The San Jose Earthquakes Thread

Discussion in 'Youth National Teams' started by TheFalseNine, May 12, 2022.

  1. TheFalseNine

    TheFalseNine Moderator
    Staff Member

    Arsenal
    United States
    Jul 15, 2014
    Norman, Okla.
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Very nice that the Quakes are the featured team on season 3 of Bleacher Report Football’s “The Academy” web series.

     
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  2. xbhaskarx

    xbhaskarx Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    United States
    Feb 13, 2010
    NorCal
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  3. jeff_adams

    jeff_adams Member+

    Dec 16, 1999
    Monterey, Ca
    I think teams are required to interview a cross section of minority candidates and Kah may or may not have wanted to get a courtesy interview.
     
  4. ussoccer97531

    ussoccer97531 Member+

    Oct 12, 2012
    Club:
    --other--
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  5. jeff_adams

    jeff_adams Member+

    Dec 16, 1999
    Monterey, Ca
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  6. xbhaskarx

    xbhaskarx Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    United States
    Feb 13, 2010
    NorCal
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Link to the Scuffed podcast interview with Niko Tsakiris

     
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  7. xbhaskarx

    xbhaskarx Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    United States
    Feb 13, 2010
    NorCal
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
     
  8. xbhaskarx

    xbhaskarx Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    United States
    Feb 13, 2010
    NorCal
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Episodes 2 and 3...


     
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  9. xbhaskarx

    xbhaskarx Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    United States
    Feb 13, 2010
    NorCal
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
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  10. ussoccer97531

    ussoccer97531 Member+

    Oct 12, 2012
    Club:
    --other--
  11. xbhaskarx

    xbhaskarx Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    United States
    Feb 13, 2010
    NorCal
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Just going to copy-paste what I wrote on the Quakes board here...

    The Quakes should transfer Cade Cowell to whatever big Euro club is willing to pay the most for him right now. At age 18 Cowell is "young and raw" while still being somewhat productive at the MLS level (5 goals 6 assists in 2021, 1 goal 4 assists so far in 2022). But he does not seem to be developing. Or improving his touch. Or his soccer brain. Or expanding his overall skillset. At 18 or 19 (Cowell turns 19 in October), Euro teams may still pay many millions for a prospect like that, thinking they can develop him in their own system. Once he hits 20, 21, 22, they are far more likely to see him as having plateaued and not worth investing the time effort and money. Then the Quakes could be looking at $1-5 million instead of $5-10 million for Cowell (just throwing out some rough numbers based on other MLS transfers).

    Meanwhile, Cowell is usually not the answer for the Quakes these days. They should be playing other current guys who are doing better like Benji Kikanovic, or the next group of guys who have more promise like Niko Tsakiris.
     
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  12. gogorath

    gogorath Member+

    None
    United States
    May 12, 2019
    Cowell needs to step up himself, but he's absolutely gotten screwed this year by the Quakes.

    Almeyda had checked out and was trying to get fired. Covelo is playing for the permanent job and seemingly has no interest in development.

    Every time Cowell comes in right now, it seems he's trying to score in 10 seconds. Some of that is on Cowell, but there's a really good chance that Covelo isn't doing a good job of getting Cowell (and others) into a situation where they understand how they can earn more minutes, etc.
     
  13. Ray Shoesmith

    Ray Shoesmith Member+

    Valencia
    United States
    Nov 14, 2021
    #38 Ray Shoesmith, Jul 24, 2022
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2022
    Count me as someone who has never been impressed with Cowell other than his physical attributes.
    He was possibly the least skilled US player at the U20. Touch and decision making average to poor.
    Guys like him don’t just get it out of the blue. Coaches can’t afford to spoon feed them on the first team.
    His physical traits seem to cloud peoples judgment.

    Has English Cship player written all over him.

    Tsakiris on the either hand. Hmmm.
     
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  14. gogorath

    gogorath Member+

    None
    United States
    May 12, 2019
    No judgement clouded. I definitely prefer guys with upside, because there's a thousand and one skilled guys who will simply never make it because they can't keep up.

    But Cowell has skill. He's less consistent than he needs to be, but I think what people tend to miss on Cowell is that his skill set isn't what people love to place as skill. Which largely comes down to short passing and tight in dribbling.

    He's good at using his speed in combination with the dribble. He's got better passing vision than folks think, and can absolutely nail a pass even if his close in work struggles on lighter touch (Weston at this age was somewhat similar, though better).

    He's got a strong shot, which most of our attackers can't say.

    His biggest issue right now isn't skill, though, it's decision making and tactical play. Both with the US and with San Jose, he's forcing shit. He needs to play more like he did last year -- let the game come to him, work more off ball, etc. His speed should stretch the field, but he's trying to just one on one dudes.

    That may be Cowell, but I also blame Covelo. He's too young to put all the tactical elements on him.

    He does need to work his butt off on improvement, though. The Jordan Morris path, but younger, is a good one for him. He shouldn't try to be a South American 10, but he should be improving one key thing a year or so. Morris kept/keeps adding things to his repetoire.
     
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  15. jeff_adams

    jeff_adams Member+

    Dec 16, 1999
    Monterey, Ca
    Give him Next Pro minutes when possible. Casey Walls and Emi Ochoa have really improved by playing at that level. Much less pressure to be honest.
     
  16. Ray Shoesmith

    Ray Shoesmith Member+

    Valencia
    United States
    Nov 14, 2021
    Could be to late. Cowell might not take that well. When you have a taste of the big time, and have seen the big city, how are you gonna get them back to the farm?

    Managing kids slowly is a big deal.
     
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  17. ussoccer97531

    ussoccer97531 Member+

    Oct 12, 2012
    Club:
    --other--
    I've never been overly impressed by Cowell, and he's a tale of where I constantly harp on not making that much of earlier MLS minutes. The situation for each team and player is different.

    Saying that, I don't doubt that he can still be a useful player at MLS level or in Europe. Potentially even for the USMNT. I don't know what the right solution is for him. If the Quakes don't think he can be helped much and this is as high as high value will get, they should sell him immediately. If they think he can be helped to improve, they should keep him and continue to let him develop. I don't think for his own sake that jumping to a higher level would help him. I don't think he's ready.
     
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  18. don Lamb

    don Lamb Member+

    mine
    United States
    Aug 31, 2017
    I think that's a good assessment, and I wonder what impact Landon Donovan could have on him if he ends up coaching San Jose.
     
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  19. Boysinblue

    Boysinblue Member

    Jul 31, 2011
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Saw the Celta game in person, my reactions:

    Tsakiris was really good, I didn't expect people to be so excited by his performance since it felt like he could have seen the ball more. He played as a 10 with Gregus and Skahan behind him who were not good at progressing the ball, so it ended with Gregus, Skahan, and the CBs passing it amongst themselves while Tsakiris struggling a bit to get open since Gregus and Skahan were so deep with their positioning. He looks like more of an 8 than a 10 to me, would have liked to see him play with a more competent ball progressing CM like 2019 Yueill or play him as an 8 with Monteiro playing as an 8/10. I hope they played him there since we have a glut of CMs and no real backup to Monteiro, and not because they see him as a long-term 10. He struck me as Cole Bassett 2.0, a solid all round midfielder that I don't think will get much love since he doesn't excel at anything, better in possession than Bassett but with worse boxscore numbers.

    I liked Walls a lot from the MLSNP games I saw, he was really good with his line breaking passes but he wasn't as good this time compared to against MLSNP-level opposition but still hit a few good ones.
     
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  20. Ray Shoesmith

    Ray Shoesmith Member+

    Valencia
    United States
    Nov 14, 2021
    I think Tsakiris stood out to me, the same way McGlynn did, is that they were so comfortable on the field with adults.
    The speed at which they thought and moved stood out. For lack of a better way of putting it, they look like players who immediately understand the game at that speed. For high quality IQ players that is what should happen. They don’t need to be flashy, they just need to fit in and play.
    Tsakiris’ s age is the interesting/exciting data point for me. I’ve said it on the US youth Nat threads, but this looks to be a new era in our development. The kids in general have such a solid base of technical and tactical understanding it makes a guy like Cowell look like Eddie Johnson 2.0 to me. I hope Cade can become what some think’ hope he can, but from my experiences coaching and watching, very few players just get it later on in their careers. That’s not to say a Cowell can’t have a good career and his uses, but while I appreciate the physical assets I remain skeptical until he shows some consistency in play an thought.

    This isn’t like 10-15 years ago where we were so desperate for technical players we would take physically underwhelming players, with technical skills, and hope they could handle it, when they rarely could. These technical players aren’t those types.
     
  21. ussoccer97531

    ussoccer97531 Member+

    Oct 12, 2012
    Club:
    --other--
  22. xbhaskarx

    xbhaskarx Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes
    United States
    Feb 13, 2010
    NorCal
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The Quakes have a backlog of homegrowns, they need to move some off homegrown roster spots (Thompson), sell some (Cowell), cut bait on some (Fuentes), etc.
     
  23. Clint Eastwood

    Clint Eastwood Member+

    Dec 23, 2003
    Somerville, MA
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Do they even have developmental roster slots open?

    This was a problem for Dallas in the past. There are workarounds. Loan some of the homegrowns out. Sign some to senior deals. Cut some loose who aren't performing.

    I wonder is San Jose is in this spot. If not, they're close enough that they have to plan carefully.

    Philly will have this problem shortly (until they sell all of the current U20 crop).

    The rules in MLS really do prevent a club from going whole-hog. If you can't convince the kids to sign MLS Next Pro deals, then you just have a backlog. The elite kids aren't signing MLS Next Pro deals.
     
  24. Pegasus

    Pegasus Member+

    Apr 20, 1999
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Pepi did. If a team shows a track record of quickly moving you up then a lot of players could go for that. Teams that don't will have trouble and should. I mean European teams basically do that and renegotiate contracts when a player moves automatically.
     
  25. jeff_adams

    jeff_adams Member+

    Dec 16, 1999
    Monterey, Ca
    Didn’t there use to be a cap on the total number of homegrown contracts a team could have at one time? I recall having discussions about teams only allowed to have 10 at a time. I have found no language anywhere to support that. It use to be you could only sign 2 a year, then that changed to 4 and now it says no limit to the number of players signed in the year.
     

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