaron Salinas	GK	2005. US U15.
32	Nolan Norris	LB	2005. Played LB in the SAFC scrimmage Saturday for NTXSC. US U15.
33	Nighte Pickering	F	2005. FCD/NTX training. Pronounced Night, the “e” is silent.
34	Adrian Anguiano	CB	2005. Recent Mexico U16 call-up. Was training with NTX until an injury. I’m hearing he tore both his ACL and MCL.
35	Pranav DuBroff	CB	2005. US U15.
36	Diego Hernandez	M	2005. NTXSC for 1 minute in 2020. Played in the SAFC scrimmage Saturday for NTXSC. US U15.
37	Bartosz Zabek	F/M	2004.
38	Jordan Jones	M	2005. US U15 and U17. NTX training.
39	Emanuel Martinez	—	2005. “Manny.”
40	Carlos Sanchez	RB	2005. Chris’ twin brother.
41	Tarik Scott	F	2005. The younger brother of Malik Henry-Scott of Tulsa.
42	Mason Grimm	M	2005. Former Solar SC player. Holding or linking mid.
47	Chris Sanchez	F	2005. Named “Best Player” at the 2019 Bayern Campus Tournament. Carlos’ twin brother.
48	Jared Aguilar	M	2005.
50	Cristian Gallo	F/RB	2005. A former forward being tried at right back of late.
51	Anthony Ramirez	F/M	2005. NTX Training. US U15.
59	William Baker	D	2004.
60	Victor Gomez	GK	2005. US U15.
68	Santiago Ferreira	M	2004. Yes, Jesus’ younger brother and son of David.
70	Kevin Kelley	M	2005. The older of the two Kelley brothers. US U15.
77	Diego Gamez	F	2004.

PS. I don’t know why the U17s have such odd numbers. But my guess is so they don’t conflict with the U19s and can move up and down efficiently and cost-effectively (not having to get/borrow uniforms).

U17s Dallas Cup Schedule – Bracket B

Date	Opponent	Time	Field
Sun, March 28	RSL-Arizona 04	10:30 am	MoneyGram #4
Mon, March 29	Miami FC Strikers Elite	4:30 pm	Classic League Complex #2
Wed, March 31	ID Houston Legends 04 NLFC	6 pm	MoneyGram #5

When they were U15s this group won the 2019 Bayern Campus Tournament. They also won the Dallas Cup in 2013 coached at the time by Peter Luccin.