Players Who Stole The Spotlight at the Loudoun Showcase

The snow has finally melted. Well, most of it. RavenTek Park in Loudon, VA, is a great park to watch games. Field one is set up like a stadium, separated out from the other three fields, and complete with a clubhouse and a bar with a top deck overlooking the field. It's a great environment to watch a tournament or multiple games. And those who KNOW, know the top matches get booked on field one, which means there's a certain spot you can find MOST of the college coaches watching together. I won't ruin the secret, but at a smaller showcase like this, it's a sight to see, and pretty comfortable if you're there scouting. Even RavenTek was a reminder of how much soccer has been lost to weather this year, with snow banks lining in between the fields still 6 feet tall in some places. At least the fields were clear and they could play, however, and there were some highlights. Here are some standouts from me after this weekend:    Beza plays for the 2010 MD United RL team, and when I caught their match they were playing a tough [program_tooltip program_id='283419' first='Ohio' last='Premier'] team on night one. Beza stood out with her solid, physical play in the middle, holding her own against some big, quick girls on the OH team. She showed patience under pressure and made some good passes, showing vision and IQ, and a good first touch, maintaining the ball in pressure situations and on the run, which is where a lot of things go wrong for players at this age. She led her school to a conference championship this past year as a sophomore, and that leadership and poise was on display tonight as well. She was unflappable when pressured and consistently made the right play through traffic and adjusting to the game pace, which was high against a skilled Premier team. I saw a lot of the building blocks you want out of your up the middle players from her, and I think she will be successful there at the next level.     Some players are great at getting the ball up the field and into the scoring end, and when they get there struggle to put the ball away. Nora is NOT one of these players. She's got a nose for the net, and seems like every time she touches the ball she's got a shot a putting one in. She's led her team in scoring pretty much since she started playing, and it shows. Her confidence in the box is outstanding, and she will take just about any way possible to get a piece of the ball. This is the type of players most teams are on the hunt for, one that won't hesitate to shoot and shoot to score vs just throwing it at the net. She may have been the best pure goal scorer I saw all weekend.     [program_tooltip program_id='283514' first='VDA' last=''] has an absolutely stacked 2010G team, here is another stand out player on that team. Caelyn is a monster. She's got good size and speed, and can play all over the field. She plays good defense, stepping in and taking balls away with little effort, and long outlet passes are an easy play for her. She has shown vision and a willingness to pass, setting up quite a few goals, as well as the ability to shoot in traffic and finish runs herself. Her through balls are spectacular, and she will play the ball with her body to help keep control. She's also on the Dominican Republic National Team, she will definitely be another one to watch as the updated rankings roll out.     Taylor had been in a bit of a rut to start this season. Last season looked to be a breakout year for her, her footwork had improved tremendously, the power game still there. But this year she's been off to a slower start. Until this weekend that is. Taylor used her size and power to score Four goals this weekend for her Liverpool team. She showed different aspects in each game, the first game while a player was draped over her in the box, she popped the ball up with her back foot, and then with her knee, knocked the ball mid air into the goal. Then she had another one at distance in the top corner in the another game, and used her power to hold off a player while shooting far post to score another in game 3. She's got easy power from the 40 in, and is strong enough to hold a defender off while still getting the shot off. A true power forward, and she's getting more interest from colleges, so she will be off the market soon enough.     Violet is a true defender. I guess it you are playing the best players every year, you're bound to improve quickly. She's got experience at both the ECNL level and the GA academy. She can play all defensive positions well, OB, CB and the 6. She's got the speed for OB, but the confidence and shut down skills to play physical. While not as showy as forwards out banging goals, someone to keep the shots down and help clear the box is just as important, especially if they advance to taking the ball up and out of the zone. She may have more star power on her team with so many national team call ups, but she's been one of those important pieces that keep the team together for a while now.    There were a few other players I considered writing up, but poor attitude, entitlement, lack of sportsmanship and lack of effort washed some out for me. While I'm dropping nuggets of what you want to avoid doing with a teenagers recruitment period, here are a couple other things that raise red flags for us. 1. Not making a soccer move on a 1v1. Too many girls just dribble straight at the GK and try to go through them. It's not soccer, and running them over isn't showing me any skill. 2. After running over the GK, yelling at them, or screaming about how it should be a foul. Everyone knows about the denial of goal scoring chance foul a lot of GK get, that's what they are trying to draw, but I don't think many of them understand that you can get a foul for just trucking the GK as well, there are rules to things, read them. 3. Staying with the theme, a girl that is just going to try to go straight through a GK is a risk for my team as well. How do I know you aren't going to do that in practice and take our GK out? I have seen so many kids do this in practice, when the number one rule in practice should be do not injure your teammates. You are not impressing me by scoring a meaningless practice goal if we just lost a GK for a month or worse. Just some nuggets to think about when you read about coaches asking if someone is a good teammate.

The snow has finally melted. Well, most of it. RavenTek Park in Loudon, VA, is a great park to watch games. Field one is set up like a stadium, separated out from the other three fields, and complete with a clubhouse and a bar with a top deck overlooking the field. It's a great environment to watch a tournament or multiple games. And those who KNOW, know the top matches get booked on field one, which means there's a certain spot you can find MOST of the college coaches watching together. I won't ruin the secret, but at a smaller showcase like this, it's a sight to see, and pretty comfortable if you're there scouting. Even RavenTek was a reminder of how much soccer has been lost to weather this year, with snow banks lining in between the fields still 6 feet tall in some places. At least the fields were clear and they could play, however, and there were some highlights. Here are some standouts from me after this weekend: