The Only Time We'll Interview a 15-year Old

Shane Kaemerle subbed on for Cal United Strikers FC against Michigan Stars FC two weekends ago. A big moment for anyone, playing for a pro side in a brand new league, but for a 15-year old it’s a life changer. When we heard his story, we had to sit down and talk with him, a boy among men.

So 15, huh? When I was that age, I just played a lot of video games. What electronic games do you waste time on?

I play a lot of FIFA and Fortnite with my friends 

Can you talk about your path through the Cal United system? How long have you been involved with the club?

I have been involved for 7 months. I came out during the summer 3-4 Times a week which transitioned into me practicing full time with the club and now I am where I am

Impressive to see you make your pro debut with Strikers two weeks ago. What was that feeling like, subbing in against Michigan Stars?

It was amazing, I was pretty nervous at the beginning but as soon as I stepped foot on the field all of those nerves went away. 

Speaking of Stars, saw one player get a pretty good tackle against you. Was that your welcome to the pros moment?

Yeah, I think so, he came up to me after the game and told me that was my “welcome to the pros” 

What approach do you take, playing against 20 and 30 year olds?

I definitely have to adapt my game and play quicker because they’re a lot stronger and faster. It’s much different than playing against academy players. 

What do you think of your club's chances in NISA this season?

I think we have a great group of players and a great team and I think we will be bringing home that cup this season. 

What's your relationship like with your fellow Strikers? Anyone mentor you specifically?

My relationship is good with everyone on the team, but Kevin Jeon and Chris Klute have been big mentors for me by giving me pointers and helping me understand the game more. 

What role do you expect to play this season?

I hope to play as many minutes as I can, but my focus is to make it into the 18 each game and work myself into the lineup when they need me. 

What are your long-term goals in soccer?

My long term goal is to go to Europe and fight for a spot there. For now though I am focusing on this goal, with Cal United, to help the team to a championship. 

What music do you listen to hype up before a match?

I listen to mainly rap, Playboy Carty is my jam. 

What's the best part of being a 15 year old pro?

I get to play the sport I love for a living! I don’t have the traditional school experience, but I wouldn’t change that for anything.

How do your parents feel about you playing soccer with adults?

They’re very excited for me. My dad thinks this is the best thing for me right now to be with Cal United and grow my game. He played himself, and so for him to be able to see me grow in this sport right here in my backyard is a huge plus. 

NISA Week 2 Preview

John Howard-Fusco is half of the Knights Who Say NISA podcast. He dug into the upcoming weekend and has the preview of every match.

LA Force v Stumptown Athletic

Friday, 3/6 10:30PM ET

Jesse Owens Stadium, Cal State LA, Los Angeles CA

It’s an All-Cali Weekend as all three matches in NISA will be played on the left coast. LA Force is once again hosting some Friday night footy, with Stumptown Athletic making its first cross-country journey. The home team needs to find some offense, and possibly a few more fans in the stands. Facing Detroit City FC in its opening match was a tall order, but LA Force showed some capacity to press and create chances.

Stumptown demonstrated some offensive prowess in its opening draw with 1904 FC and look to continue their scoring ways. The midfield earned both goals last week, between Tate Robertson’s wonder strike off a free kick from distance and pacy Jalen Brown delivering the other.

Should Stumptown come away with a result, we must give this club some early consideration for being a potential playoff candidate.        

Oakland Roots v Michigan Stars FC

Saturday, 3/7 8:10PM ET

Laney College Football Stadium, Oakland CA

The Roots played a rock-‘em, sock-‘em 1-1 draw with Chattanooga FC last weekend, the highlight match of NISA’s opening card of games. And while Michigan Stars may not be the same level of opponent, their defense will deliver plenty of rock-‘em and sock-‘em. It will be interesting to see how the capacity home crowd will react to seeing their local lads get a little roughed up.

In comparison to last week’s game, don’t expect the same back and forth kind of action from Oakland. Expect Michigan to bog down the middle and look to counter. But with a poacher like Jack McInerney, the Roots may only need one chance to break through.   

The Roots produced a limited-edition T-shirt celebrating McInerney’s game-tying goal from last week. Just imagine what will happen if they win a game. This is the game they need to win.

1904 FC v Cal United Strikers FC

Sunday, 3/8 8PM ET

Lincoln High School, San Diego CA

Fifteen goals given up in six games during the fall, 1904 gave up two more in the opener against Stumptown Athletic. So who’s coming to the club’s home opener? Why, it’s Gustavo Villalobos, Christian Thierjung et al from Cal United – the club that handed Ought Four losses of 3-0 and 4-1 last fall. Yikes.

The good news is that it is 1904’s home opener, and playing their home games at Lincoln High School’s field should help create a more lively atmosphere. Will it help in the win column? That all depends if the club can do a similar job in slowing down Cal United that Michigan Stars did last week. It says here that’s not likely to happen.

With back-to-back games against 1904, along with Detroit City FC having two weeks off, Cal United has a chance to be the spring season’s early pace setters.

Dan Watches NISA: Week One

Each week, I’ll be writing a recap of the NISA matches, give my thoughts on the matches and give a short power ranking of the clubs at the end. All matches were watched on Mycujoo, because I don’t live within 500 miles of any NISA clubs. Matches will be in random order.

What a week 1! Great rollout for the league with solid attendance in two of four matches and close to 15,000 views of the matches through their online platform partner, Mycujoo. For the most part the broadcasts looked and sounded professional, offering a great connecting point for potential fans of the league. The matches were exciting and delivered goals, cards, and some late minute heroics. I, for one, enjoyed every second of this week’s matches, so let’s get into them.

Oakland 1 - Chattanooga 1

• Several production points and a general point about the pitch. First, Roots (as I guess I should have expected) had the best production of the week. The broadcast also featured the only REAL advertising I spotted this weekend. Even the opening lineups were sponsored. In the end, to survive you have to make money, Roots appear to be in the groove on that part. Laney looked good in the broadcast, with a large crowd, over 5k. But the FIELD. Ugliest field in the history of soccer. Just looked like trash. Gotta find a way to get onto a better rug.

• The match itself was a banger. Hella enjoyable. Both sides looked aggressive and hungry, so early in the season, with all the issues Chatta faced in the preseason, that’s exceptional.

• The goal for Chatta, how was McGrath THAT open? Defenders fell asleep on that one.

• The red card to Hines was the softest red I’ve seen. Yes, he tried to pull the ball from McGrath, but that happens 10 times a match. Defender was stalling to let his defense get into shape and the attacking player was trying to get the ball rolling. And that’s when the ref reaches into his back pocket, so the resulting bump between the players wan’t the trigger, it was the original struggle for the ball. I don’t get it. Shaped the entire rest of the match. Sucks.

• Jack McInerney is a bad man. Dangerous the entire match, multiple scoring chances. He will be a handful all season and I bet his kit will be a hot item for Oakland. The equalizer was a thing of beauty and was the best moment of Week one. If you haven’t seen it, skip to 5:40 and you’re welcome.

Stumptown Athletic 2 - San Diego 1904 2

• Didn’t expect this match to be as good as it was, but Stumptown looked better than I expected, especially considering their disappointing Fall campaign.

• On the production side, went with a solo announcer and dude seemed a little lonely. He was fine, but could have used someone to bounce conversation off. The camera angle was poorly chosen, with an empty field beyond the sideline, fans are part of the match, SHOW them - though it sounded pretty poorly attended on the feed.

• Stumptown kits look good. I like that pattern/gradient combo look. Solid. And SD1904 has maybe the blandest uniforms in NISA. White. Neat. Ok.

• Tate Robertson’s goal, what a banger. That was easily 30 yards out. Crushed it. 

• That first goal for San Diego was ugly. Just a ball in the scrum happening to fall into the net.

LA Force 0 - Detroit City FC 2

• Definitely the match everyone wanted to see on Mycujoo, drawing close to 6,000 views. Easily dwarfing the number of people there to see the match. LA needs to get things together and connect with their market. They are SLOW on social media and the shots posted on twitter of their stands showed a basically empty stadium. Some claimed it was close to a thousand and to those people I say, you’re nuts. I’d guess 400 max. And that included the guys from Michigan Stars who played the next day. If you can’t draw a crowd to see Detroit City come to town, I don’t understand.

• This match was a tale of two halves, with Detroit dominating possession in the first half and LA becoming the aggressor in the second half. The difference, DCFC converted their chances. The first goal resulted from a set piece, when a deflected ball was passed to Matt Lewis, who buried the shot.

• Both clubs pressed this entire match. It was FUN to watch.

• Roddy Green’s goal, which made little difference in the result, was beautiful. The result of Detroit’s press, he could have passed once in the box, but finished confidently. Dude signed his pro contract 5 days earlier. Ice cold.

• One player that caught my eye for Detroit was Tendai Jirira who is listed as a defender on the roster. He is silky smooth on the ball. He has a touch that won’t quit. I was very impressed with his play the entire match.

• Detroit is going to be very good this season.

California United 1 - 0 Michigan Stars

• So the announcer has European charm and gravitas, that’s fine. But did he have to constantly refer to the Michigan Stars as “the red men” the ENTIRE match. The red men sounds vaguely racist, though that wasn’t his intent. If anything, it just sounded dumb. What also sounds dumb is the other announcer calling NISA “N-I-S-A” the entire match. Everyone calls it NISA (nee-suh), get with it, dude.

• Crowd at the match looked legit, filled most of the stands, but would have loved to see a little more “soccer” things - flags, smoke, drums. Maybe there are bans at the stadium?

• Michigan Stars play HARD ASS defense. Aggressive tackles, studs up, teeth clattering challenges, two early yellow cards didn’t stop them from beating up Cal United the rest of the match. The stacked their lines most of the match, bunker style, 9 players against their own box, with a single roving attacking player trying to pick off a pass. I suspect they will end the season with the most cards AND give up the fewest goals.

• The goal for Cal United was interesting because the shot from Michael Bryant was from so far out. Far enough out that, if he was off target he would have been WAAAAYYYY off target. Instead he smashed it and the keeper couldn’t cleanly handle it, spilling the ball into the path of Kevin Jeon, who finished it off.

• Two Cal United players caught my eye. First, Gustavo Viallobos’ footwork and ball handling were a thing of beauty the entire match. The other was 15 year old Shane Kaemerie, who came on as a sub. He’s a product of Cal United’s academy and an exciting prospect for the club. You love to see the next generation.

Dan’s NISA Week 1 Power Rankings

1. Detroit City FC

2. Cal United

3. Stumptown Athletic

4. Chattanooga FC

5. SD 1904

6. Oakland Roots

7. Michigan Stars

8. LA Force

Editor’s Note: There was a point about who owns the rights to DCFC’s Matt Lewis. This was deleted when a twitter user corrected us.

Ranking the NISA Home Openers

For those that missed it, NISA put out a list of the home openers for the Spring 2020 season. With the first match kicking off on the weekend of February 29, we’re sitting 6 weeks out from the kick-off of the expanded season of NISA play with the addition of Chattanooga, Detroit City, and Michigan Stars. The full schedule won’t be released until later this month, so for now, let’s rank the home openers.

- Dan

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★

Stumptown Athletic vs. 1904 FC (2/29/20)

Stumptown Athletic was the runner up in the East to Miami FC, but with Philly Fury forfeiting the season and Atlanta SC’s 2 wins coming in matches that Philly vacated, they have a tremendous amount to prove heading into this season. The addition of heavy hitters in the East will mean that task will be even harder. 1904 only managed two wins in the stronger West and will be desperate to start off their season with a win. This will be a match most will skip out on and, with Stumptown’s attendance issues last season, the stands will reflect that.

★★

Cal United Strikers FC vs. Michigan Stars FC (2/29/20)

This isn’t going to come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the NPSL, Michigan Stars was the little brother in a conference dominated by big name clubs, including their fellow NISA expansion, DCFC. Stars have a lot to prove in their league and will have to kick off their season on the road, heading to Orange County to face Cal United Strikers. Strikers finished the last regular season in second position in the standings. They followed that up by beating LA in the playoffs on PKs. Kicking off their season against an unproven NISA expansion side should be a recipe for a quick 3 points.

Chattanooga FC vs. Michigan Stars FC (3/14/20)

CFC is one of two big names to cross over into NISA during the offseason. With their ability to fill Finley, it’s reasonable to expect a crazy crowd for this first professional match for Chatta. The club should make quick work of their fellow ex-Members Cup opponent. Speaking of Members Cup, Michigan finished with only 2 wins and a negative 8 goal differential. Not good, man.

★★★

Michigan Stars FC vs. Los Angeles Force (3/21/20)

So I’ve dunked on Michigan Stars in two previous previews, so let’s give this home opener a 3 star rating. I’d expect the club to be on a losing streak and this will be a chance to bounce back, facing a club that had to travel over 2,000 miles. Is anyone else a little troubled the match is scheduled at a location TBD? Seems a little late in the game for details like that to not be settled. Anyway, back to the match, so good chance for a bounce back for the hosts, EXCEPT their opponent was the regular season champ in the West and lost on PKs in the playoffs. LA Force will have faced DCFC at home for their opener (more on that later) and we don’t know the rest of the schedule yet, but without a doubt this appears on paper to be a big win opportunity for LA.

★★★★

Detroit City FC vs. Oakland Roots (3/21/20)

Detroit City FC heads into NISA with a ton of steam after soundly defeating the rest of the Members Cup participants in the Fall. Detroit really matched their support and swagger with solid play on the field and look to be the favorites of this first season in NISA. Their first NISA opponent at Keyworth will be Oakland Roots, a club that nailed every aspect of their rollout in 2019, except for their on-field play. With a new coach and a renewed roster, Oakland will be looking to match their looks with substance in 2020.

Oakland Roots vs. Chattanooga FC (2/29/20)

Everything I said about Oakland in the previous preview, but now they get to host the other big boy expansion club, Chattanooga FC. It’s a long trip from Chattanooga, so maybe that helps Oakland? Especially considering Oakland draws well, something that CFC rarely has rarely seen outside of Detroit. I think this match is sneaky good and should show us where Oakland is headed into 2020.

★★★★★

Los Angeles Force vs. Detroit City FC (2/29/20)

Yet another match to be played at TBD, but WHAT a match. The 2019 regular season winner from the West hosts the bad boys of Detroit on the first week of the 2020 season. This should bring all the eyes on opening weekend. Circle this match.