Bremen's Techeira among most improved

Who are the most improved players in the area in soccer this year? Who are the surprises? We surveyed area coaches, and this is what they told us:

Bremen

The Braves were touted as a solid unit coming into the season by opposing coaches, and that's proved correct. They were 9-2, 5-0 in the South Suburban Blue, through Wednesday's games.

Coach Steve Granat tabbed forward Josh Techeira as his most improved player. He had 17 goals this season (including four in Wednesday's rout of Illinois Lutheran), along with eight assists. Last year, he scored 20 goals the entire season.

"He's come a long way," Granat said of the 6-foot-3, 170-pounder, who specializes in the triple jump in track. "Twenty was a disappointing season for him. He's a force to be reckoned with. It looks like he's got it together this year. Great skill. His strength is out of the air. He wins just about everything. And the maturity level, what a big difference from last year."

Granat picked junior outside midfielder Alejandro Garcia as his surprise player.

"He's a huge surprise," Granat said. "He worked extremely hard in the offseason and is a force on the outside. He hit the weight room big-time last summer. He fits in with everyone else. He has great skills, great speed, and holds his own on defense and offense."

St. Laurence

The Vikings are having a middle-of-the-pack season so far, standing 6-6-2 overall and 2-1 in the Catholic League through Thursday, but coach Brian Kovacs has hope for the future in a pair of underclassmen.

Kovacs picked sophomore midfielder Cody Goldman as his most improved player.

"He's solid," Kovacs said. "He plays at both ends of the field and has a good touch. He played on the varsity last year, but he's improved a lot, playing with a lot more confidence, especially going to the goal."

Kovacs counts junior midfielder/forward Hector Villazana as his biggest surprise.

"We didn't expect him to be a goal scorer, and he has seven goals," Kovacs said. "His touch on the ball has improved a lot."

Mount Carmel

As noted last week, the competence of the Caravan is no longer a secret in soccer circles. One of the reasons is forward/midfielder Hugo Mendez, whom coach Adrian Calleros said is his most improved player.

"He's gone from a complementary player to an impact player," Calleros said of Mendez, touting his improvement on offense: five goals as a junior and a dozen in just 10 games this season. His goal total includes a pair of hat tricks and two goals last week in a 3-3 tie with Loyola.

As for surprises, Calleros picked defender Nick Grbavac, who scored one of the shootout goals in Sunday's 2-1 win over Bloom Township in the final match of the Ram Invitational at Toyota Park.

"He's been a good player, but he's really stepped up his game in his senior year," Calleros said.

Mount Carmel went into weekend action 6-3-1 overall, 0-0-1 in the Catholic League.

Oak Lawn

Spartans head coach Kevin Stow reported his most improved player was defender Jonathan Rodriguez, who grew four inches from his sophomore to junior year.

"He is a solid leader on defense and has scored big goals for us in clutch situations," Stow said. "Last year, he was a talented played, but seemed to play distracted or timidly. Not this year, thankfully."

Rodriguez's improvement isn't the only reason the Spartans had compiled an 8-2 record, including a 5-0 slate in the South Suburban Red circuit, through Wednesday's play. Mostafa Abdelrahman, the transfer from Jordan who arrived in the middle of last season and continues to be a pleasant surprise to Stow, is another.

"I heard he was a decent player last year," Stow said. "I knew he'd help our scoring potential, but he plays and practices with such a love of the game that it becomes infectious. He's our leading scorer and has meshed very well with our returning seniors."

Tim Cronin can be reached at tcronin@southtownstar.com or (708) 633-5948.