St. John Vianney goalie Evan Louro recently played in Croatia and Austria with the U.S. Soccer Federation’s U-15 team. Lancer head coach Brian Grimm called Louro “very, very special.” When Evan Louro first took the practice field for St. John Vianney High School’s soccer team, he did not come across as a freshman.
The South River resident was technically sound and smooth on his moves around the net as a goalie. It didn’t take long for coach Brian Grimm to appreciate that Louro was a national select player with serious, wellfounded aspirations of making the United States’World Cup team some day. Louro is affiliated with the highly regarded New York Red Bulls Academy based in northern New Jersey, where the pro team plays in Harrison.
“He is certainly very, very special,” Grimm said of Louro. “He’s completely and technically as sound a goalie as any I’ve seen, and there are people on a national level who go far beyond what I’ve seen.”
Louro, who played for the United States Soccer Federation Under 14 team while in elementary school and the U15 team during this past school year, traveled last month on a 10- day trip to Croatia to play two games against its national team in that age group and toAustria to play its professional Storm Graz team.
Louro shared time in goal with fellow Red Bulls Academy prospect Gianni Carillo of Pine Bush, N.Y. Louro did not play in a 4-1 victory over Croatia in Zagreb but played all the way through a 2-1 loss in the other game in Croatia. In the latter game, he gave up a penalty kick for the first goal and was beaten on a rebound shot of a breakaway that he had knocked away, which turned out to be the deciding goal.
Louro played a scoreless second half of a 2-1 victory over Storm Graz. He came in with the score tied at 1-1 and protected the lead when he knocked away shots on two different breakaway situations.
Jim Barlow of Princeton is the head coach. Louro is one of four Red Bulls Academy players on the roster and only one other on the roster is from New Jersey — Wesley Wade, a Red Bulls forward from South Orange. “I thought I did pretty well, made pretty big saves,” Louro said of the international trip .
Along with growing in skills, he also has grown in height in recent months to 6 feet, and in self-assurance.
Red BullsAcademy is one of four accredited soccer programs in New Jersey that develops natural-caliber players, and Louro trains with the academy during the winter at the New York Jets football indoor facility at Fairleigh Dickinson-Florham Park, and from March through October outdoors at the facilities at Rutgers-Newark and New Jersey Institute of Technology.
“It’s a great environment; training is intense,” said Louro, who said he has worked out at times with the under-18 players. “Everyone is good. It’s a pretty talented team [of U15 players]. Everything is sharp in shooting the ball.” Louro has stood up to the challenges and will return to the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., on July 23 to July 30, where he has trained four times before. He is one of 48 candidates at different positions competing for a spot on the residency program in which players will train anywhere from a semester to two years in Bradenton, Fla. Louro played only about a third of the games last fall for St. John Vianney because of his training commitments and related trips out of state, and had three shutouts. Matthew Niebling, a 6-3 rising senior, was in goal when Louro was away. St. John finished a game under .500 and lost many close games but suffered from a shortage of scoring power.
“He was not hesitant to come 30 yards out into the field but knows to get back to protect the area,” said SJV coach Grimm. “To him, coming into the field was not a big deal.”
Louro said Red Bull instructors told him he needed to work on distributing the ball from the goal. “In fact, kicking and throwing the ball now are one of my strengths,” Louro said of his distributing the ball to teammates to take upfield.
“Personally, I think it’s going pretty well for me, especially in my age group,” Louro said .
He has a good supporter at home with his dad, who played in leagues in his homeland in Spain as a center fullback and who introduced his son to soccer at age 7. It’s no surprise that his favorite team would be Real Madrid from Spain, which is defending World Cup champion. Louro said Real Madrid goalie Iker Casillas is his favorite, and he has a picture of him in his room.
“He’s the best in the world,” Louro said assuredly. “His reaction time is insane; he’s like a cat.”
Grimm feels Louro likewise is very fast to the ball.
“It’s how he positions himself and his great quickness side to side with stopping shots,” said Grimm. “It’s unusual for kids to be that proficient at that young age.”
And Louro’s success has not affected his attitude when he played for his high school team. Grimm said Louro’s skill with both feet makes him capable of going into the field as well, but the coach said he did not want to take a higher risk of injury that could affect Louro’s national team career.
“It’s physical on this level and it gets physical enough playing in the goal at times,” Grimm said. “But he has not expected special treatment. He remains unas- suming and humble, which serves him well.”
It’s been an exciting experience for Louro, not only playing but watching and being a part of things. He hopes to play for the U.S. National Team, which on June 19 scored an impressive 2-0 victory against Jamaica at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., to advance to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The U.S. team beat Panama, 1-0, in the semis on June 22 before falling to Mexico, 4-2, in the final played June 25 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif