The story goes back to Surf cup 2018, It was the team’s first major tournament and My DD had just come out of a 2 month summer camp where she got to practice and play lots of soccer. At that time I was the only one on the team taking their child to extra training outside of practice. That tournament she pretty much carried the team and proved herself as the leading scorer and commanded the middle very well. It was nice to see her dribble through players and use her faints and quickness to get through the defense and score. She had sold the coach through her merits on the field that she would be playing the central positions (cm/cb) on the team going forward.
Before that the team was struggling a bit because no one was able to play the cb position and allow the team to play competitively against the top teams. But we had to go back to the Eagles tournament to see how it unfolded. I had told coach to give her a shot in the middle as she was playing the left back position when she first joined the team. After the first 5 min of the game the current center back gave up goal and he decided to try her at the cb position and for the rest of the half the Eagles were not able to get through her defense. So we held them to 1-0 for the rest of the half. Second half he decides to go back to a different line up, not sure why but maybe he wanted try other things, but sure enough we gave up 4 more goals and lost 5-0 in the finals.
After Surf season started and I started to see a change in her game. She no longer was the leading scorer but her game turned to passing and defending. That season she was probably the third leading scorer next to the 2 girls that became the forwards for the team. Sure enough the 2 forwards were a very talented 2011 playing up a natural left foot striker and Olivia Moultrie’s little sister on the right. Both amazing little players.
After many talks with Olivia’s Father he had pulled me to the side one day and said. Your daughter is the best player on this team. She has some special abilities and he pointed them out to me. Things like speed, change of speed, timing to tackles, great passing and vision for the field. He kind of opened up my eyes. After we played Slammers at State cup and saw how she commanded the back field I knew there was something special about her ability to win balls, but I wanted to develop her as a forward because she was also the most technical and fastest dribbler. She’s young and can be molded into any type of player. In essence, I was trying to gear her development to play like Olivia Moultrie. I wanted her to be selfish with the ball, dribble through players and play like Messi.
I started taking her to striking classes and showed her lots of clips on Messi and how he would go through defenders and score. I also showed her clips of Olivia playing at her age. Sure enough non of it worked she still wouldn’t try to dribble through players. She told me she prefers to pass and create assists. She didn’t want to play like Olivia or Messi. I started to notice that her character to play the game was just very unselfish. I wanted her to be more selfish and be a ball hog to some degree cause I know she has the ability and quickness to do it. She’s done it before why can’t she continue to do so?
Talking to my friend who’s coached AYSO he suggested that I sign her up to practice playing like Messi. He said have her score a few goals, let her get comfortable and have her try all the new tricks she was learning at training. I thought I would give it a try but knew that it would be unfair to the rest of the girls. The idea was to have her do that for some small amount of time per half, have her score a few goals and then move her to a passing role in a 3-1-2 format. So she can teach the little girls how to play a passing game and develop some leader ship skills in the process by talking and instructing them. Sounded great in theory but it backfired because once she made the first pass she would never get the ball back and got bored of watching them scramble and told me she did not want to play with them anymore. The rest of the girls were playing the typical AYSO game were they bunch up and some ball hog. Nothing wrong with that. Just shows the different characters of these little players. It would be wrong for me to keep her around just to win games and give her and the rest of the little girls the wrong soccer experience.
Over the last few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and watching film and I started to notice that as young as she is, her game or way of playing is pretty naturally defined as it is or fair to say it’s starting to show how she may play when she is older. She thrives in defending, passing and counter attacks. Her style is of elegance and not aggression or selfish ball hogging. She’s smooth and calm and not a dirty player. Her game is classy.
The only time I see her dribble through players and take the ball is when she steals the ball and creates a counter attack. Maybe there is such a thing as a young kid’s game being naturally defined early on and just let her naturally develop into the player that she wants to be based on the attributes that make her shine and stand out. Not sure still debating it but I will just let her be. I shouldn’t force anything on her or try to turn her into a different player in the process. I have decided to stop trying to turn her into a forward and scorer. It’s just not her game. But after reviewing all the film I came to the realization that the ways she plays reminds me a lot of an old player that you guys have probably never heard of by the name of Elias Figueroa. I had seen some clips of him playing a while back and couldn’t help but notice the similarities to my DD’s game. He played between 1966-1980.
Bio: Figueroa was noted for his elegant style of play, his composure in the centre of defense and his ability to cut out opposition attacks and immediately launch counterattacks from the back with his passing. He was also praised throughout his career for being a gentleman on and off the pitch. This is how I would describe her game as well and she is such a gentle lady on and off the field. Very respectful and never complains. She just does what the coach wants her to do and never plays dirty.
"(Elias) Figueroa is the best Chilean player of all time, and probably the finest central defender in the history of football in the Americas." - Pele
“I’m the European Figueroa.” - Franz Beckenbauer
“If you asked me to compare
'Don Elias' to someone, I couldn’t give you an answer." - Rubens Minelli
I read his bio in Wikipedia and was stunned to see that the way he is described is the same way I would describe my DD’s game. Her natural attributes are very similar to Figueroa’s. I researched his highlights and to my surprise his movements and plays have striking similarities to the way my DD plays. I made a 15 second clip showing a side by side comparison and the similarities of some of his moves. So I guess for now I’m just gonna let her be and let her develop into the type of player that she is destined for.