The Official Casey Walls thread

That looks promising. Hope he lives up to it!

 

Left footed centerbacks are a rare commodity. Think Matt Besler. This guy is the youngest player on the U-19 team and wears the captain’s armband.

 

Man, he sure looks older than 16. Are those regular years or Freddy Adu years?

 

As an aside, the shadow on the face pictures the Quake’s media are using for Fuentes and Walls are lame.

 

Waiting for Falvo to post his cousin/nephew coached/played with him an he's over-rated.

 

All we have to do is wait another 5-10 years for him to develop and be sold to a Euro club!

I am really excited now!

 

What homegrown player have the Quakes ever sold?

 

Which homegrown player has ever started? Please don’t say Tommy Thompson because he played 19 games with the academy and was only on the team because Doyle knew his dad!

Even if you want to use Tommy as an example though, he was a pro for 5 years and didn't become a starter until his 6th year and only because Almeyda used him on defense. Therefore, it reinforces my initial belief of waiting another 5-10 years for Casey Walls to become a starter....

 

Waiting for falvo to post, if you're not starting in the EPL by 17 you're washed up and over the hill.

 

No I wouldn't because I or they never heard of him. Same as the rest of the board.
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Actually, even though I don't follow, care for or hardly ever watch the EPL, the way it works in most real leagues, If you aren't a full fledged pro by at least age 18-20 , you have to give up the game. That isn't coming from me but its been the norm since as long as the game was invented.

 

The leading scorer in the Premier League was playing in the 7th level of English soccer in his early 20's and only making 30 pounds a week, and didn't play in the Premier League until he was 27.

 

"My mind is made up. Don't confuse me with facts!"

 

As I stated previously and many times on the board, I don't follow, care for or hardly ever watch the famed EPL. Reading up on the great Vardy though, he was with Sheffield Wednesday then with Stocksbridge Park Steels youth system at 16 years of age and then onto Fleetwood Town. Whether he was bypassed at a younger age or not is another story. Our own Wondo also didn’t get going until he was 27.

Of course there are always exceptions but they are one in a million. Wondo is the only one MLS or the Quakes for that matter, has ever produced. I can't think of anyone else like him and I doubt one will emerge anytime soon.

 

I’m excited by this gotta keep the factory pumping. Hopefully we can see these kids rounding the bench this season. Given we are a small club this is the route to success IMO

 

On the one hand, this is great. We've got a 16 year old who we think is good enough to be on the first team. Yay!!

On the other hand, we need help right now. We should have our academy producing defenders and GKs who are good enough to at least play in USL every year. We're going to need to get two to three starting quality guys out of our "system" (academy, Reno, U-19's, whatever) every season. That may be a high bar, but that's what we need if we expect to compete in MLS.

Then again, we probably don't expect to compete in MLS, so I should just drink a lot more.

Go Quakes!!

- Mark

 

Wondo if we have a somewhat similar situation with the Quakes albeit at a slightly more tender age than 27

 

Wondo is a freak of nature. These players are born once every 20-30 years. In MLS or across North America, I doubt we will see another forward like him.

Pulisic might be the next great American hope but sadly, he is applying his trade in another galaxy far away.....

 

He probably would have gotten going a lot sooner if his coaches hadn't been utter morons. That said, late bloomers exist in sports just like in everything else. Your odds certainly decrease of succeeding in pro sports as you age, but with advances in sports science and medicine, I wouldn't be surprised if the average age of players starts increasing a fair amount.

I would say that Walls' odds of getting onto the first team while still in his teens depends very much on who is coaching/GM at the time. Under Doyle and Yallop/Kinnear, his development would likely be halted right where it's at, so the odds of him becoming a good MLS player was probably very low. Under Almeyda and Fiorannelli? Odds are better. But both those roles could be held by different people in two years, so we really have no way of predicting.

 

Doyle discovered Wondo though and he traded for him. Dom didn't rate or even use him much. He stated John told him to look at this kid in a sideline interview a few years ago. He wanted Cam Weaver instead in Huston and that’s why he traded Chris who flourished under Frank. If Doyle's only claim to fame is discovering Wondo, he deserves all the credit in the world for finding the greatest MLS player ever.

 

Not sure Doyle can get credit for discovering a player already in the MLS system who tore up the reserve league. Not the point of this thread, though, so I'll leave it there.

I'm excited to see some defenders get signed as home-growns, in any case. Not yet sure how I feel about contracts being given to minors as a general rule, but that's another matter.

 

No he knew him before that with the Mustangs and told Dom to draft him. That’s why he made the team in 2005. He only played at Chico and they weren’t known as an NCAA powerhouse. At least not in comparison to other local schools.

I’m sure anyone can make the argument that there is no way possible to know he would become phenomenal but Doyle still gets credit for going after Wondo initially in 2005 and again in 2009.

per wiki...

 

Hmm fair enough. For some reason I'd thought he was drafted after the move rather than before. In any case, he was still a victim of terrible coaching for basically his entire pro career. He succeeded despite that coaching.

My sincere hope is that these younger guys currently being singed as home growns are made better by the current coaching staff. But as I said before, the odds that these kids have Almeyda and his crew as coach by the time they're MLS ready is a big question mark.

 

Here is Wall's highlight reel I saw posted on a story about the top 2003 prospects in the country. The author rated Casey the best 2003 centerback. That's high praise, because 2003 is considered the USA's "Golden Generation" birthdate.





Here is a link to the article if you are interested. Other Quake youth players are also mentioned as possible future national team players from the 2003 age group.

https://chasingacup.com/a-breakdown-of-the-2003-age-group/