For a young player, there can be a moment when he or she makes a statement on the field that establishes their presence to a wider audience.

For Canada U20 Men’s National Team defender Kadin Chung, it arrived last May. With a then-undefeated Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 trailing Tulsa Roughnecks FC by a goal in the second half of its USL regular-season contest, Chung made a spectacular spinning move to split two defenders, and crossed a perfect ball for Kyle Greig to head home.

The goal led to a 3-2 victory for WFC2 and firmly established Chung as a player to watch for the remainder of the season.

“Leading up to that I felt like I’d had a good start to the season, but I didn’t feel like I had made that much of an impact,” Chung said recently. “When that happened, it just kind of felt like the start of me having an impact on the league.

“I remember specifically that game some of the players and coaches were trying to get a spark going for the team. They were looking around the room at some of the MLS guys that had come up. It was huge for me.”