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USMNT U-20’s Cade Cowell suspended for remainder of Concacaf Championship

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The U.S. Under-20 men’s national team is one victory away from clinching a spot into the 2024 Summer Olympics, but will have to take on Honduras on Friday without key attacker Cade Cowell.

Cowell was handed a three-match suspension by Concacaf for his action in Tuesday’s 2-0 quarterfinal victory over Costa Rica at the Concacaf U-20 Championship. The San Jose Earthquakes forward was the only USMNT U-20 player to receive a suspension, while a total of nine Costa Rican players were handed suspensions for their actions after the final whistle.

Both teams were involved in an altercation after the final whistle as the Americans clinched their berth into the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia. Paxten Aaronson scored both goals for Mikey Varas’ side, propelling the USMNT U-20’s into a final four clash with Honduras for a spot in Sunday’s final.

“In the case of the United States, the Committee has determined that player Cade Cowell (No. 9) violated Competition Regulations and the FIFA Disciplinary Code,” a Concacaf statement read.

“As a consequence of these rule breaches, and in accordance the Competition Regulations and the FIFA Disciplinary Code, and Mr. Cowell’s violent and unsportsmanlike conduct, he has been suspended for three matches. All suspensions must be served in the next official match of the men’s national team of the same age category. If the suspensions cannot be served in the same age category, then they will be transferred to the immediately higher category in men’s national team football.”

Cowell, 18, has scored two goals and registered two assists in his five appearances to date in Honduras, most recently logging 27 minutes off of the bench in Tuesday’s victory against The Ticos.

The USMNT U-20’s are 4-0-1 so far in the competition, outscoring their opponents 22-2. Quinn Sullivan leads the team with five goals, while Aaronson has four goals and Niko Tsakiris has two tallies.

Honduras is a perfect 5-0 in the competition, most recently defeating Panama 2-1 in the quarterfinals.

Comments

  1. This is BS. What is a player supposed to do when he is attacked by several other players from the opposing team. CR totally started that fight, the referee crew did nothing to stop the fight, they should be suspended for the rest of the tournament as well. Also the bans for the CR players are virtually meaningless as they will serve them during friendlies if ever.

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    • Report was Cowell flew the bird and then waved bye bye to several Costa Rican players that’s when they started their violent actions. Cowell probably doesn’t get much leniency after shouldering Cuban player to the ground off the ball in the group stage either.

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    • I have watched videos but I can’t tell what is going on. It doesn’t sound like USSF filed an appeal as far as I can tell. If that is actually the case, that is probably more meaningful than the poor quality videos that I saw. Not sure what other action you would want them to take against CR players. I am not sure there is anything more you can do than suspend them. The CR federation was fined.

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      • If you watch really closely there is a shot from the sideline and the US players are celebrating and CR are just standing around and you see Cowell out of focus in the background doing something with his hands in the air towards the CR players, then one of those players sprints to Cade starting the brawl. The match was very chippy so maybe that wasn’t what started it but I’m guessing that’s why he picked up the suspension.

      • JR – the report from CONCACAF was “violent and unsportmnalike conduct” so I think based on their statement it was more than instigation. If USSF didn’t appeal, they probably think he deserved what he got I would think.

      • I believe he shoved the player that charged him which would be the violent and the hand gesture(s) the unsportsmanlike part.

  2. Damn. Well at least he will serve most of that ban during the rest of this tournament. Was hoping to see him against Honduras. Caden Clark needs to step it up.

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