De Anza Force Soccer Club, is an association football club in
Saratoga, California
Saratoga is a city in Santa Clara County, California. Located in Silicon Valley, in the southern Bay Area, its population was 31,051 at the 2020 census. Saratoga is an affluent residential community, known for its wineries, restaurants, and attra ...
, with nearly 80 boys' and girls' teams from under-7 to under-18 level.
History
Founded in 1999, the De Anza Force has grown into one of the largest American soccer development clubs, with 95% of alumni going on to receive scholarships at
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
schools.
[ The club has produced over ten players who have gone on to represent the United States at full international level, with numerous others representing at youth level.][
The club has over thirty coaches, including former United States internationals ]Jeff Baicher
Jeff Baicher (born November 16, 1968, in Sunnyvale, California) is a retired American soccer forward whose professional career took him through multiple leagues, including the Western Soccer League, American Professional Soccer League, Conti ...
, Paul Bravo
Paul Bravo (born June 19, 1968) is an American former soccer player who was most recently head coach of NISA side Oakland Roots SC. He played six seasons in Major League Soccer, two in the American Professional Soccer League and two in the USISL. ...
and Brandi Chastain
Brandi Denise Chastain (born July 21, 1968) is an American retired soccer player, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion, two-time Olympic gold-medalist, coach, and sports broadcaster. She played for the United States national team from 1988 ...
.[ Former ]Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
academy director Albert Puig Albert Puig may refer to:
* Albert Puig (swimmer)
* Albert Puig (football manager)
Albert Puig Ortoneda (born 15 April 1968) is a Spanish Association football, footballer manager He most recently managed J1 League club of FC Tokyo.
Managerial ...
has served as technical director for the club.Elite Clubs National League
In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. D ...
(ECNL) at youth level, as well as the MLS Next
MLS Next (stylized as MLS NEXT) is a youth soccer league in the United States and Canada, that is managed, organized and controlled by Major League Soccer. It was introduced by the league in 2020.
It is a successor to the U.S. Soccer Developmen ...
.
Notable former players
*Note: Players highlighted in bold are full internationals for the nation indicated.
Men
Women
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Anza Force SC
Soccer clubs in the San Francisco Bay Area
Soccer academies in the United States
Elite Clubs National League teams