{"id":26031,"date":"2020-02-16T11:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-02-16T16:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/?p=26031"},"modified":"2020-02-14T22:06:41","modified_gmt":"2020-02-15T03:06:41","slug":"marcus-velado-u-20-call-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2020\/02\/16\/marcus-velado-u-20-call-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcus Velado: I Want to get That U-20 Call-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

INTERVIEW<\/strong> – Last Word on Soccer interviewed Marcus Velado on September 26, 2019.<\/p>\n

Marcus Velado: I Want to get That U-20 Call-Up<\/h2>\n

1. How do you analyze your first pro season so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a really good experience for me. Signing at such a young age – at 17. Signing a professional contract you come into a new environment, you see how much more serious it is than playing at youth. Just a lot of things I\u2019ve learned in the past couple of months and that I\u2019m still learning to this day.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

2. Having parents from El Salvador and Ethiopia must influence your choice for soccer over any other sport even though you were born and raised here?<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad and his dad, they played soccer and were really into sports. So it runs in the family there, even on my mom\u2019s side; my uncle he played back home so I\u2019ve been really influenced by my family.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

3. With the U-21 rule in place helps guys like you to get the minutes you need to grow?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a young player you always want to play. You want to get as many minutes as you can, and having that 1000 minute rule – it\u2019s really good because it focuses on developing young players. So we we can move on to even bigger things.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

4. In 2015 you attended a ID Camp with Canada Soccer. You\u2019re a 2001\u2019 born player – meaning you\u2019re eligible to play next year for the U-20 CONCACAF Championship ahead of the 2021 World Cup. Is that in the cards for you to be part of that team?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah for sure, since 2015 I haven\u2019t really seen too many Canada camps but that\u2019s something I\u2019m really pushing for. To be a part of that U-20 team. Representing Edmonton; representing my family. Just gonna keep pushing and hopefully make the team.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

5. Whats the goal for next year, in terms of playing time?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal for next year is to get better. All the time. For next year I really wanna see myself more involved, Getting more playing time. To be a regular started which I believe I can do. So it\u2019s gonna be a very important off-season for me so I can be ready for next season as well.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

6. There\u2019s always eyes watching. Obviously making a move overseas to a better league has to be something in mind no?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMaking a move to Europe, South America or even MLS is a dream of mine for sure. I really want to focus on here, on FC Edmonton and performing here so I can reach those next levels taking it once step at a time.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

7. Did you pass up some opportunities to play in University both in Canada and in the U.S.?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI did have offers from University of Alberta and Macewan University But professional soccer was much more appealing to me. So it wasn\u2019t too hard to say no and pass up on those offers and join FC Edmonton.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

8. And that decision was a personal or a family one?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was personal for me, but my parents were on board with it. They agreed with what I did.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

INTERVIEW – Last Word on Soccer interviewed Marcus Velado on September 26, 2019. Marcus Velado: I Want to get That U-20 Call-Up 1. How do you analyze your first pro season so far? \u201cI think it\u2019s a really good experience for me. Signing at such a young age – at 17. Signing a professional contract […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3236,"featured_media":26032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2782,2927],"tags":[2785,743,3417],"class_list":["post-26031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cpl","category-fc-edmonton","tag-cpl","tag-fc-edmonton","tag-marcus-velado"],"modified_by":"Rachael Kriger, Senior Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3236"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}