What makes a player stand out (by position)?

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Has anyone said hot mom yet?

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Goalkeeper - Make the saves your supposed to make. Don't give up rebounds. Intelligent Distribution. What separates the best from the good? Communication, Size and the ability to make the great save.

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This is a GREAT point. There are 4 pillars (physical, mental, technical, and tactical) in the game and being great in one can easily be nullified by lacking any of one or more of the others.

I know because only the best players play ECNL.......LOL!

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I know because only the best players play ECNL.......LOL!

Based on a large amount of data over a period of many years, saying the "vast majority" rather than "only" is a factually correct statement (but I'd also love to know the data on where they began to play and moved to ECNL).

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Lazy, but skillful gets found out sooner or later and passed up. What gets me are all the lazy coaches who would rather take pure athleticism over skill and vision. I've seen it time and again and it rarely works out unless the more athletic kid has the desire and work ethic to work their skills, especially on their own outside of practice.

It's almost like they didn't see Michael Bradley score a goal against Mexico from 40 yards out because he was able to pick his head up and see the keeper well off his line amd had the skill to put the ball in the net over the keeper's head. Bradley is not fast, but he has vision and skill. Too bad most club coaches (not all, but most) don't understand this simple concept and prefer to have kids who fly around the field very fast with little thought to why? The ball moves faster than the player, but that would require coaches to understand and teach movement off the ball.

The above is such a lazy cliched argument. What is pure athleticism? The undercurrent from this line of analysis is usually the same.

Jilted parent of less athletic player takes solace in the "skills" their kid can do. Skills , speed vision and whatever other tools you want to throw in are only valuable if you can find a way to impact the game with them.

There are as many examples of empty skills and fake vision as there are fat players who fail on game day.

Its not one over the other, they are all useless.

Objectively, I have yet to see a coach who consistently defers to players who dont bring anything to the game / team.

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edit fat = fast

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There's a difference between working hard and working smart. The kid who flails his arms and goes a hundred miles an hour while dribbling into the corner, and eventually out of touch...we have half a team of them.

Sideline gets all excited with "go mia go mia go mia" and a few of us just cringe. Like watching a car skid flying toward a patch of ice. You know what's going to happen, you want to help, but know there's no chance.....

Depends on how old "mia" is. I will take a skillful little dribbler who gets past multiple defenders even into the corner over just about all other players up until u14 then i expect some tactical awareness. And if mia scores a goal a game even if she holds the ball too long, I will work with that. my experience is the parents really are not really saying she holds the ball too long, what they are saying is my kid isn't on the ball enough because the dribbler is on it so much. Correct the dribbler to share the ball more so my kid has it more often...

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Remember the Crane Technique? Have your player stand in that position at kick off.

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Depends on how old "mia" is. I will take a skillful little dribbler who gets past multiple defenders even into the corner over just about all other players up until u14 then i expect some tactical awareness. And if mia scores a goal a game even if she holds the ball too long, I will work with that. my experience is the parents really are not really saying she holds the ball too long, what they are saying is my kid isn't on the ball enough because the dribbler is on it so much. Correct the dribbler to share the ball more so my kid has it more often...

You can have her, trust me. No reason to dribble into the corner, and out, and leave everyone else behind. Instant thrown-in, every time. Defenders just chuckle because as soon as she starts, they've won.

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You can have her, trust me. No reason to dribble into the corner, and out, and leave everyone else behind. Instant thrown-in, every time. Defenders just chuckle because as soon as she starts, they've won.

We have one of these on the team. Coach and parents love her. I shake my head knowing full well that she is doomed just a matter of time.

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We have one of these on the team. Coach and parents love her. I shake my head knowing full well that she is doomed just a matter of time.

Lol
If the coach loves her there's a reason. You are just jealous this kids skills are a million times better than yours. And to the guy above ditto.

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Lol
If the coach loves her there's a reason. You are just jealous this kids skills are a million times better than yours. And to the guy above ditto.

Dribbling with your head down and out of touch isn't a skill. It's a black hole.

As for coaches loving it...she's been found out this spring. Didn't make any of the advanced teams, playing time dropped, and going an entire year with no goals or assists is telling.

But, keep telling yourself all that activity means something.

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Lol
If the coach loves her there's a reason. You are just jealous this kids skills are a million times better than yours. And to the guy above ditto.

Dribbling with your head down into the corner and losing possession most of the time does not equal skill. Whoever posted this ^ is a moron.

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Dribbling with your head down into the corner and losing possession most of the time does not equal skill. Whoever posted this ^ is a moron.

"Unlucky!" LOL

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Dribbling with your head down and out of touch isn't a skill. It's a black hole.

As for coaches loving it...she's been found out this spring. Didn't make any of the advanced teams, playing time dropped, and going an entire year with no goals or assists is telling.

But, keep telling yourself all that activity means something.

The kid is unsuccessful and din't make the team, but the coach "loves" her- yeah not making any sense. You are full of it the kid is better than yours no doubt.