User:Joshua Kelly (Soccer)

Joshua Kelly (Born August 31, 1989 in Riverside, California) is an American Soccer player currently playing in Los Angeles, California. Kelly is a 6 foot 2 Central Defender from Riverside, CA.

SOCCER CAREER

Amateur

Kelly played all of his high school seasons at Martin Luther King High School from 2004 to 2007 where he established himself as one of the most dominant players in the state. He led his team in goals as a freshman all the way up to his Senior year where he racked up a total of 88 Goals and 19 Assists in his 4 years and led his team to the State CIF Championship in 2006 and help lead the team to a record of 22-2-1 his Senior year when they were given the highest seed in the CIF playoffs. He was awarded All Ivy Conference League 1st Team all 4 years and was selected as the Leagues Most Valuable Player in both 2006 and 2007. He was also selected onto the California CIF State All Star team as well in those two years. He was selected onto the preseason Gatorade All-American players to watch in 2007. He spent his first two years out of college playing at the University of California, Riverside where he started as a central defender. In his first spring season with the school ,he helped lead the team to a shutout in 6 of it's first 8 games.

'''Club and Regional Team Squads ''' Kelly is a product of Arsenal FC which is based in Alta Loma, CA and played with the Arsenal Futbol Club that won 3 consecutive National Championships. Before he began playing with Arsenal, Kelly played for Celtic FC based in Rancho, CA where he also won a national championship with the team the previous year. Kelly set the California state goal scoring record with 47 goals in a 16 game season. Kelly was a team captain playing as a Central Defender for the team and that is where he played leading up to his Collegiate Career and Professional / Amateur Career as well. He was selected to play for the Olympic Development Program (ODP) and played for the California South team where he caught the eye of scouts and was thrown into the US National Team Soccer Pool. Kelly than went on to represent the United States in the Manchester United Premier Cup which was held in London, England where the United States competed against the top teams from around the world in a 20 country tournament where the United States would eventually end up finishing 10th in the tournament, which was the highest that the United States had ever placed in the competition. In the tournament Kelly started in all 6 games and they finished with a record of 3-3 losing to FC Barcelona from Spain, Paris St. Germain from France and Estudiantes from Argentina.

Kelly was selected to play for Arsenal FC in the New York Red Bull League, which consisted of the top teams throughout the United States where he helped his team reach the Championship game and finished with the overall best record in the league. Kelly played in consecutive United States Nike friendlies in Bradenton, Florida where he was scouted by numerous colleges throughout the country and ranked by topdrawersoccer as one of the top 10 Recruits in the graduating class of 2007 and from there he decided to take his talents to play at the University of California Riverside.

Kelly played in numerous tournaments throughout his club and regional career representing the United States in both domestic and foreign tournaments against some of the top Clubs in the World. Competing in London and Manchester, England and against teams throughout Europe such as Spain, France, Germany and Latin American in Argentina and Chile.

Professional

In 2008 Kelly was selected to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy Under 21 Academy team where he started all 13 games as a Central Defender and helped lead the Galaxy to the top record in the League. in 2009 Kelly was selected again to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy Gios team where he started all 12 games and helped the LA Galaxy finish with one of the top records in the league and ended the season with 2 Goals and 3 Assists. The Los Angeles Galaxy team also recorded 8 shutouts in their 12 games which was tops in the USL League. In 2010 Kelly traveled to South Korea as well as Japan where he began training with professional teams out there. In Korea he was able to train and get in playing time with Pohang Steelers and the F.C. Seoul Reserve Squad. Following his stint in Korea he traveled to Japan where he than trained and played with Kashiwa Reysol before returning back to the United States in 2011. Kelly then played his next season in the Los Angeles Galaxy program as well where he started all 12 of their games throughout the season at central defender. He spent his 2011 and 2012 season in the Los Angeles Galaxy program playing both as a central midfielder and a central defender. He scored the league clinching goal in the Championship Regional game against rival club Chivas USA.

In 2013 Kelly traveled to Portland, OR where he trained with the Portland TImbers Reserves and U-23 team before heading up north and signing a Professional Development League professional contract with the Kitsap Pumas in Seattle, WA. There he helped the team win the Ruffneck Cup as the top team competing against the Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps. He finished the season with 3 goals and 2 assists. Kelly was selected to the all Professional DevelopmentalLeague 1st team 3 times throughout the season and was voted PDL defender of the month in their division in July.

In 2014 Kelly played in the LAPL where he played both as a central defender and forward where he was team captain and helped lead his team to a record of 11-6-4 with a team leading 13 goals and 5 assists.