Good stuff rudad! Love the information about the sports and your journey. I like the idea of Ali at attacking mid because of her number of touches on ball, that alone creates things, and are hard to come by, you cannot necessarily teach that, at this level it is a commodity, she does tend to hold the ball too long at times, if she can maintain the touches, but reduce the turnovers, it increases possession and as a result, chances, which means getting rid of the ball sooner, and moving more off the ball. She has missed a lot of opportunities to connect with others her first couple of years, 1 goal may turn into 2 or 3 for others if she's at mid field and perhaps even for her, on more combination play. She is strong on the ball, has decent speed and can create a lot space simply by drawing attention, away from the goal would be ideal, hence mid field, her technical ability is average, but her first touch is usually quite dangerous, which is what has separated her. If RU can develop an attack where multiple players are in the attack and multiple players can be dangerous at any moment that would be very difficult to deal with, Ali may be the player that could help those other players by not only what she does with the ball, but without it as well, if you can score, you also know how to create for other as well, RU has to improve play in the midfield and move forward. Interesting fact: I was told by someone who overheard Amirahs father telling another person a couple years ago, "thats the best player I have ever seen" (speaking of LaPlant), I guess having seen her at a camp Ali attended at Rutgers? Of course LaPlant has dealt with a shin issue from game 3 of her Freshman season, and its been debilitating in all areas, conditioning, minutes, confidence, on and on, but if she stays healthy, and her minutes increase, she and Ali WILL be a force to be reckoned with!!! I played at a decent level, was very well coached in HS, club and College and was introduced to Coerver while in College before it became mainstream in the US, also watched a lot of video studying the game before that became the norm. I consider myself to have been very technical before most talked about it and knew what that meant. I did some coaching and spent a lot of time around Club soccer. While I know the game quite well, I also pride myself on being able to identify talent, specifically athleticism, and why. I played soccer, basketball and baseball. Wish I knew then what I know now, especially from a training perspective and especially, how to develop speed, explosiveness, quickness, etc. Cool thing is those things can help soccer, but to be elite, its all about the ball and what you can do with it.
