Player Profiles: Fito Ovalle

Adolfo "Fito" Ovalle continues Real Salt Lake's trend of recruiting high-caliber talent from their academy.  Fito joins Utah fellow natives Sebastian Saucedo and Phanuel Kavita on a club that continues to build for the future.

Despite not making a single appearance for the senior side, Ovalle contributed greatly to the Real Monarchs.  He made 21 appearances for the USL side and tallied two assists in 1379 minutes.  The young defensive midfielder stood-out as a premier Number 6 in the lower division.

As a defensive midfielder Ovalle must be disheartened with his side's record of two goals conceded per match.  Both Ovalle and the Monarchs will look to improve this if they are to find success.  Ovalle looked confused at times in the midfield giving up the ball cheaply and conceding silly fouls.  While these should decrease with experience, the young midfielder should also work to find chemistry within the side.  Improvement could already be seen as the Monarchs finished their inaugural season with a five game winning streak - in no small part due to the work of midfield - but Fito must help extend this trend if he hopes take his services to the senior squad.

For Fito, 2015 was a great start to what RSL can only hope to be a long and prosperous career.  Not only did the freshman midfielder manage to make the most of meaningful match minutes that only help in his development, but Ovalle provided depth in the midfield - something that was diminished in the past year.

Gaining more match minutes to aid in his professional development is what Fito should push for in 2016.  Maintaining a consistent presence for the USL side will definitely aid RSL as Kyle Beckerman continues to age.

Editor's note: This is part of a series of player profiles that we'll be posting over the next month as review 2015. Check out our 2014 player profiles.