Seriously, this sounds like a ridiculous comparison, and it probably is.

But, I want to draw attention to one striking similarity.

Determination, and the willingness to go to unusual lengths to gain the respect you deserve.

It wasn't long ago that Mr. Valencia made his debut with the Timbers reserves, and made a bit of a stir by bumping a teammate off the ball, taking possession, and getting a shot off.

Former US National Team pioneer and current Sporting Kansas City Coach, Peter Vermes, revealed through a post by Roger Bennett on ESPN's Relegation Zone blog, that he did the exact same thing in his first training session in Europe.

And it was a game-changer for him.

"I went to training on first day and was inserted into a reserve 11 that took on the first team. For the first eight minutes none of the players would pass me the ball, so I wised up, waited for one of my teammates to gain possession, then shouldered him off the ball, ran 40 yards and blasted it at goal. That changed things."

Vermes started getting passes, scored a goal, then was shifted to the 1st team and scored another.

And his European career was off and running.

The entire post is a very well-done profile of Peter Vermes, a fascinating fellow with a pretty amazing history of triumph and pain in the context of the early days of American soccer's emergence in the world scene. It's definitely worth a read.