Welcome back.
In Part 1 of the 2024 Atlanta United College Soccer Preview, we highlighted some former Atlanta United academy defenders and goalkeepers currently playing Division-I college soccer. Atlanta United has rightfully earned a reputation as a defensive prospect production powerhouse. Success stories like George Bello, Caleb Wiley, George Campbell, and Noah Cobb are all a testament to this relatively young academy producing high-quality talent. Our goalkeeping talent pipeline has caught up with the defenders with three prospects from this year’s Freshman class likely to follow Justin Garces and Vicente Reyes into the professional Goalkeepers Union and several younger players like Jonathan Ransom and James Donaldson looking like strong candidates to become Atlanta United’s second goalkeeper signed to a Homegrown Player contract.
Something that should excite fans is the rapid improvement in talent and depth among the other position groups. Midfielders Ajani Fortune, Cooper Sanchez, Adyn Torres, and Alan Carleton are all under contract with the club, and forwards Tyler Wolff, Luke Brennan, and Ashton Gordon look like the crest of a growing wave of attacking talent further down the academy. The downside is the gap between players like Fortune, Wolff, and Brennan who can contribute at the first-team level, and the younger players who need and deserve time with the 2s before they graduate to MLS-level soccer. Luckily, the deepest pool of college talent for Atlanta this year is in the midfield so this could be an ideal opportunity to bridge the needs of the present with the potential of the future.
Midfielders
When looking at talent in development at any level, you want to look for players taking big steps forward each year to improve their understanding of the game alongside their technical abilities. A player who took a gigantic step forward between his second and third seasons in college is Stanford’s Will Reilly.
For those of you who have been with us for a while, you know we are big fans of Reilly ever since he was out-playing grown men twice his age with Atlanta United 2. Now playing as a box-to-box central midfielder responsible for corner kicks, Reilly broke out for what may be his best season so far. Reilly has never been a player who flashed gaudy numbers on the stat sheet, doing the thankless word that goes unnoticed in the middle of the pitch. He is a tireless runner in press schemes, brings a metronomic energy to set and change his side’s tempo, and can make the kinds of passes that delight fans and coaches alike. Similarly to his former academy teammates listed above, Reilly worked his way into the starting 11 for Stanford in his freshman campaign and has never looked back.
In 2023, Reilly started all 20 matches and helped his young and scrappy Stanford team outscore opponents by a combined score of 43-19. Reilly added 4 goals and 7 assists to that total and saved his best overall performance for Stanford’s signature win on the road against top-ranked Marshall in the College Cup.
Reilly and Stanford will have a new challenge in 2024 as Stanford moves to the Atlantic Coast Conference, arguably the strongest men’s college soccer conference.
If Atlanta could only choose one college midfielder other than Will Reilly to bring back, that other play would probably be the University of Virginia’s Brendan Lambe.
Lambe, a former Atlanta United 2 regular, gradually worked his way into a crowded and experienced UVA midfield, playing 17 matches and making his first start on November 3rd in a highly competitive match against Syracuse that went to penalties. He started and played nearly the entire match against a veteran Florida International team in the cup in addition to another 60 minutes in a gritty 0-1 loss to Indiana in the next round. After averaging 73 minutes per match in the post-season, Lambe looks set to lead UVA’s midfield in 2024 and could earn an Atlanta United 2 contract this winter. Though he doesn’t have a lot of height at just 5’6″, Lambe is a rock in the midfield that imposes his physicality on opponents to control the middle of the field. When watching him play, you notice his intriguing balance of power and control that can be fundamental to modern #6s. He can be a lockdown destroyer while also acting as the metronome and catalyst for his team in possession. He will probably never have flashy stats next to his name but he is the kind of player who can have a long career doing what he does best.
Meanwhile in Atlanta, Georgia State’s Justin McLean looks set for a big Junior campaign.
McLean brings a combination of size, speed, and technical ability to the attacking midfield allowing him to ride challenges, run around some defenders, and challenge for the ball on the ground and in the air. In a recent Scarves & Spikes Podcast Livestream, McLean was one of the players on Jason Longshore’s list of compelling college talents to watch this year. This will be his third year as a starter for Georgia State and could be one of his most statistically productive. Based on his successful summer season that included 2024 Player MVP honors and how consistently he has produced over his first two seasons, a statistical prediction of 10 goals and assists over 1000 minutes of playing time would not be unheard of for McClean.
Joining McClean at GSU this year is academy standout and 2s midfielder Pavel Romero. Romero offers versatility in the midfield but is probably best suited for an attacking #8 role. In his final season in the academy, Romero scored 12 goals and added 11 assists. Despite this being a roster loaded with upperclassmen in the midfield, Romero could be a starter by the end of the season.
We will wrap up the midfielders with three players pursuing their college careers at Big Ten schools in Michigan, two of whom previously played for the University of South Carolina.
Christiano Bruletti is entering his second season in East Lansing. He remained a starter at Michigan State, playing nearly every minute of the 15 matches he appeared in, but saw his offensive production drop to just one assist in just over 1200 minutes and just 8 shots overall. I expect Bruletti to remain an important part of Michigan State’s midfield this season and may get closer to the 4 total goal contributions we saw at South Carolina.
Bruletti’s former teammate Rocky Perez has become a cross-state rival alongside fellow academy midfielder Joao Paulo Ramos at the University of Michigan. Ramos and Perez could fit well in the Wolverines’ midfield acting as either double 6s or a 6 and 8 combination. Both were late arrivals in Atlanta with Perez joining the academy from San Antonio and Ramos arriving from Brazil’s Corinthians FC and Empire United in Rochester.
With former Wake Forest wide midfielder Chase Oliver arriving at Penn State for his final season, and the defensive duo of Nigel Prince and Brandon Clagette at Northwestern, the Big Ten Conference will be an exciting conference for Atlanta United fans in 2024.
Forwards
Returning alongside Brendan Lambe at UVA is fifth-year senior Danny Mangarov. Mangarov operates mostly in the attacking third of the field as an attacking midfielder, a false-9, a wing, or a second striker. His speed, acute passing ability, and cannon for a leg make him a great counter-attacking weapon similar to how Thiago Almada and Miguel Almiron were used in Atlanta. After going undrafted in the 2024 MLS SuperDraft, Mangarov has one season to showcase his talents. If he were to return to Atlanta, he might be the next entrant into Atlanta’s experiment of transforming college forwards into fullbacks. His passing, movement, and work rate could translate well to the next level.
Will this be the year Amari Salley finally gets a chance to showcase his blazing speed and shiftiness on UVA’s wing? For such a talented wide forward, it is hard to believe it has been two years since we have seen Salley play. He will once again compete with a large group of talented forwards that could continue to make it hard for him to get on the field. He needs to show coaches that despite his small size, his speed can make him a nightmare for opposing defenders.
Another forward looking for his first opportunity at UVA is Michael Howard. Howard arrives for his Freshman season full of confidence from a strong season with the U-19s and with a handful of cameos with the 2s. He is equally comfortable playing as a forward or a midfielder and may fit the role left by long-time starter Axel Ahlander. This team is loaded in the midfield and at forward so any opportunity to get game experience will be a welcomed chance for Howard to continue his development.
Further down I-64 into the Appalachian Mountains, Andy Sullins looks to be on the verge of a breakout season with Virginia Tech. After beginning his college career at UVA, he transferred to Virginia Tech for Sophomore season. Sullins mostly featured as a backup target forward, playing only 513 minutes across 15 matches, with just a goal and an assist to his name. With an opportunity for more of an established role in his second year in Blacksburg, Virginia, Sullins joined the 865 Alliance of the NPSL in Knoxville for the summer, scoring 7 goals in just under 500 minutes. For a team like Virginia Tech that does not score very often (1.24 goals/match), 7 goals would likely lead the team. There is a lot of competition at forward but Sullins could have the upper hand with the momentum he built during a strong summer season.
Another player on the move is an old favorite from the DirtySouthSoccer days, Italo Jenkins. After a quiet first year at Oregon State alongside Javier Armas and Andrew De Gannes, Jenkins departed from an Oregon State program that was about to experience a drop in competition following the death of the PAC-12 conference. Now at the University of Nebraska – Omaha, Jenkins will look to turn his prototypical target strike frame into a real asset in the Summit League. With Denver as the only significant competition for a post-season berth in this conference, Jenkins could have a great opportunity to showcase his abilities before transferring again to a higher competition level for his remaining two seasons of eligibility.
That wraps up this year’s college soccer preview. The season starts on August 22nd with all matches streaming on ESPN+. Follow along with these teams and more through the NCAA’s score tracker. We plan to do a season recap in December ahead of the SuperDraft, and if you want more college soccer coverage from in-season updates on these players and the dozens more Atlanta United Academy products playing college soccer, let us know through Scarves & Spikes Patreon.
[…] be anywhere near the draft this year, he could act as a free first-round pick for Atlanta United. In our season preview back in August, we talked about Reilly’s big leaps forward at Stanford since switching to the […]
traveling like crazy so just now reading this.
another great write up as always. i lose track of so many of these kids when they head to college, that its always nice to catch up (esp. reilly and lambe on this list). i think our academy really flies under the radar with most fans, because the only “splash” is when a wiley or campbell makes the first team and shines. all your work is much appreciated!
I greatly appreciate the support for this content. These articles don’t get the volume of traffic or engagement that first-team articles do, and most of these young guys remain unknown to most fans until well after our Homegrown Player signings article comes out for them or they step on the field for the first time.
My hope is that we as fans can celebrate them and their development the same way we do minor league baseball prospects, college football players, and college basketball players. They are all on the same journey with the same dream of stepping on the field in front of their home fans or the fans of their favorite childhood team. I hope that they can receive the welcome by fans that they deserve the first time they step on the field at KSU and the Benz.
well said! i live well otp, and 5/3 is much closer to my house. we try to hit several 2’s matches a season, but it’s frustrating when they overlap with the 1st team matches. can’t be helped, i know, but we’re there when we can be.
we continually have a really exciting (mostly) young group of athletes, and especially if you get past “wins and losses” mentality as a fan, it’s a lot of fun to watch their development. they are making decent money compared to many others their age. but they are truly trying to make dreams come true in a sport they love. that is too often missing at the first team level, but like you say…it is reminiscent of minor league baseball and college athletics in general.