Wisconsin Soccer Central

At least six Wisconsin players were at Olympic Park in Schaumburg, Ill., on Monday for the first day of the U.S. Soccer Chicago Combine.

Defender Keoni Bailey (Oshkosh West), forward Nicholas Moon (Waukesha West) and midfielders Buran Husseini (South Milwaukee) and Alex Masbruch (Slinger) – all on FC Milwaukee's Under-15/16 team in the U.S. Soccer  Development Academy – Bavarian SC goalkeeper Toney Anderson (Racine St. Catherine's) and former Bavarians midfielder Jack Shaw (Milwaukee Marquette) were among the 36 players selected for the event.

Bavarians goalkeeper Adin Chiappa (Whitefish Bay) and Marcus McCrary (Madison La Follette), another member of the FC Milwaukee Under-15/16 Academy team, also were invited to the two-day combine, but were unable to attend due to academic obligations.

U.S. Soccer announced the Chicago Combine, one of seven local combines scheduled across the country, last week as part of an expansion of its Training Center Program. Players participate in training sessions and classroom sessions similar to a youth national team camp. This year, the focus of the local combines is boys ages 15 to 17.

Sixty players will be chosen to attend a national combine from Aug. 7 to 11 at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Ore. All Training Center Program events are free for players to attend, thanks to a partnership with Nike.

A Training Center Session was held at Bavarian Complex in Glendale in May 2012, one of more than 200 events held nationwide last year.

"The Training Center Program provides our scouting network with more opportunities to evaluate and track the country’s most talented players," U.S. Soccer director of scouting Tony Lepore said in a news release. "Since we launched the program in 2008, our youth national team scouts have worked with youth clubs, associations, ODP programs and other soccer leaders to identify the best local players who should be invited into a session. Performance at these sessions has opened doors at the collegiate, Academy, youth national team and professional level for many players."

• Moon and Masbruch – playing up an age group – scored, but Nathan Shultz had a first-half hat trick as Internationals scored four times in 19 minutes and beat nine-man FC Milwaukee 4-2 in a Development Academy Under-17/18 season finale Saturday in Medina, Ohio. Nikola Atlija (Franklin) had a team-best six goals on the year and Marquette recruit Driton Zyteja (Sun Prairie) added four for the Nationals, who finished 4-20-3 and 12th in the 13-team Central Conference Mid-America Division.
• FC Milwaukee's Under-15/16 side wrapped up the season with a 4-0 loss to Internationals, conceding three second-half goals. Marcus McCrary (Madison La Follette) led the eighth-place Nationals (10-14-3) with 14 goals, while Reid Stevenson (Sturgeon Bay) contributed 11 and Moon had seven.
• Bavarian SC has launched a drive to raise $1.1 million for field improvements at its complex in Glendale. The plan calls for installation of all-weather synthetic turf on what will be called Heartland Value Fund Stadium and on Field 4, along with improvements on Ramon Field. More information