SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Girls Varsity Soccer The creative forward....the female "Enzo"

Keeping score and 11 v 11 in the early years is severly frowned upon over seas. Tim, you and I may have read the same magazine (I've switched to "World Soccer" since then for a more global perspective).

I was with the YMCA when Trevor Adair restructured their league formats. First thing he did...no full sided games.

>>[Hurst66] Where is the female Enzo? Is there a player out there who can dribble through a couple of quality defenders and change a game by scoring a great goal? Is there a player out there with the will (and ability) to take a game over on the offensive end?<<

I've seen Enzo play several times in high school and more often in RIIIPL-East. I've seen him shut down in high school for all but moments of a game through smart defending; and I've seen him look brilliant in high school. I've also seen him more often in RIIIPL-East where he looks very good; but several billion light-years away from how he looks in high school in terms of the amount of carrying/scoring he can do before a good defender strips him. None of this should be taken as a slam against Enzo who is clearly one of the state's best players; instead, I'm simply noting that there's a high variation with regard to this statement.

Does SC have female players who can carry and score creatively against weak competition? Yes, we hear about 3 goal, 4 goal, and even 9 goal performance all of the time and I know this isn't just from "garbage collectors" but from kids who can create and score. Does SC have female players who can carry and score creatively against strong competition in high school? Yes, I also see this a lot at the high school level. Obviously against stronger high school teams there's on average less scoring -- teams such as Dorman, Mauldin, Fort Mill, Riverside, Eastside, and the like have strong defenses. A relatively high scoring team such as T.L. Hanna has a combined score of 0-10 against Irmo, Mauldin, and Dorman earlier this season while even higher ranked teams such as Lexington, Dorman, Mauldin, and Fort Mill can struggle to score against each other. And yet we hear of heroics, and I've seen heroics, from very good female players in terms of carrying and scoring. Why? To me, a lot of it has to do with women often playing a more defensive game than men (read Anson Dorrance to get an ear-full of this) -- perhaps even more has to do with the disparity of talent on many teams and the resulting slow ball movement and effective focus on fewer players by defenders.

Does SC have female players who can carry and score creatively against strong competition in RIIIPL-East and against strong broader regional and national competition? It's much more rare; however, I've seen this as well. Who are they? A lot of the names you read about here seem able to do it -- and many names you don't read about as well. There are players at 2A and SCISA schools that play on nationally ranked teams that simply don't have the teams, publicity, and the like to get much discussion here.

I would argue that I see more dominating performances on the girls side than I do the boys side -- primarily because the girls side is weaker than the boys side. Thus, if Enzo plays brilliantly he might score two -- whereas a girl playing brilliantly might score 4 against on average weaker competition. The flip side of that is that Enzo plays with on average stronger players than the average girl does; which helps because there are teams out there will a wonderful player on relatively unskilled teams who don't just have to beat 1-2 players but have to beat 5-6 to achieve the same result.

Let's take an example of a girl who hasn't been mentioned in this discussion. Alex Ramsey, who is one of the few kids from South Carolina to make the region pool last year, plays for a weak high school team. Now, I've seen her play in RIIIPL-East and she's a really good, creative player -- one of the best in her age group and one of the better players in South Carolina. I have no doubt that night after night that Alex does things that Enzo can only dream of doing in high school -- in terms of carrying, beating 5-6 players, and the like -- but that in the end she's having to carry so much more of the burden than Enzo does for his high school team that the net effect is less.

By the way -- am I theorizing that Alex is better than Enzo? No, just that the environment in which she plays is drastically different, the level of competition is lower, and the level of average skill on her team is lower -- all of which make it incredibly difficult to compare this on an apples-to-apples basis.

Exactly. . .

Robinson was MIA against Irmo...so 0-5 would be the actual comparison of dominating players vs. quality opponents. Obviously that is a much better ratio (insert eye roll here). Surely this changes everything (insert eye roll number two).

M*A*S*H—Thanks for making the discussion board interactive.

I do what I can for my little AA brothers and sisters

I think Hurst was going in a different direction on this.

The point wasn't......is Alex Ramsey as good of a player as Enzo? The point was......there appears to be a lack of girl attackers who love the ball on their foot. Who love to take people on and simply slice them up off the dribble.

Alex is a midfielder....a great ballwinner and outrageously dangerous passer. But not known as a dancer. Not saying she can't.....

Heard someone say once that girls are more team oriented than boys, thus, less likely to want to hold the ball and take people on.

My son called me at work about 6 times yesterday about the ManU-AS Roma game on ESPN2.....all he wanted to talk about was Christiano Ronaldo. I got home at 545 or whatever and the Chelsea-Valencia game was on.....almost halftime. I thought Chelsea's possession and tight, 1 touch passing was awesome. Forget that....all my boy wanted to show me were the moves Ronaldo was throwing out and how we was going to take them to practice that night.

I see lots of girls dribbling. What I don't see on the girls side that I do on the boys side...are kids who really like to SCHOOL defenders. Who arrogantly like to school defenders. Not stupidly hold the ball.....not selfishly hold the ball....not simply playing with your head down. But a kid who simply believes that his teams best options for attack lie with their taking on the person in front of them and being confident that they will win that matchup.

MASH: As deahler once said, it's good you're not from Lexington or you'd be accused of whining...

Big Daddy: By the time Alex has beaten 5-6 players instead of the 1-2, perhaps she's too tired to do whatever you want her to do next.

P.S. I've not seen Alex play in high school, only RIIIPL-East, where I've seen her repeatedly "school" other players. However, I wouldn't be surprised if she plays midfield in high school -- on the girls side quite often forwards at the premier level drop into the midfield in high school -- my guess is to attempt to use the player to bridge with other players as much as possible.

Big Daddy: More seriously...you condensed my post into "is Alex as good as Enzo" when I covered the point directly regarding going after 1 or more players offensively. But to boil it down further...

Is there a tendency for girls to "play more unselfishly" (positive statement) or to "not go after a player one on one" (negative statement) more than boys? Yes.

Is there a tendency for boys to "go after a player one on one" (positive statement) or to "play selfishly and heads-down" (negative statement) more than girls? Yes.

Are there exceptions? Yes.

It's my opinion that one of the reasons that CESA is so strong on the girls side (more so even than on the boys side) is that it's one of the few clubs where girls get constant encouragement from a young age to go after opposing players one on one.

Thus, purpleandyellow and I, having seen tons of girls games against nationally ranked opponents, have seen girls going one on one against players again and again. Does that mean that the general tendency you speak of isn't true? Absolutely not. But does that mean that there are exceptions? Absolutely so.