ASN: Now assured and in type, Yow excited to see his profession take off in Belgium

After taking part in on the U-17 World Cup, Griffin Yow struggled for taking part in time at DC United. However after three and a half seasons, he moved to Belgium and is displaying indicators of breaking out in Belgium with Westerlo. ASN’s Brian Sciaretta with the story. 

BY

Brian Sciaretta

Posted
January 17, 2024
10:10 AM

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MIDWAY THROUGH the 2022 MLS season, Griffin Yow was stagnating at DC United struggling for taking part in time. He loved some features of the group, however he realized he wanted to make a change if he was going to appreciate his potential. That summer season he was capable of safe a transfer to Westerlo and now 18 months later, he’s lastly seeing indicators of a breakout.

Yow, 21, now believes he is ready to take off in Westerlo after overcoming and damage and securing a spot within the beginning lineup. His performances as of late help this perception. This previous summer season, the Clifton, VA native was Westerlo’s greatest participant within the preseason, however a knee damage sidelined him till October 21, when he was lastly capable of make his season debut. In that sport towards RWD Molenbeek, Yow picked up the place he left off when he entered the sport within the 73rd minute and scored a stoppage time equalizer in a 1-1 draw.

“As soon as I got to Westerlo, they had a plan for me,” Yow advised ASN. “It was immediate – we’ve identified your talent. You’re a good player. You’re going to train with the first team all the time and you’re going to kind of adjust to the lifestyle here, being away from your family, living on your own and being in a different country, you’re going to adapt to the playing style of the Belgian league and you’re going to just play with the U-21s and get your confidence. I didn’t come into Westerlo with the biggest amount of confidence coming off D.C.”

Yow has solely saved up the tempo since then and now within the Belgium’s First Division winter break, he has three objectives and two assists in simply 696 minutes over 10 appearances. Whereas he’s snug in any respect the positions throughout the entrance line, Westerlo has been using him in his conventional proper wing place.

Youth improvement is never linear and there are totally different paths gamers take to achieve their potential. What has helped Yow is that Westerlo had a plan for him from day one, which concerned a full season with the membership’s U-21 crew in 2022/23 whereas solely sporadically taking part in with the primary crew. That was designed to get his confidence as much as the place it wanted to be.

“The biggest thing was definitely the U-21 games,” Yow stated of his improvement.

Whereas at DC United, Yow by no means felt he was by no means given a transparent path of what he wanted to do to interrupt into the primary crew frequently. Over his 4 seasons from 2019-2022, Yow solely mixed for 946 MLS minutes. His MLS debut got here below Ben Olsen however the crew was managed by Hernan Losada for Yow’s final season and a half. Coincidentally, Losada bought the job at DC United based mostly on his success managing Beerschot in Belgium’s First Division.

Recalling his time there, Yow says he was at all times advised to be affected person however was by no means given something particular by way of a timeline or what he wanted to do with a view to get into the primary crew.

“I felt like personally that was a lot of what I was being told when I played for D.C., it was kind of just be patient,” Yow recalled. “The staff there was great to me. There were certain people and certain members of the staff that I thoroughly enjoyed working with. But a lot of it was just keep training and keep being patient. You can only kind of be patient for so long, especially when I wasn’t seeing a ton of progress in the development for myself there. I felt I was just kind of stagnating there. It was definitely a difficult situation.”

“There were times at DC where I just didn’t really feel valued very much,” Yow added. “Being that person at DC and that [young] player who doesn’t really know anything, it was just in my head a lot. I was coming home from training and sitting in my car for two hours in my driveway just thinking, what’s going on? Where can I be better? How can I improve? Do they like me? Do they care about me? All of these questions. I never really got answers to them, even what I would go and speak to the management. The players would give me answers. But when I would speak to the management, it was just kind of the same.”

However when he bought to Westerlo, he was happy with the improved communication from the best ranges.

“It’s completely the opposite at Westerlo,” Yow defined. “Two weeks ago, I’m sitting having lunch by myself because I stayed after for an extra session for my knee from the injury that I had. And the owner came over and just sat down and had lunch with me and just is talking to me about how I’m feeling, what he sees out of me, what he wants, how he’s happy with me, and just about my life outside of the field and just sitting and having lunch with me, having a long conversation. I think for a lot of players, if you ask them that really goes a long way.”

Now transferring ahead at Westerlo, Yow is optimistic for what 2024 has to supply. The membership had a horrible begin to the season and was winless of their first 9 video games. Ultimately, there was a training change with Rik De Mil arriving. This gave everybody a clear slate and Westerlo completed 2023 with three wins and a draw of their remaining 4 video games to climb out of the relegation zone and into midtable.

Within the membership’s final sport earlier than winter break, Yow scored the opening objective in a 3-0 win over Molenbeek and after the sport was invited to steer the crew’s cheer with the supporters.

“The fans are top notch,” Yow stated. “They definitely have a liking for the American guys, me and Bryan [Reynolds] over there. They make us feel at home. It’s a good combination because here in D.C., there’s just a lot of distractions, in my opinion. That has nothing to do with the club. It has to do with it being my hometown team and me growing up around this area. There’s a lot of places to go, a lot of friends here. Over in Belgium, it’s boring, to be honest. But in a good way. It’s a very good spot to focus, to just put my head down and work.”

Beginning this weekend, the membership will return to motion with two video games towards two of Belgium’s traditionally robust groups in Membership Brugge and Gent.

For Yow, his rise has additionally come at an necessary time for his worldwide ambitions. He’s eligible for the present U.S. U-23 crew that might be collaborating within the 2024 Olympics Video games in France. Yow final represented america on the U-17 World Cup in 2019 however was additionally a part of a era of American gamers who had their U-20 cycle in 2021 cancelled because of COVID.  

To date, Yow has not performed with the U.S. U-23 crew in both of its first two camps to arrange for the Olympics. He’s on the radar, nonetheless, and U.S. nationwide crew head coach Gregg Berhalter advised the media he needed to call-up Yow for the present January camp (which is closely represented with U-23 gamers and in addition consists of U.S. Olympic coach Mark Mitrovic on the workers) however was denied a launch from Westerlo. 

There are solely two extra U-23 camps remaining earlier than the Olympics with the subsequent one in March, and the second in June. Yow is closely motivated to get a possibility to show himself to Mitrovic however he additionally is aware of that it’s going to come all the way down to his performances at Westerlo.

Due to that, he’s not making an attempt to place a lot strain on himself, however he does contemplate it a high objective and he is aware of time may be very restricted to interrupt into the U-23 crew forward of the summer season. 

“It’s definitely something that that pushes me massively,” Yow stated. “It’s something that I don’t want to overthink about, or I don’t want to go into every game, every training, and be like, this is the game where I need to show that I need to be on that roster because then you kind of psych yourself out. It’s something that keeps just keeps pushing me to do the extra hour in the gym, to try and push myself and continue kind of on the path that I’m on now and not be satisfied, not just be happy when I score a goal. I’m happy we’re winning games. I need to go full throttle and see and really push myself and make these big steps, because that is a huge goal for me.”