Vegas Showcase

[soccerobserver]

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...

 

[pewpew]

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?

 

[Anomaly]

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.

 

[shales1002]

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.

I tell my DD this exact same thing.

 

[Overlap]

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!