Atletico Madrid opened their summer with a heavy win, with Ademola Lookman scoring twice inside 35 minutes and Arnau Ortiz catching the eye. But the goal on the other side belonged to somebody just starting out. Alvaro Gutierrez, a 17-year-old central midfielder from Getafe's academy, scored his side's goal against Atletico, a small headline with a big meaning for anyone who works with young players.

Getafe went into the game leaning heavily on their kids, and that is normal for this time of year. Preseason friendlies are where clubs blend fringe players and academy prospects into the group, hand them minutes against real opposition, and find out who can handle it. Gutierrez took his chance in the most direct way a young midfielder can: he scored.

Why preseason is a gift for young players

For a US coach, the parallel is your own preseason in the fall, or those early exhibition dates before the competitive schedule starts. These games do not count in the table, which is exactly why they are perfect for the younger, less proven players on your roster. The pressure to win is lower, the stakes are developmental, and a coach can afford to throw a 15- or 16-year-old into deeper water and see how they swim.

The mistake is to treat preseason as just fitness work for the established starters. The clubs that develop players use those weeks to stress-test the next group. Gutierrez does not get that shot, or that goal, if Getafe treat the Atletico friendly as a private session for their first-choice eleven. Someone made the deliberate choice to give the kids real minutes against a top opponent, and it paid off in confidence you cannot fake.

What the young player has to do with the chance

Getting minutes is the club's job. Doing something with them is the player's. What separates a prospect who kicks on from one who fades is what they do when the door opens a crack. Gutierrez scored, and a goal is the loudest possible way to say I belong here. But you can teach your younger players the quieter versions: win your first duel, complete your first three passes, be brave enough to demand the ball in the opening minutes rather than hide.

Tell your U15s and U16s this directly before a preseason game against older or better opposition. Nobody remembers a cautious cameo. The players who move up are the ones who do one clear, positive thing early and make the coach look again. That does not have to be a goal. It can be a tackle, a line-breaking pass, a run that stretches the defense. The point is to be visible for the right reasons in the first ten minutes.

Gutierrez may or may not become a regular for Getafe. Most academy kids who score in July do not become stars. But the mechanism that gave him this moment, a club that uses preseason to test its young players against real opposition, and a young player ready to seize it, is the same one that will decide who from your roster steps up this fall. Build it into your calendar on purpose.