He may not be with us much longer at this rate... his agent is going to be fielding lots of calls from euro clubs today.
There should be some rule - for every 3 goals a U20 player scores, his club team gets a goal to use at their discretion in any game. And if that player has played over 10 games for his club team w/o any goals, you get 2 bonus goals to use as you please.
That too! Or better yet, once we "declare" that we're parking the bus, anytime after 65', which is usually when we park, the other team is not allowed to score, because after all, we're parking the damn bus!! They're not supposed to score!
Not quite sure the phone will ring off the hook with calls offering big bucks after scoring against 3 small countries and some clumsy plays in front of goal where he should have done better or scored.
I get the excitement but I still don't understand clubs caring about tournment performances when so much is in flux. Season long performances in a league, sure, and tournaments can be a nice little bonus, but really is big money expected for a U-20 tournament with goals against Fiji, Slovakia, and New Zealand?
Scouting departments are absolutely accounting for quality of opponent when assessing players. In this case, I think it works in Cowell's favor because he's showing that he's playing at a level above his competition currently (for the most part). If he were struggling in these games, that would likewise be a sign of worry. But it's still real game information on a player, so it's useful. His performances in MLS are a better indicator of what he's capable of now, while I think these U-20 games give a glimpse of what he might be doing at the MLS or above level so long as his training goes well. Promise is what you buy a young player on and Cowell is still a young player. If he comes back to MLS and stinks up the joint, then maybe it ends up working against him, but boosting his confidence right now, making sure he's enjoying the game is critical at this time. Teams used to famously overspend for players following major tournaments, but that usually is a downfall at the senior level. I'm not too familiar with tracking signings of youth players following these younger age tournaments. Still, if I'm scouting players at these tournaments (and of course they're all being scouted), Cowell would be hard to ignore, I'd think.
I heard the announcer talking about Cade transferring but caught the tail end of it and missed exactly what he said.
I think they only mentioned rumored interest from intl clubs. That's it, and that's nothing new at all.
I think he's played well in general - some final balls not very good, but in general he's played well. This is no big surprise take, but I think the main 2 reasons he is so productive for U20 but not for Quakes are 1) He knows he has physical advantages over most of these players - both strength and speed, so he goes into challenges very confidently, and 2) lots of chances against inferior competition (so far). Unfortunately, he doesn't have those advantages in the same way for the Quakes. He still has physical advantage to the average MLS player - speed and strength, but not to the same degree, and the Quakes are generally not going to be clearly better than their competition in MLS. That said, he's played well, and hopefully that success and confidence translates to some better productivity with the Quakes in the 2nd half of the season.
Exactly. Obviously he's being followed by clubs over seas, but the one team with any quality he's played against so far, Ecuador, he didn't score. The next games will count much more to see how he truly fares. The kid obviously has all the tools to hopefully continue to develop into a full rounded player. I just can't think that the big clubs are putting much stock into him scoring against maybe the weakest teams in the tournament. It's what is expected from him and the hype he's had for a little while now.
I just hope he doesn't go the same route of going to a premier league team. Americans usually slobber anything premier league. I'd think Holland, Belgian or France would be great. Dominate in a European league outside of the big 4, then get your preference of choosing an elite team/league...
To be fair I don't think he played against Ecuador due to a red card in qualifying. But the next game will be against Uruguay or Gambia. I don't know how good Gambia is but Uruguay is probably pretty good. And if they advance, the next match will probably be against an even better team.
Alright, alright...I'll take the hit. I won't get involved in politics, there's enough BS around the world with those idiots. My point stands. He's scored against teams he's supposed to. How's that xbhaskarx? Better, happy?
Definitely. I'm not crapping on Ligue 1. Just saying, outside of the top 2-3 teams the competition definitely drops. If he shows he can hang, like David(Canadian), showed in Belgium and now in France... he'll have the bigger premier league teams chasing him and paying good money for him.
The Cade comment was mainly to address he has some positive press now as opposed to his performance with the Quakes which wasn't exactly scintillating. I think the take away is he is meeting or exceeding the expectations at U20 level, which going into the tourney wasn't exactly a given. Imo, Euro teams don't put a ton of stock into what he is doing with the Quakes...it matters obviously, but imo, they would have more confidence in his raw talent and his potential ceiling with their developmental path. I'm sure they feel they could do a much better job getting him to his highest level....so the positive U20 performances just reinforces his shiny potential for Euro suitors.
I wondered who is USYNT Coach Mikey Varas. Turns out before USYNT, he was Luchi Gonzalez assistant at FCD the whole time Luchi was in charge. And Transfermarkt says his other past clubs include Burlingame Soccer Club and De Anza Force. Anyone know anything about him? He might also go by the name Michael Anthony Vargas (according to TM).
Here's the USMNT page on him. He's a Bay Area native and has all kinds of Bay Area ties. https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...-head-coach-of-us-under-20-mens-national-team