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The best part? Davies called his shot.

“I was asking him (the night before the first game) ‘When are you going to score?'” said Russell Teibert, his Whitecaps teammate who was Davies’ roommate for the Gold Cup.

“I said ‘Come on, score a goal tomorrow.’

“He said ‘I will.’

“I told him to get one, and he got two. The kid played an amazing tournament.”

In this country, that qualifies as a small miracle.

When it comes to soccer, winter arrived a couple of decades ago and never left. Davies is one of the few who has the potential to change that, and the secret is out. He’s being scouted by the world’s soccer superpowers including Manchester United and Liverpool. It’s been a long time since Canada had a talent with this kind of upside, maybe ever.

“This is something we haven’t seen before at his age,” said Marcel de Jong, the 30-year-old Whitecap who is also a veteran of Canada’s national soccer squad. “I think we should be really, really proud of him. I don’t want to set the bar too high, but I do anyway.”

How can he not?

Davies’ ceiling is undeniably high. He has the potential to be the best player to ever take the pitch for the Whitecaps. If he is, he’s not going to be around long which is why fans keep telling Robinson to play Davies every minute of every game.

“He’s pretty grown up for his age,” de Jong said. “I’m not sure if he’s going to have a bigger role (with the Whitecaps). That’s up to the coach.

“I just know I’m happy he’s not on another team. You know at any moment of the game, he can do something special. He can attack. He can beat an opponent. He can track back in the last minutes of a game.

“He can be strong getting the ball back for us. And you know at any second of a game, he can change it, show his magic and score or get the winning assist.”

But for that to happen he has to be playing.

jbotchford@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/botchford

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Vancouver Whitecaps at FC Dallas

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