ASN: After Cologne first group breakthrough, Downs pushing for Olympic spot

Born in Germany, Damion Downs spent most of his childhood years in Texas enjoying American soccer. However when he moved again to Germany, he started to blossom as a soccer participant – making it to the Bundesliga with Cologne. ASN’s Brian Sciaretta spoke with the Olympic hopeful.

BY

Brian Sciaretta

Posted
June 11, 2024
12:05 PM

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THE 2023/24 BUNDESLIGA season was a wild experience for Damion Downs. The younger ahead was promoted to FC Cologne’s first group throughout the preseason the place he made his skilled debut. For the rest of the season, he battled accidents however returned to attain two sport successful objectives for Cologne in its unsuccessful marketing campaign to keep away from relegation.

Regardless of being despatched to the two.Bundesliga, Downs is optimistic for his future. His emergence within the Bundesliga has seen him get a late change to make the U.S. Olympic group camp. He’s at the moment in Kansas Metropolis forward of the group’s pleasant towards Japan which is able to conclude the ultimate camp earlier than the Paris video games.

Downs, 19, arrived in Kansas Metropolis for his first U-23 camp and his second camp ever with a U.S. youth nationwide group. This was his first time attending to know a lot of the gamers on the group and now he’s pushing for a roster spot in Paris.

“It was my first time meeting most of them,” Downs mentioned. “I know a few of them because some are playing in Germany like Kevin Paredes and Paxten Aaronson. It has been good getting to know everybody and making new friends, making new connections. I’m enjoying it, of course. We can go far in the Olympics. And, the quality is very, very high, in my opinion. I’ll just work hard and see what we can do.”

The previous season at Cologne, Downs had some spectacular highlights following his Bundesliga debut in September.  His first aim got here on March 9 when he scored a 79th minute equalizing aim in a 3-3 draw towards Borussia Monchengladbach. Within the second to final sport of the season on Might 11, Downs scored his second first group aim – a sport winner in a 2-1 victory over Union Berlin.

Sadly, a concussion noticed him miss an extended stretch in the midst of the season and he completed with simply 10 substitute appearances for Koln’s first group totaling 171 minutes. He additionally made 19 appearances for the second group within the Regionalliga the place he scored seven objectives in 1439 minutes.

“It was my first time playing with the first team, my first year,” Downs mentioned of his first Bundesliga season. “And I felt like the first half year was just pretty much me getting used to playing against men and then on a regular basis. In the second half of the season, I just got into the flow a little bit more. Got used to it and now I know what I can do, and I can affect the game. It worked out a few times. But sadly, we didn’t get to stay in the Bundesliga.”

Damion Downs – what a method to rating your first Bundesliga aim! ???? #effzeh pic.twitter.com/oeOtIqQOlm

— 1. FC Cologne (@fckoeln_en) March 12, 2024

Now Downs will flip his consideration to serving to Cologne’s promotional effort within the coming 2.Bundesliga season.

“I’m not trying to see it as pressure,” Downs mentioned of the approaching 2.Bundesliga season with Koln. “I am more trying to have fun with the game, have fun playing football. And obviously we want to get back to the Bundesliga as fast as possible. And I think we can do it and we’ll see next year.”

Earlier than then, he’ll hope to participate within the Olympics in France. Head coach Marko Mitrovic has been desirous to deliver Downs into the fold after having spent intensive time scouting him with Cologne’s first group, second group, and U-19 group.

“When I was the U.S. U-19 head coach, I went to watch Damion play,” Mitrovic mentioned firstly of camp. “He was then in our camp in April 2022 with the U-20s. Since then, I went to watch him a few more times in Germany. He was invited several times but the problem with Damion is that he was injured. It was very unfortunate to happen right before our camp. I was there again a month ago and I watched him in person. We are happy to have Damion with us to see and learn from him.”

Downs says that he has been in common contact with Mitrovic and that it has helped together with his integration into the group, thus far.

“He’s been to a few of my youth games,” Downs mentioned of Mitrovic. “That’s when I also been able to talk to him. And a few games as well when I played in the Bundesliga. But me speaking to him in this camp and also before in Cologne- he gave me a good feeling and I’m just really looking forward to play for him.”

Downs was born in Germany to an American father and a German mom. However not like most of the German-People who’ve performed for the U.S. groups, Downs spent most of his early childhood years in america.

When he was one yr outdated, he and his household moved to Texas. It was there the place Downs targeting American soccer and spoke English as his first language – which he nonetheless speaks with out a lot of a German accent.

When he was 9 years maintain, nevertheless, his mother and father separated, and he moved again to Germany. It was solely then when he started talking German frequently and it was at this comparatively later age that he started to play soccer.

“I was born in Germany and then right after that, one year later, my parents, my half-brother, and I moved to the states,” Downs mentioned. “We lived in Texas, and I have a lot of memories. All good memories. It was fun living in the states… When I was in the states, I was playing American football. I didn’t have much of a connection to soccer.”

“Then we moved back in 2011 to Germany,” he added. “My parents divorced. I’d been speaking English first. And then when I was like eight, nine, ten, that’s when I started to learn German… I started soccer at like eight or nine when I moved to Germany because where I was living, there were no real American football clubs. It was pretty much a small town, small village – and obviously in Germany, there are a lot more kids playing soccer.  I just had to choose a new sport.”

However by the transition, he was all the time linked to the United and he now hopes to have the ability to characterize the U.S. group within the large highlight of the Olympics and that it hopes to proceed to open doorways for him internationally.

“When I moved to Germany, it was pretty much my whole German family,” Downs mentioned. “We were mostly watching the German national team. But I always kept an eye on the American national team and how they were playing.”

“I’ve been enjoying this camp and being in a new experience playing football in the United States,” he continued. “Obviously, I’ve been in contact, so I knew there was a chance for me. And I’m just doing my best to maybe play in the Olympics.”