Podcast: Revolution Technical Director Curt Onalfo on Peyton Miller, academy

Curt Onalfo is the Technical Director for the New England Revolution. (Fred Kfoury III)

The latest guest on New England Soccer Journal’s “The Goal” podcast is New England Revolution Technical Director Curt Onalfo.

Onalfo was named Technical Director in June 2019. He oversees New England’s pro player pathway and spearheaded the launch of Revolution II, the club’s MLS NEXT Pro development team. He also guided the Revolution Academy to the 2022 and 2023 MLS NEXT Cup U-19 national championship. Onalfo was an MLS Cup winner as both a player (1999) and a coach (2011, 2012, and 2014).

Onalfo joined host Matt Langone to discuss the Revs’ recent signing of 15-year-old phenom Peyton Miller, the Revolution Academy and how the team develops players through the system.

The full podcast can be accessed below and is available on all major platforms. If you enjoy it, please leave a rating and a review.

Here are some highlights from our discussion with Onalfo:

On Peyton Miller as a player:

Onalfo: “He’s a player that we recruited from outside. He is from Unionville, Conn., so it’s a little bit outside of our territory. From my experience with him, and I’ve watched it closely when he came into our academy, he’s an exceptional athlete. He’s very, very gifted athletically and obviously was a good soccer player, but he needed to fine-tune his craft, so to speak. Rob Becerra and the rest of our academy staff really did an excellent job in just making sure he improved on a daily basis, and he scored a lot of goals from the winger/midfielder type position.”

On the belief that Miller can play at the pro level at such a young age:

Onalfo: “He was challenged on a daily basis, and he is just one of these kids that just kept rising to the occasion and just kept getting better and better. We saw this incredible transformation when he got here within a 12 to 16 month period, and we’re, like, ‘wow, this kid has high potential. He’s somebody that really has a chance to make our first team.’ So, then the next step was, ‘all right, let’s get him into our second team environment.’ We just wanted to give him little opportunities here and there, but every time we gave him an opportunity he just thrived and he belonged. I always say he pushed up our timeline significantly.”

On the depth of young talent in the Revolution Academy and at the pro levels for the Revs:

Onalfo: “It’s really awesome because it was part of our plan coming in. We wanted to really enhance that part. We added the second team in the second year that we were here, because we didn’t have one and that began our pro pathway. With each year, we’ve tried to get better and better and it’s been enhanced. We’ve made the academy better, we’ve made the second team better, consistently. When you put good players into that system and you kind of know what you’re doing, all of a sudden, eventually, they’re going to start getting opportunities.”

On the success of the Revolution Academy teams in 2022-23:

Onalfo: “We’re one of only three teams in Major League Soccer that the U-15, U-17 and U-19 level are MLS playoff teams. That’s something we’re proud of. We’ve never done that before. We’ve come a long way, we’re getting better all the time, but we want to just keep pushing and continually improve.”

The Goal” podcast is brought to you by the New England Revolution.

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