U.S. men’s national team head coach Gregg Berhalter will not have the service of Cade Cowell for the upcoming January friendly vs. Slovenia.
Cowell has departed camp ahead of a reported club move to Liga MX side Chivas de Guadalajara. The San Jose Earthquakes forward had been linked with an exit this winter and reportedly could be the latest American to take his talents to Mexico.
Cowell, 20, has made 106 career MLS appearances to date with the Earthquakes, totaling 10 goals and 15 assists. After impressive 2021 and 2022 campaigns, Cowell’s production took a dip in 2023.
A former U.S. Under-20 men’s national team standout, Cowell has scored once in eight senior caps for the USMNT. His absence will provide opportunities for Esmir Bajraktarevic, Bernard Kamungo, Diego Luna, Duncan McGuire, and Brian White this month.
The USMNT opens its 2024 schedule against Slovenia on Jan. 20 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Besides the money, what about this move is good for Cowell? Is he going to be a better player?
I keep hearing that one of the issues for El Tri is that their players don’t get to move to Europe young enough to improve professionally.
Just moving to another team, another league and another country is difficult and it will test Cade and possibly make him better. All that BS about what doesn’t kill you makes you better? But a lot better? Unless Cade wants to live in Guadalajara for some personal reason, I don’t know about this move.
Could be a great move or it could be a disaster, and I don’t see many outcomes in between. Cowell’s arguably the best athlete in MLS aside from maybe Denis Bouanga and maybe even the best in the US pool. Liga MX is a more technical and tactical league than MLS, but it’s distinctly unathletic too. It could be Cowell discovers he’s physically a man among boys and blossoms, developing some control, technical refinement, and tactical awareness along the way – areas he’s now distinctly weak in – while learning how to live abroad and adapt to a new culture. I know he’s obviously a dual-national but my recollection is, he doesn’t even speak Spanish despite his passport, and he comes across about as stereotypically Gen-Z American culturally and athletically as American sports stereotypes get…for all the good and the bad. (You know: maximum effort. Maximum Intensity. Do everything fast, fast, fast. And no finesse whatsoever.) So he could also end up being a square peg in a round hole and we could see him sitting forlornly on the bench like Djorde did in the Netherlands.
But I do think it was a roll of the dice he needed to make. He just was not progressing in San Jose and if he’s ever going to deliver on his wild talent he needed a change of scenery and approach and this will assuredly give him that. If he can successfully adapt to the Mexican style it could go a long way to addressing the weaknesses that have thus far capped his ceiling.
Or he’ll be back in MLS in six months. I don’t know that I’d personally take bets either way. Be a fascinating case study for sure. I’m kind of eyeballing the Brandon Vasquez move the same way though Vasquez, IMHO, is well ahead of Cowell in terms of understanding and tactical awareness and I do think he could end up banging them in for fun at Monterrey.
Cade is 20. As a soccer player, I’ve only seen him playing for various US teams and to me he makes a good punt returner or a center fielder. But as a left winger he is the evil twin of Steve McManaman.
For the improvement you want to see out of this for him he would have been better off doing this when he was somewhere between 14-16.
Far fewer bad habits, mentally and physically to fix.
At this point, it’s not impossible but I expect he will fail to hit your metrics for success. I doubt this is going to make him the new Gio while saving him from becoming the new Ariolla.
Even though getting a Mexican passport seems to suggest a lot of time and planning, this whole thing seems rushed and ill conceived. Will he get paid on time? He doesn’t speak Spanish? I thought that was a requirement to get Mexican citizenship? Hopefully at least he’ll get some fluency in a new language out of this. And the people there are awesome and the food is too.
Regardless, props to him for having the balls to bet on himself and take a risk. As Tennyson said:
‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
Q, I like that you worked “forlorn” into your post. That is one of my favorite words.
Q, I already posted but doesn’t seem to have ever showed up so I will try again. I love that you used a derivative if the word “forlorn” in your post. It is one of my favorite words.
My guess is the interest from Europe was not first team level. When Cowell faced other guys his age he was successful. Against “grown men” his physicality rarely was able to overcome his lack of consistent technical skill. He’s played 3,000 MLS minutes the last two seasons and scored 4g. If a German or even Dutch team had actual interest it had to be start with their U23 teams. It’s hard to go from I’ve been a pro for 4 years and you want me to go back to playing Friday afternoons in front of 1,000 people at the trading center field. Chivas likely was able offer a chance a considerable first team minutes. Bologna or one of the big clubs that were rumored can’t view Cowell as more than a potential loanee to lower leagues or as 10-15 minute late sub when trailing. He’s been rumored for two years of making a move and they’ve never gotten to the finish line, this gives him a chance to join a storied club have a legitimate chance to play a lot of minutes and maybe then translate that to Europe. I think this appears to be probably the best move for Cade and SJ combined. A move to a better MLS club could have also been good but would SJ have gotten 4 million? Ultimately if Cade is open to working and improving on the training field this is a good move if he looks at as he already has all the tools he needs and this is just to showcase himself it likely won’t be.
Doesn’t Chivas require its players to only play for Mexico?
They’ve relaxed this policy. You no longer need to play for Mexico; you do need a Mexican passport, which Cowell recently obtained.
I hope he succeeds. Still on the fence if this is going to be a good move for him.