I'd say pro athletes at the highest levels are kind of their own "collar" - yeah technically they are doing physical "work" but they get paid much better than most white collar workers and are highly pampered.
Seems like things are not going well for Cade these days at Chivas. Last July, their new manager, Milito, proclaimed that Cade was going to be their starting #9. That lasted for maybe a handful of games at most, then he became more of a sub, and now he's not making the bench. And Chivas is on a bit of a hot streak so it seems unlikely that things will open up for him in the immediate future. This article suggests he could be traded to Monterrey. But I've also seen reports that he'd want to come back to MLS. But Chivas would probaby have to take a big loss on that relative to the $4M they paid for the transfer. https://www.soyfutbol.com/en/news/c...he-next-liga-mx-tournament-20251030-0003.html I always root for Cade but I'm not necessarily hoping we'd reacquire him, especially in what would be a multi-million $ transfer fee. Honestly I'd take Bouda over him right now in that left side attacker role. I'm sure he's frustrated because Chivas changes managers about every 6 months, and each has a different opinion of him and even that changes game by game. There's just very little stability. Just in the last 4 months under Milito he went from "Yeah, Cade's our guy! He's our #9! He stretches the field" to not making the bench. He probably longs for his Quakes days when he could play game after game w/o scoring or assisting, blowing chance after chance, and it's fine! And the talk of getting back into the USMNT picture - I don't think he's on Poch's radar at all at this point. Obviously not for the WC, but even after that, there's so much competition and Poch doesn't seem much interested so far. And of course if he's not playing on his club, that doesn't help.
All true. He's also still just 22. What was chris wondolowski doing at age 22? Jamie Vardy? Luca Toni? Jay DeMerit? He needs to get minutes but he can still become something. Especially with those tools.
This is Cade's 6th year as a professional and he's still largely the same player. I might be interested if we can get him on a free, but it would probably take a couple of million, and we probably only get one of those a year with the team for sale and everything. I think Bouda is playing that position - left wing, better than Cade ever did and his salary is basically a bag of chips and a soda. Bouda had 3g, 1a in 1300 minutes this year, and was very good at winning the ball and driving it into the final 3rd. Cade had 1g, 0a in 1500 minutes his last year with the Quakes.
Leaving out Jay DeMerit, those other guys you posted were freaks of nature and only born once ever 30-40 years. I am pretty sure it will be a long time before we see another Wondo, Toni or Vardy.
Didn't Wondo try to mentor Cade for a while? I think it's hard to teach someone to have a keen sense of the game and ability to adapt to quickly changing situations. Wondo had that; I doubt Cade ever will. Bouda absolutely does.
I think Bouda looked clueless until a year and a half ago or so, or maybe he got too amped up when he got a rare opportunity to play. It seemed like he would pick up a yellow card within a minute of coming on and play on the edge of getting a 2nd booking thereafter.
Yeah, I think it was a case of trying too hard to make an impression in incredibly limited minutes. As for reading the game and all that stuff, he's OK. I think his main attributes are his strength - doesn't get pushed off the ball and wins challenges, and his shot, which is a cannon. I think he is more dangerous than Cade cutting in from the left and unleashing a right-footed shot. They both love to do it, but I think Bouda has a harder shot and maybe a little more accurate. Cade is definitely faster though. Bouda has pretty good speed but it's not his main attribute. I'd just kind of not like to see Cade come in and take most of Bouda's minutes when I think Bouda is just kind of coming into his own. If we got Cade again I might be more interested in playing him at center forward and leveraging his speed that way. Chivas played him there sometimes and most of his goals there were central runs and not cut-ins from the left. But I'm not sure he'd be the starter at that position.
Shea Salinas. Ike Opara. Steven Lenhart. Alan Gordon. We've seen plenty of toolsy/athletic guys with unpolished soccer skills at age 21/22/23 who worked out and developed over time.
But those guys came into the league at 22/23. Cade has been in D1 soccer for 6 years, and, at least with the Quakes, he got progressively worse. I think he's a little better now with his experience in Liga MX, but I'd still like to see Bouda get more minutes before handing them over to Cade, especially when reacquiring Cade will probably come at a steep cost. I've got some lingering traumatic stress from Cade's 2023 season with us.
God I saw this thread had been bumped to the top and was dreading news of a Cade-Quakes reunion. As for the changing managers, no sympathy for Cade that's just life in LigaMX it's not even just a Chivas thing, LigaMX managers last like a year on average, they fall like post-WW2 Italian governments.
To speak nothing of the Serie A in Italy that has already changed 5 going on 6 coaches in only the first two months of the season.
The reason I brought it up is that it's much different than MLS, where you managers can fail for multiple seasons and you can keep getting run out there in the starting 11 game after game even if you are not getting it done. I think Cade probably really misses those days.
Rocco B. Commisso got cheap this summer and didn't concentrate on reinforcements to improve the squad.
Guess Cade is coming back to MLS. It mentions his agent is already in talks with a NY team. Doesn't say which of the two though. Also, I'm not sure how reliable the poster is. #USMNT forward and Chivas outcast Cade Cowell linked to a move to a New York MLS team, although unclear which one. (From @RebanoPasion - Sent to me by @MostlyBullNY)#RBNY #NYCFChttps://t.co/HvGYsdmfXD pic.twitter.com/P6BHncte5I— James Birle (@jbirle9) November 14, 2025
This is my understanding. SJ got money for Cowell which means they no longer have rights to first refusal nor are due any other compensation. The situation could be slightly different for some weird reason, but this is how I understand it (backed by a few searches.)
It was last July when Chivas’s coach proclaimed that Cade was their starting center forward. Things happen fast in Liga MX I guess. They are doing pretty good right now so there’s not much incentive to start featuring him again. He hasn’t been making the bench in some games. At least he’s lasted this long. I think Chivas dumped Barajas after just a few months.
Cade Cowell can be seen on your television, right now, if you have CBS Sports Network. Cruz Azul vs Chivas in the Liga MX quarterfinals. The gametracker on ESPN isn't fully up to date, but Cowell didn't start, and got subbed in at about five minutes - I wasn't really paying attention but heard his name - but the gametracker doesn't show him being subbed in. But he's out there right now. And since there's no [R] on the thread title: Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler Cowell scored in the 8th minute. Chivas up 1-0 in the 12th minute.
Cowell subbed off in the 76th minute. Current score and current events behind the spoiler tag. Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler At the time Cowell was subbed off, the game was tied, 2-2. Apparently if the home and away games end in a tied aggregate score, the higher seed advances, which would be Cruz Azul. But after Cowell came off, Chicharito - the former Galaxy player - missed a PK to put Chivas ahead. Just skied it. Couldn't happen to a nicer former Galaxy player.