LAFC 2018 Player Postmortem: Shaft Brewer, Jr.

Shaft Brewer, Jr. was one of the surprise additions to Los Angeles Football Club’s preseason roster. The Sacramento native, who had spent time with both the Sacramento Republic youth set-up and FC Dallas’ vaunted academy, had then gone to RB Leipzig’s academy, another U.S. youth international looking to hit paydirt in the Bundesliga.

But like many of those Americans looking to break through in Germany, it hadn’t quite come together, and Brewer was back stateside, playing for LAFC in the preseason.

In the end, he got the pro deal, too, after LAFC traded FC Dallas for the attacker’s rights.

Like Josh Perez, Brewer is a highly touted youth prospect, a project for LAFC, not someone expected to contribute right away for the first team. He did get some run during the season, but it wasn’t a great deal of playing time overall.

As you can see, all of Brewer’s competitive playing time for LAFC came as a sub, and on a statistical front, wasn’t much happening there of note.

In the fall, Brewer was then loaned out, to USL team Phoenix Rising FC. The teenager was with the club in the run to the USL Cup Final, making 10 appearances, including three starts, while on loan between regular season and playoffs. Normally used as a very late sub in games, Brewer did get some playing time, more than he would have with LAFC, but he didn’t get quite the same run as his teammate, Tristan Blackmon, at the same club on loan.

Again, Brewer is a project, he’s American and wasn’t making a lot of money, so I figure he’ll be back next year, although it’s not necessarily a guarantee. It’s hard to evaluate a player fully with just 56 minutes of playing time at MLS level, and just over 300 at USL level, but he’s one for the future, and we’ll see if that will be with LAFC or somewhere else.

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