Cody Cropper Gets First Reserve Team Start and Impresses Manager Jewell

U-20 international Cody Cropper received his first start as an Ipswich Town FC reserve team player last Wednesday, February 9th, drawing praise from first team manager Paul Jewell.

Arran Lee-Barrett, the 26-year-old first team backup and regular reserve team keeper, was rested in case he might need to play for Jewell’s 1st team. Márton Fülöp, Ipswich regular #1 was returning from international duty and had picked up a minor back injury prior to the Hungarian national team game.

“We just thought that with Arran we’d be safe rather than sorry just in case something happened to Márton,” said Jewell. “I think Márton came back from international duty previously with a stiff back.”

Ipswich defeated Oxford United 3-0 at Loop Meadow Stadium. Oxford United, who sat atop of the Reserve League standings, had beaten Ipswich reserves earlier in the year.

Jewell watched the reserves for only the second time since joining the club after Roy Keene was released of his managerial duties at Ipswich Town FC. “I was very impressed with them – I thought the players did really well on a difficult pitch,” said Jewell.

When asked about Cropper, Jewell said, “The young kid Cody did really well in goal.”

The young goalkeeper from Maple Grove, MN will turn 18 this Wednesday and has only played academy games since signing with the club last summer.

Cropper’s father Joe told IMS that Cody has been seeing a lot of practice time and scrimmages with the first team recently and has been playing and training very well.

Cropper started for the academy team on Saturday morning away in London against Fulham. The team went down by two goals in the first half but pulled level for a 2-2 draw. Cropper was pulled in the second half which the Independent Ipswich Town Website speculated was intentional to rest the keeper for another start with the reserves on Wednesday.

Cropper is expected to be on a 30-man U.S. U-20 roster that head coach Thomas Rongen will bring with him for CONCACAF U-20 World Cup qualifiers that will run from March 28 – April 10. Cropper and 19-year-old  Zac McMath, who was drafted by the Philadelphia Union this year, are considered to be the top 2 American goalkeepers at that age group. Franco Panizo of Soccer by Ives is reporting that the schedule for that tournament has been set and the U.S. knows now who they will be facing.

The U.S. will play in Group B with Panama and Suriname. Here are all the groupings for that tournament:

Group A: Honduras, Guatemala, Jamaica

Group B: USA, Panama, Suriname

Group C: Canada, Costa Rica, Guadeloupe

Group D: Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba