SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Why can't SC girls score?

Are SC clubs developing their girl soccer players to play defensively? In the premier league, the SC girls teams are either last or in the lower half of the listing for # of goals scored in all age brackets. U15, u16 they are dead last. Even in U17, U18 where the teams are in 4th and 5th place, if you look at the goals scored it is only 12 versus the 32 and 25 that the leaders have. At 12 goals they rank 3rd and 4th from the bottom of number of goals. NC and GA consistently seem to be at or near the top. Is it merely talent pool? Although in terms of goals let in the SC teams fair much better and seem to average in the middle. Any comments?

How much emphasis do you see placed on finishing at a club or high school practice?

Coaches seem to concentrate more on passing and possession rather than 1 v 1 dribbling and shooting. Does anybody have their players dribble through cones any more? I coached a player in high school who played about four or five years in MLS and one preseason, he was loaned to AC Milan. He spent about three weeks there training with the club and he said EVERY DAY, for a 15-minute warm up, they dribbled through cones.

How often do you see a coach take his attacking players, maybe just three forwards and a couple of attacking midfielders, and send them to the other side of the field to work on shooting and finishing drills? Often our club coaches (and sometimes our high school coaches) work alone. There's no assistant out there to help work with the girls.

If you're playing forward for your team, and you are responsible for scoring goals.....don't you think you should be working on these exact skills.....for at least 30 minutes (preferably 45) every practice? At some practices, a forward may never even take a shot if "finishing" is not what is being taught that particular day.

A lot of practices end with small-sided games but there is no guarantee there that the forwards are going to have the opportunity to take many shots.

Hurst I agree...
WAMSC5 .... on the other hand, the other team also determines how easily you can score. maybe they are better defenders? I think that the question should consider there is another team on the field trying to prevent you from scoring...

Good point futbol.

Goals are certainly hard to come by for any teams playing in the R3PL because all the teams have great players and are well-organized.

To wamsc5's point.....it would be nice to see some great offensive-minded talent developed among the ladies.

It seems to me in watching alot of these games other teams seem to have harder shots. They score from further out. And if they are close it is hard for the goalie to get it at the pace it has on it. Why do other states strike the ball so much harder, especially while moving with the ball??

My daughter played club for nine years in SC, the last several years of that in PL. What can I say about those teams? The last two years she was on the PL team with the lowest goals against both years, but throughout all nine years, it SEEMS we could not score as well as other teams.

Now with some distance and time to think, I believe the reality is that SC teams—even the best ones, even though we are gaining ground—are still simply behind other states. Thus, it is simply harder to score. When you are a weaker state, it is possible to coach defensive and be successful as compared to try to "catch up" by being offensive. Does that make sense?

Coaches in SC clubs know we are still behind so I believe most of them do focus on being solid defensively somewhat to the exclusion of offense. I think that is best for our teams to have success. But frustrating for fans. . .

g&b,

You've been around high-level South Carolina club soccer a lot longer than I have. I don't have any daughters playing R3PL and my youngest is the first one to play SCYSA ODP. I have seen some of our best young ladies on the high school field but only very rarely have I had the opportunity to see some of them play club soccer. I'll defer to you and I'd like to hear more of your thoughts.

As I mentioned earlier, if there was more than one club coach working with these girls at a time, perhaps the forwards could be trained specifically to finish while the rest of the team is working on other aspects of the game.

How many great goalscorers have we produced, that have made an impact on the collegiate level? In the past few years we have seen West Ashley's Julie Bolt, JL Mann's Blakely Mattern and North Myrtle Beach's Blair Monroe.

Julie's very explosive and capable of scoring goals, but:
1. She plays in the top college league in the country (it's hard to score)
2. Goalscoring is not her primary job at Clemson (I think they play her at midfield)

Blakely is a fantastic player at USC, but I believe her role with the Lady Gamecocks is primarily a defensive one.

Blair scored 134 goals in high school and plays on one of the top teams in the Big South. She is a proven goalscorer at the D1 level at Coastal Carolina. Granted, the Big South is not nearly as competitive as the SEC or the ACC, but Blair is still putting it into the back of the net.

I'm sure Julie Bolt could flourish as a forward in the Big South, but I'm not sure about too many others. Perhaps Danielle Schmitt who plays as a reserve forward at Clemson but scored well over 100 goals in her high school career at Fort Mill.

Are there any other South Carolina products knocking in goals at any South Carolina colleges, or are all the goalscorers from out-of-state? C of C, Furman, Wofford, The Citadel, Charleston Southern????

How about some of this year's high school senior class? Kira Campbell (Lexington), Hannah Gmerek (Wren), Ashleigh Sheets (Fort Mill)? All of these girls can score at the high school level but do they have much success at R3PL? All three of these girls are probably either midfielders or defenders at the D1 level in the fall of 2008.

You can't compare goals scored in High School against goals scored against challenge or premier level competition. There are lead scorers in H S who are very impotent in higher level competition. (This goes for both boys & girls)

IMO, it is not always a lack of skill in the forwards, it could be unusually strong defenders this year or simply a lack of mid-field support. One would have to look at some of the SC team games to see where they are hurting.

Monkey,

I agree, it's a whole different level. I also feel there is a pretty big difference between the ACC and the Big South. On the womens side, Clemson beat Coastal 5-0 earlier this year (although High Point did play NC State to a scoreless draw).

But who is scoring goals at the college level? Anybody making significant noise in the past five years? Through her junior year, Blair Monroe has scored 34 goals for Coastal. With a few games left in her senior year, West Florence's Brooke Tumblin has scored 29 goals in her Newberry career against some fairly tough D2 competition.

Anybody else aware of anyone else with a knack for knocking them in at a high (collegiate) level?

I agree with every comment made..My daughter spent an hour and a half last night playing small sided games...nobody wants to hear this but the lack of numbers does play a role in this.Most coaches have a small number to choose from