Generation adidas Cup 2015: What you need to know about this year's edition

For the second straight year, MLSsoccer.com will stream coverage of the Generation adidas Cup, which will be held March 29-April 4 at the Toyota Soccer Center in Frisco, Texas.

Last year was the first to include international teams, and 2015 will have even more foreign flavor, with 10 teams from overseas set to join 17 MLS academy clubs and Chivas USA. Only the Montreal Impact, New York City FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps will not be represented.

ExtraTime Radio’s David Gass and I will be bringing you live broadcasts of games from both the Champions Division and the Premier Division, and here’s what you need to know this year:

Format

The Generation adidas Cup is Major League Soccer's Under-17 championship and has been held annually since 2007, switching to a school-year format in 2013-14. Similar to Major League Soccer's early days, D.C. United won three of the first four titles, but things have opened up in the last three tournaments. Last year, Stoke City became the first foreign club to lift the trophy with
a shootout win
over Real Salt Lake in the final.

Over the years, the event has hosted some of Major League Soccer's best talent. The 2010 tournament, for example, saw more than 20 players who have moved on to the professional ranks, including Diego Fagundez, Dillon Serna and DeAndre Yedlin.

This year's tournament consists of the 12-team Champions Division and the 16-team Premier Division. The Champions Division features the six MLS teams that qualified from regional events held in Oct. 2014 and Feb. 2015: Toronto FC, Philadelphia Union (East); FC Dallas, Sporting Kansas City (Central); San Jose Earthquakes and Real Salt Lake (West). They will compete with six foreign teams for the 2015 Generation adidas Cup title. The remaining MLS teams and four more foreign teams will compete in the Premier Division.

Group play will see each team play three games in four days March 29-30 and April 1, with each game consisting of two 35-minute halves. Ties will be broken by a shootout, with the winner earning an extra point in the standings. Each group winner and the best second-place team in the Champions Division will advance to the semifinals, to be held in Toyota Stadium. All teams will play five total games.

Players born in 1998 or later are eligible for the tournament, which means the bulk of the rosters come from MLS teams' US Soccer Development Academy U-16 squads. Just to make you feel old, the 28 rosters include more than 30 players born in 2000, one player born in 2001 and one player born in 2002.

• Champions Division schedule  |  Premier Division schedule

How to Watch Online

MLSsoccer.com will stream seven games from the group stage (two on Sunday, two on Monday, three on Wednesday), highlighting MLS teams taking on internatonal opposition. All semifinal (Thursday) and championship-game (Saturday) action from both divisions will also be streamed. Full streaming schedule.

Storylines to Watch

Stars of the … present: 
As a U-17 tournament, this competition is largely about the future. But at least five players from last year’s tournament have already signed professional contracts, so I’m excited to see who can turn heads the way
Sebastian Saucedo
(
Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen flew down personally
to see one critical game) and
Victor Mansaray
(
watch this assist
for Seattle Sounders' USL club, S2) did last year. Stoke City’s Ollie Shenton, having starred in the Generation adidas Cup last year, made his Premier League debut in February and
exchanged jerseys
with future MLSer
Frank Lampard
, and Flamengo’s Matheus Sávio scored in a recent first-team friendly. Real Salt Lake's squad last year included current pros
Justen Glad
(pictured at right) and
Fito Ovalle
.

Styles of play: The influx of foreign teams only added to the different styles and strategies on display, with Brazilian club Flamengo catching everybody’s eye last year before a nailbiting semifinal shootout loss to eventual champion Stoke City. This year's Champions Division offers five big-name clubs and Qatar’s Aspire Academy, which boasts 10 players from the Qatari age-group national team. When their tiny Gulf state hosts the World Cup in 2022, those players will be about 24 years old, so this tournament could offer our first look at players who will represent the headline-making host nation.

Heavyweight showdown: The group-stage draw was especially harsh to regular contenders FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake, who were drawn with each other, Athletic Bilbao and Pumas UNAM in group play. Real Salt Lake owned Dallas 3-0 in last year’s semifinals, but this Dallas group is dominating US Soccer Development Academy play to the tune of 16-1-2, outscoring opponents 61-14. Their head-to-head matchup on Monday afternoon should be one of the best games of the group stage.

Fond farewell: It will not be their final competitive games, but the Chivas USA Academy will be signing off from MLS competition in this event. They finished just one point away from qualifying for the Champions Division and will field a mix of their current successful U-16 squad with five call-ups from the U-14 age group.

Players to Watch

I’m not going to claim to know who the best players in the tournament are or will be. But here are some I’m already intrigued to watch:

Miles Stray, DF, Real Salt Lake (Champions Div.) – Last year, Stray played partner to professional signing Justen Glad at the heart of the RSL defense. This year, still just a high school sophomore, Stray is the only returning starter for a club that has reached the semifinals in four of the last six GA Cups.

Felipe Hernandez, MF, Sporting Kansas City (Champions Div.) – Still in his first year with the Sporting Kansas City Academy, Hernandez trained with Sporting during their preseason workouts in Tucson, Arizona, and is a skillful playmaker.

Nikola Stakic, DF, Toronto FC (Champions Div.) – One of nine players returning from a young Toronto team that went 0-5 playing in the tournament’s top flight last year, Stakic has been listed with USL team Toronto FC II and should be expected to lead this much younger group.

Nelson Mandela Mbouhom, MF, Eintracht Frankfurt (Champions Div.) – I don’t recognize a lot of names on the rosters of the foreign clubs, but this one demanded some extra research. A native of Cameroon, Mbouhom entered Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy at age 9, later moved to the youth setup of Hoffenheim and now plays for Eintracht, although his guardian lives in Paris. Confused? So was FIFA, and Mbouhom sat out the fall due to eligibility issues, but he appears to be back in the Eintracht fold.

Nathaniel Adamolekun & Pierre Da Silva, FWs, Orlando City (Premier Div.) – For their first MLS youth tournament, Orlando City are bringing their best. Jamaican international Adamolekun and US international Da Silva both competed at the recent CONCACAF U-17 Championship. Adamolekun, a tri-citizen recruited from Texas to Orlando, scored three goals for Jamaica in that tournament, while Da Silva netted once in two appearances for the US. Another US youth international from that tournament, Real Salt Lake defender Tanner Dieterich, is also rostered for the GA Cup.

Vitalis Takawira Jr.
, Chicago Fire (Premier Div.) – If the last name looks familiar, it should: The elder Takawira went by ‘Digital’ and is an MLS legend in Kansas City, where he scored the first goal in club history in 1996. Digital finished his career in Milwaukee, and his son now plays in the Fire’s youth system. If the younger Takawira scores, we can only hope he recreates his father’s ‘Digital Crawl’ celebration (
check it out in this 1996 footage
).