Thursday, September 6, 2007

First MLS, next USMNT

New Chicago Fire acquisition Wilman Conde may follow in the footsteps of Carlos Llamosa and teammate Diego Gutierrez.

Like Llamosa and Gutierrez, Conde is from Colombia and the latter aspires to play for the US national team. While Llamosa's international career was more distinguished than Gutierrez's, both represented their adopted country nonetheless.

It would be interesting to hear Gutierrez's opinions on Conde not only joining the Fire but his thoughts on the Conde's aspirations of playing for the US. Gutierrez is a level-headed guy who can put things into perspective better than most and it's beneficial for Conde to have a player of his caliber around.

As far as Conde's club career, his addition will only help Chicago out and continue to make the club into a playoff contender. If the Fire can mesh better than they have been and continue to improve, they might peak right around mid-October and if they have enough points to get into the postseason, they could be a serious threat to reach the playoffs. Of course, the Western Conference teams probably would prefer Chicago stay in the east but if the Fire finish fifth in the East but ahead of Colorado, they'd play as the West's number four seed, which would make things interesting indeed.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is probably going to turn into an Adu-type thread. But doesn't the fact that he represented Colombia at the U-20 and U-23 level make him ineligible to play for the US since he wasn't eligible for both countries before the age of 21 and he's 25 now?

Anonymous said...

Why not? Let him play.

Let's just hope he's not a terrorist or the Dept. of Homeland Security will send him Gitmo.

Anonymous said...

some people can't read.

"Conde played for Colombia's U-15, U-17, U-20 and U-23 teams. Because he never played for Colombia's senior national team, he is eligible to play for the U.S. as long as he receives his citizenship here."

Anonymous said...

Yeah I don't think that part is right in the article. I think the rule is that if he had dual citizenship before playing for Colombiia at those age levels then he would be able to switch. But since he only had Colombian citizenship at the time he played for those age groups, I think he's cap-tied to Colombia.

Now the question is if he played at any official tournaments for Colombia. If he has, he's cap-tied to Colombia whether he becomes a citizen at some point or not.

I remember there was an issue with Diego Gutierrez about whether he was eligible for the US because he played U-20 1989 World Cup qualifiers for Colombia before becoming a US citizen. I seem to remember that he got a break because Colombia didn't keep any records of their youth rosters pre-1990.

Anonymous said...

so he wants to play here b/c colombia's senior team doesn't want him?

Anonymous said...

The way he talks, you'd think he was hitting 30 and at the end of his career. He last played for Colombia at the U-23 level, and he's only 25. Seems like a good kid, but just a tad impatient to get called into a national team. He's played at every age level for the country, so I don't see what his concern is that he'd never get called up by Colombia at some point.