LAUDERHILL, Fla. – Generation adidas signing Kelyn Rowe’s combine experience is over.
The 20-year-old is flying out to Los Angeles to join the US Under-23 camp first thing Monday morning, one of just a handful of college kids asked to join Caleb Porter’s squad.
“My thought is I must have done something right [in the previous US U-23 camp], and I want to do it again and make a better impression to keep getting asked in,” Rowe told MLSsoccer.com on Sunday.
While he's clearly made an impression with Porter, the attacking midfielder only had two games to make his case for Thursday’s MLS SuperDraft. For the most part, he felt he made a case to be a top pick and was pleased with his final game of the combine, a 2-1 win for his adiPower side on Sunday afternoon.
“I thought it was good,” Rowe said. “It’s hard to settle down, players want to show as well as well as you do. It started off very individual, but once you got the ball rolling, once you start to get the game going you saw the teams come together and play well. And you saw everyone show well.”
That was especially the case in the second half, as Rowe’s side were able to string together sequences that were notably absent in the first.
“Coming in for two days, it’s hard to make a real impression, but I thought I did,” he said.
Regardless of when he’s picked, the Federal Way, Wash., native will learn his professional destination while also trying to put his best foot forward and make the US Olympic qualifying team.
