Sounds like a fine player. Curious to know what his plans are after he graduates? does he want to go to college (if so, where is he looking? ) or try to get a contract right away, either in MLS or abroad?
Lucas will make all those decisions depending on what options are put in front of him and where he is at as a player. His job right now is to get better as a player. He will pick a college and do a verbal commit this year. I think he has narrowed that down to about 10 colleges. Many on the west coast with some interest in Maryland and Duke as well. Then he will play hard the next two years and see if he is good enough to sign with Portland and hopefully get some time with their reserves over the next two years. He will keep in contact with a couple of English clubs that are following him and he will just see where all that leads too in the next two years. The most logical path for an American player is to sign and play college soccer for a couple of years and then be strong enough and good enough to go pro. We will just see how it all plays out. Also Lucas is very excited this week to return and play down in Arizona against his old team RSLarizona. Many of those players are some of Lucas best friends and it should be a lot of fun. The RSL Arizona 18s also boast an undefeated record so it will be quite a challenge. Lucas is feeling good and confident in his teamates and he has yet to experience a loss in a Portland Timbers jersey since he did not make the road trip down for thier first two games. I am hoping to be down there to watch the games.
http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-soccer/club-soccer-team-rankings/men/u18/6/183 Topdrawer ranking the Academies once a month. Portland Timbers with a very tough schedule to start the year now playing #6 RSL on the road after playing top ten Galaxy and Chivas on the road in the first six games. Welcome to the Academy boys ! ha ha
http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club...ospects:-le-mans-maki-ready-for-call_aid26557 Article in Top Drawer on Lucas trip to England.
Another fun weekend of soccer as Lucas and his team traveled down to Arizona to play his team from last year RSL. The game would be interesting as Lucas trained and played for a whole year with most of the RSL u-18s roster. Lucas played as a left winger and that brought him up against Junior Juarez most of the game. Two very talented players that know each other very well. It was a fun and fairly even battle. I would say that RSL had more of the possesion but just barely and Portland was able to generate the better chances in the frist half and truthfully should have been ahead at the break. I would give the edge to RSL in the second beccause Portland started to run out of gas in the nearly 100 degree heat. A late goal that sat in the box and seemed to roll in on its own meant a close defeat for Portland. For a brand new team the Timbers have made enormous progress playing one of the better academies quite even. The 16s game was another tough one for Portland as they lead the entire game until a late equalizer. Some good futbol played down in Casa grande this weekend.
Lucas and the team played really well down in Arizona and conceded a gaol in the last 5 minutes to lose 1 to 0. Lucas started at left winger and caused a lot of havoc on the left side. Up this week Crossfire premier comes to town on Saturday at 100.
http://www.columbian.com/weblogs/po.../timbers-academy-u-18s-3-crossfire-premier-1/ A nice recap of the u-18s win over crossfire this weekend 3 to 1. Lucas played all 90 minutes. He was very involved in the attach down the left wing. By all accounts the newly formed u-18 team is starting to really click. They are undefeated in home games and playing good soccer. Now they go on another run of away games that will not see them play again in Portland until March 16. That is 11 straight road games and will make it so that they begin the season with 15 of their first 18 games on the road. Good news will be a nice Spring run of home games to end the year. They also have their schedule out for the showcase in Florida the first of December which includes games against the Chicago Fire and Houston Dynamo. http://ussda.demosphere.com/teams/47158256/47189146-47158344/TEAM.html All in all Lucas is having a great run of form right now.
Happy Birthday to Lucas on Saturday! He will be 17. From what I hear he is celebrating by going to the park and doing shooting drills with his roomate the GK for Portland Timbers u-16 ha ha . I think that night he is planning on seeing Skyfall.
A busy weekend for Lucas and his team with a trip to Northern California to play Cal Odessy and San Jose Earthquakes. Lucas played the full ninety minutes in a not as close as the score 4 to3 win. The second game Lucas played the last 20 minutes in a 2 to 1 loss. Lucas entered the game with the team down a goal and on ten men because of a red card. Spend most of the time chasing and defending. The team continues to play good soccer and if not for the red card would most likey had a two win weekend. Lucas is now on break for the week back in Utah.
Great thanksgiving week back in Utah for Lucas. Flew back to Portland Sunday night and will be leaving for Florida on Thursday for the Showcase. The three teams he will be facing are Houston Dynamo, FC Delco, and Chicago Fire. Should be a great event and I will keep everyone updated.
just saw the results for Portland and would like to hear your rundown of the games, assuming you made the trip? As for the Chicago Fire team I was curious to hear your thoughts on that squad, I have read rave reviews for a couple of there players, (LM,CDM,CB)
I will give a better review tomorrow when I am back but just coming from the Chicago Fire game that Portland won 1 to 0. Very good game and nice win for Portland. Lucas started and played all three games and rarely lost the ball. I will further details tomorrow. Thanks
Well Lucas just arrived in Portland last night after spending four days down in florida at the Academy showcase. Lucas started all three games and played very well with his best performance yesterday against the Chicago fire. The tournament started out a littlerough with the boys learning a lesson in tired legs. The got to bed about 100 am after traveling the whole day Thursday and frankly did not show up in a loss to Houston. Number 8 of houston caused a lot of havik down the right side. The next day Porltand and Lucas played a strong FC delco team and the fair result should have been a draw with the winning goal in the 88 minute. Lucas played right half in this game because of some team rotation and had a near goalaso when he did the Maradona on the edge of the box and spun by two defenders to end up one on one with the goalie a hard left footed shot was saved by the goalie. The final game against number 18 ranked Fire was a very physical game but Portland sat back a little while the Fire passed it around the back of their own defense. The second half saw portland get a little more agressive and had about three very good one on one chances with the goalie and finally on about the 80 minute scored on a header on a corner that Lucas had fought to win. I thought defender number 64 stood out for Chicago and I had seen Lucas play against him when he was in Arizona. Overall a great trip for Lucas and the team. Next up Vancover in two weeks.
I did hear Lucas had tons of pace and had a good game vs Fire, I have heard a lot about 64 Cb ,74 CDM, and 55 LM all from Fire. Has Lucas started to narrow his choices for college yet?
My quick read on those three is that they all had steady but not dominant games. I have watched Lillard #64 play for many years because he played for Scottsdale when Lucas played for La Roca and they had an amzing Far west regional quarter final game two years ago that went to overtime. Lucas and he talked after and he mentioned he was moving to Chicago. He is a player with great touch and skill and almost always will put the ball in the right places Hayden #74 had a nice game and controled possesion well. Epps I remember last year from when RSl played them in the playoffs and he is a nice player that has great skill and touch. A real game changer. As far as Lucas and colleges I won't go into specifics but he has spoken with quite a few and likes a lot of them from west coast to back east. He was going to wait until after the showcase to see if anymore wanted to speak with him. Once we get past the holidays he will narrow it down more. Lucas also had an english team that wanted him over for the winter break but we just could not find the time to get him over so he might run over there again this summer. We will see what happens. As for now he is just focused on playing the best he can for the Portland Timbers and he absolutley loves all the coaches there.
You thought about getting in touch with Stumptown Footy or Slide Rule Pass and doing a regular feature with them? I love that you're doing these here, but there's not much traffic in this forum, and I think there's a big audience for the Timbers Academy exploits.
Truthfully I jus started doing this one because there was a fulham fan looking for information about Lucas after his trial over there and I promised that I would keep them updated but I course if people enjoy reading I would be happy to do it in other places where more Portland Timbers fans could have access. I played soccer all growing up and I have a very talented son that plays soccer that is really the only perspective that I can give and I certainly am not what you call an independent observer but if another link has interest I would be happy to give updates about what Lucas is up and many times that includes updates on what the timber academy is doing and sometime it does not. But yes If you have some other links or spots I would be happy to do so . Be aware that the players and coaches are friends and mentors to my son so you will find my postings very positive. I will leave and criticism for the more independent observer . The reason I found this link is I have a google update search for Lucas so I can read about him when things are posted about him. Normally it would be topdrawer or a newspaper and then on day it popped up and said big soccer thread Lucas Cawley. It was kinda cool. Thanks for your interest. The Timbers fans are amazing. Lucas was so thrilled after a game when a father and two little boys wanted their picture with him. Go Timbers!!
I am fortunate to be one of the editors for Stumptownfooty.com and we would love to have these updates on your son and other tidbits included. My email is listed at the bottom of the home page for Stumptown (Ryan Gates) Email me if you are interested in posting there.
http://m.portlandtimbers.com/blog/p...-environment-ive-been-players-timbers-academy Nice article on a couple of Lucas teamates and the timbers academy.
Lucas returned from Canada more motivated than ever to become the best player that he can be. As a first year academy the Portalnd Timbers being able to go up to Vancouver and win on the road 6 to 3 against a highly regarded residential academy will do that. My details come from an Independent observer and not Lucas. Because of player rotation Lucas did not start this game so he watched as the Timbers fell behind 2 to 0 about 20 minutes into the game. Lucas got the the call to start warming up and entered the game in the first half at about the 30 minute. Portland was able to fight back and get a goal to make it 2 to 1 at halftime. I am told the atmosphere was very exciting with drums and smoke bombs from the local Vancouver supporters. Portland took control of the game in the second half by scoring an amazing 5 goals on a very good Whitecaps team. Lucas was able to assist on one of the goals and his pace did seem to help open that game up . A great win for the team and after 10 of 13 on the road to start the season all the spring home games should present an opportunity for a good run at the end. Also of note 8 of the 10 road games have been against other MLS academies. In talking with Lucas last night his body is a little tired and he is ready for a nice three week Christmas break back in Utah. He has some very specific goals on what type of condition and shape he will return to Portland in following the Holiday break. He is very excited about the spring and summer push. He will also narrow down his college list over the Holidays.
Winter break update. Lucas was abale to spend the winter break in Utah with family and friends. It has been a good time. The soccer related highlights have to do with dedication to stay in shape and be ready for the Spring push. Lucas has been doing some shooting outside at a local park. There was about 10 inches of snow so this required Lucas to shovel the goal area and then two areas about 18 yards out on both the left and right side. Lucas has been getting about 50 shots in each training session. In additon Lucas has been staying in shape at the local gym. Last night was a pick up game of futsal with a bunch of players and trainers from his La Roca team including FIto Ovalle, Diego and Bofo from his old La Roca team who now play at RSLArizona. Lucas heads back to Portland on Sunday.
Well Lucas and the team finally returned to game action after the winter break with a trip down to Northern California to play De Anza Force and then Santa Cruz Breakers on Sunday. Lucas played all 90 minute in both games. On both occasion he played a right outside half. The timbers played some great soccer and outshot both opponents and also out possessed them. Soccer can be a cruel sport and in both cases they ended up in a losing cause. The De anza game saw the team go down in the first 10 minutes 1 to 0 and they would spend the rest of the game trying to get the equailizer to no avail. Lucas seemed to get stronger and stronger as the game went on and came very close with about ten minutes left with a nice run and blast from 20 yards. The second game of the weekend might have been Lucas best game yet for the timbers as he was at the top of his game and creating all sorts of havic for Santa Cruz. The timbers went 2 to 0 up on two couinter atttacks goals in the first half. The second half first 40 minutes would be the best that I have seen this team play with total domination of possesion and by my count about 20 shots. The goal came with some nifty passing involving Lucas that finally saw james nosak taping in the goal. Adam Smith decided to go for the equializer and went to a 3 4 3 with Lucas moving up to forward and it paid off in the 85 minute when Lucas got on the end of a nice cross and hit the uppper bar and it bounced down in the goal from about 16 yards out. That it would seem would be the end of the game but a long goalie boot downfield and some miss communication from our defender and goalie and defender resulted in a tap in winning goal for the breakers. Once again I would rate this as Lucas best game yet from an offensive stand point he was almost incontainable and was skinning their outside defenders at will, From a defensive standpoint Lucas was very strong and in postion always. Next up for the Timbers is a trip to play San Juan Soccer club in Sacramento on Feb 23. Lucas is also narrowing down his college choices and will likely commit in March or April.