# Vegas Showcase



## Calisoccer11 (Mar 19, 2017)

Any thoughts about the Girls Players Showcase this weekend?  We were there and I thought the weather was awesome- (it got hot for sure so I'm certain not everyone loved it)--at my DD games coaches were there but not as many as I expected--we weren't in the best bracket--overall though I still love going but honestly, I just love Vegas!!


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## jojosoccer (Mar 20, 2017)

98/99 and 99 all at one large complex. 
Very nice grass fields. That made it easy for college coaches to stay at one complex and fill their last open roster spots. Plenty of D II, DIII & NAIA .Had 30 coaches at our first game  and then a 10-15 coaches on Sat. games.
Some of our seniors had DII & DIII coaches interest. At this age, coaches and players were having conversations after the games. 
We are not our club's top team. We play SCDSL 1. 
Overall, it was a great experience.


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## Anomaly (Mar 20, 2017)

Local here. It was a great showcase as always. Even though the complexes were on opposite ends of the city (30ish miles from Heritage to Bettye), the college coaches were evenly spread out and teams on both ends got good looks. Heritage is never taken care of very well in the winter, so some fields were pretty bad, but at least the ground was level. Only complaint I personally had was all four of our DD's games were played in 30 hours (two Friday, two Saturday), but our girls managed to pull through! 

The UCLA/BYU/UNLV games were very entertaining. Great atmosphere, great football, and fun experience. Seeing Pugh, Fleming, etc. in person was a privilege for both players and parents alike!

Hope everyone had/has safe travels home.


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## SocalSoccerMom (Mar 20, 2017)

I rather have the normal bracket play, semi's and finals.


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## NoGoal (Mar 20, 2017)

SocalSoccerMom said:


> I rather have the normal bracket play, semi's and finals.


Why?  It's a showcase for college coaches to evaluate potential players.  It's not about winning, because your head coach should be playing everyone, so they can be seen.  Lastly, college coaches don't usually watch an entire game and don't care who wins or loses.


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## SocalSoccerMom (Mar 20, 2017)

NoGoal said:


> Why?  It's a showcase for college coaches to evaluate potential players.  It's not about winning, because your head coach should be playing everyone, so they can be seen.  Lastly, college coaches don't usually watch an entire game and don't care who wins or loses.


It would be hard for some teams to showcase if they were given weak opponents and winning 4-5 goals. What should players do at that point? Our team played keep away, and I'm sure college coaches didn't stick around for that.
At least with bracket play, we would have an opp to play teams with similar placement on the other brackets and make it more interesting.


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## SocalSoccerMom (Mar 20, 2017)

They added Aventura Park to the list of fields this year. While it was at the edge of civilization, the grass fields were well kept and I'd rather play there over Heritage any day.  The drive back was not as bad as prior years. We did not have to take the 40 to bypass 15 to Barstow.


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## outside! (Mar 20, 2017)

Our girls had a 7:30 AM game on Sunday, so we were happy to get out of Vegas in a hurry to beat traffic. We had snacks in the car and planned to eat in Barstow. I did not want to eat at McBurger Jr., so we stopped at Casa Jimenez just off the freeway on Barstow Rd. If you are every hungry in Barstow, I would recommend it. The food was good, the prices were low, the people were friendly, the service was fast and the ambience was unique. I am not a huge fan of taxidermy, but it was entertaining.


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## shales1002 (Mar 20, 2017)

SocalSoccerMom said:


> I rather have the normal bracket play, semi's and finals.


At U14 and below they have the normal bracket play as it is not a showcase format.

The weather was perfect in the shade. Overall, it was a good tournament considering that there were approximately  600 girls teams that participated.


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## NoGoal (Mar 20, 2017)

SocalSoccerMom said:


> It would be hard for some teams to showcase if they were given weak opponents and winning 4-5 goals. What should players do at that point? Our team played keep away, and I'm sure college coaches didn't stick around for that.
> At least with bracket play, we would have an opp to play teams with similar placement on the other brackets and make it more interesting.


It seems like this was your 1st college showcase.  College coaches don't watch 1 game at the recruiting age of U15-U16.  They will watch your DD play a minimum of 3 times.  They want to see player consistency of good or poor play before they know if the girl fits their program or not.


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## NoGoal (Mar 20, 2017)

outside! said:


> Our girls had a 7:30 AM game on Sunday, so we were happy to get out of Vegas in a hurry to beat traffic. We had snacks in the car and planned to eat in Barstow. I did not want to eat at McBurger Jr., so we stopped at Casa Jimenez just off the freeway on Barstow Rd. If you are every hungry in Barstow, I would recommend it. The food was good, the prices were low, the people were friendly, the service was fast and the ambience was unique. I am not a huge fan of taxidermy, but it was entertaining.


Outside, I'm surprised you didn't stop at Peggy Sue's 50's Dinner prior to Barstow.  Just messing, I wouldn't go in there.


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## outside! (Mar 20, 2017)

NoGoal said:


> Outside, I'm surprised you didn't stop at Peggy Sue's 50's Dinner prior to Barstow.  Just messing, I wouldn't go in there.


I have thought about it, but the idea of listening to a bunch of 50's rock was too much.


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## Bananacorner (Mar 21, 2017)

NoGoal said:


> It seems like this was your 1st college showcase.  College coaches don't watch 1 game at the recruiting age of U15-U16.  They will watch your DD play a minimum of 3 times.  They want to see player consistency of good or poor play before they know if the girl fits their program or not.


True, but I think SoCalmom's point was that if the coaches stop by for 5 minute peek and the girls are playing keep away, no one is showcased.


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## BarcaLover (Mar 21, 2017)

Bananacorner said:


> True, but I think SoCalmom's point was that if the coaches stop by for 5 minute peek and the girls are playing keep away, no one is showcased.


What if a college coach uses a possession oriented style of play?  Wouldn't this scenario actually be exactly what he would want to see?  How calm is the player with the ball?  Does the player take his touch out of pressure or into pressure?  If he receives a ball under pressure can he play his way out and keep possession?  What's his movement off the ball look like?  Does he provide an option to his teammate on the ball?  Does he communicate well and give advice to his teammate on the ball?  How hard does he work to get the ball back if his team loses possession of the ball?

Just playing devil's advocate here, but there are a ton of things a coach can see about a player from watching his team play "keep away".


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## NoGoal (Mar 21, 2017)

Bananacorner said:


> True, but I think SoCalmom's point was that if the coaches stop by for 5 minute peek and the girls are playing keep away, no one is showcased.


College coaches look at a players body language when their team is down, is the player still hustling, are they communicating....it's not just the touch.

BTW, the other team is being showcased.


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## Bananacorner (Mar 21, 2017)

NoGoal said:


> College coaches look at a players body language when their team is down, is the player still hustling, are they communicating....it's not just the touch.
> 
> BTW, the other team is being showcased.


OK, if I'm a striker or wing and I'm just passing the ball back, sure, I'm not looking bad, but I'm also not showing what I can do to score.  If a college coach watches a game where the striker is pushing forward, making opportunities and striking the ball vs. a game where the striker is constantly passing back, which is better?

Also, if I am a goalie, and the other team is not shooting on me, how can I show my game?


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## SocalSoccerMom (Mar 21, 2017)

Not to mention it was 90 out and your opponents didn't even want to go for the ball.  
The organizers can't tell the play level of a lot of teams. SoCal teams don't want to travel to LV to play each other. Brackets will be a mixture of gold/silver/bronze teams. Would be nice after 3 games to size up different brackets in same flight n have 1st/2nd/3rd team play against each other. We could still have showcase style.


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## PLSAP (Mar 21, 2017)

Bananacorner said:


> lso, if I am a goalie, and the other team is not shooting on me, how can I show my game?


From a neutral point of view, in the worst case scenario where nothing is getting through to a keeper in a showcase, there is other things that make a goalkeeper a prospect. For example, if the team is playing possession, which was already discussed earlier,  are they passing back to the keeper? Or is she/he sitting back on the line, not involved with the play? How is her distribution? Does she take her own goal kicks, if so, how far do they go, are they accurate (depending on age)?   When defending, is she keeping the defense organized, same while building a play? Is she influencing the game and her team?


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## outside! (Mar 21, 2017)

Bananacorner said:


> Also, if I am a goalie, and the other team is not shooting on me, how can I show my game?


I heard a coach address this question. He said the keeper should have a good warm up.


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## NoGoal (Mar 21, 2017)

Bananacorner said:


> OK, if I'm a striker or wing and I'm just passing the ball back, sure, I'm not looking bad, but I'm also not showing what I can do to score.  If a college coach watches a game where the striker is pushing forward, making opportunities and striking the ball vs. a game where the striker is constantly passing back, which is better?
> 
> Also, if I am a goalie, and the other team is not shooting on me, how can I show my game?


That all depends on the college coach.  What I have learned is every college coach has a player preference  and it varies from coach to coach.


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## soccerobserver (Mar 21, 2017)

SocalSoccerMom said:


> It would be hard for some teams to showcase if they were given weak opponents and winning 4-5 goals. What should players do at that point? Our team played keep away, and I'm sure college coaches didn't stick around for that.
> At least with bracket play, we would have an opp to play teams with similar placement on the other brackets and make it more interesting.


SSMom,  a very successful coach came to evaluate one of our players...one day he watched part of a game and the next day he watched her during warm ups...I guess the coaches have their own way of evaluating players and being creative about evaluating them if game conditions are not ideal...

Sorry you had mismatches... in our three years of going we have been appropriately matched with teams of similar skill...


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## pewpew (Mar 21, 2017)

outside! said:


> I heard a coach address this question. He said the keeper should have a good warm up.


This ^^^^^
You can tell a lot about a keeper just by watching them warm up. It depends who is warming them up too though. You can have someone give them a great warm-up and other times there might be someone else warming them up and it sucks. 

If she's still back there and bored to tears, does she still make an effort to be involved in the game or is she sitting on her line picking dandelions or does she stand up higher in her 1/3 of the field and keep communicating/motivating her teammates?


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## Anomaly (Mar 21, 2017)

Bananacorner said:


> Also, if I am a goalie, and the other team is not shooting on me, how can I show my game?


Coaches know goalkeepers touch the ball with their hands a very limited number of times during a match. It is very important for goalkeepers to have highlight videos (but full-game is often appreciated too), training videos, etc., as one game is (usually) never enough to determine a GK's quality.

During my DD's recruiting process, coaches would come to watch sessions with her goalkeeper coach to see her work ethic, technique, etc. During this time, she was also on an ECNL team that faced what seemed like an infinite amount of shots most games, so she was able to showcase her abilities. However, the main things coaches always looked for, despite the circumstances, were:

1. A good, technical, high energy warm-up.
2. Good, firm communication with the team, although no talking just for the sake of hearing their own voice.
3. Ability to act as another field player (playing out of the back, being an option for your defenders, all depending on their team's style of play).
4. Distribution with a purpose/target, not just punting to punt.
5. A sense of confidence and joy in the game, or body language. Even if your player isn't always involved, does it look like they want to be there?
6. And finally, doing the simple things consistently well! Goalkeepers face a lot of "basic" shots and being able to consistently deal with them gives the coach a sense of reliability in the player. Positioning is key, as well as the ability to deal with crosses, have proper technique in a pass, knowing when to stay or go in a 50/50-like situation, etc.

Like many have said, different coaches look for different things and everyone has different experiences in the recruiting process. However, I bet most coaches can agree they look for at least one of the things stated above!

Hope this helped.


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## shales1002 (Mar 22, 2017)

Anomaly said:


> Coaches know goalkeepers touch the ball with their hands a very limited number of times during a match. It is very important for goalkeepers to have highlight videos (but full-game is often appreciated too), training videos, etc., as one game is (usually) never enough to determine a GK's quality.
> 
> During my DD's recruiting process, coaches would come to watch sessions with her goalkeeper coach to see her work ethic, technique, etc. During this time, she was also on an ECNL team that faced what seemed like an infinite amount of shots most games, so she was able to showcase her abilities. However, the main things coaches always looked for, despite the circumstances, were:
> 
> ...


I tell my DD this exact same thing.


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## Overlap (Mar 28, 2017)

it's by far the best venue for college coaches to look at players on the western side of the US. My oldest (G98's) college coach was in attendance to watch the games and my youngest G00 had 12 coaches come to watch their games. Only 2 kids sent emails to coaches because they didn't know the drill, those that were invited came and watched. Very entertaining games even though it was a rough start just coming back from HS soccer and only 1 training session before we left. The hotel was fine and everyone seemed to have a great time, looking forward to next year when it gets serious. The drive back was way better than the prior two years!


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