Reply to Soccer-What is a "natural defender"?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Any parent or kid who doesn't like to defend will eventually find their smug asses on the bench :).....in this day and age there is no room for lazy defending if you want to be a future pro or want a college scholarship...A real soccer player is a natural competitor so by default  a complete soccer player is a" natural defender"...Have you noticed that the world's best defenders somewhere along the line played in a midfield position like wing earlier in their career?...eventually if the younger defenders do not get personal training or politic their way to the midfield they will be behind once they hit the u14 level. They simply will not have gotten enough touches on the ball IN PRACTICE OR THE GAMES....and the average midfielder will ride the bench because there are only so many midfielder positions....(again a ton midfielders in the DMV refuse to play in the back because their parents have drilled into them that the backline positions are trash...smh)...WELL one man's trash is another mans's treasure.. In fact, alot of times the players with the most potential never get the development that they need because the coaches park them in the back and never get them developed...because on the next level you have to somewhat athletic and skillful/technical...you will not cut the mustard if you lack one or the other. I am talking Women's Division one soccer... 
There is an art to playing defense and a complete soccer player has the competitive nature that pushes them to naturally defend. This is a non-negotiable understanding...if you have noticed the backline players are some of your most valuable players at the higher levels...? The fact that most kids that play soccer in this area lack the athletic ability to play at the next level destroys the possibility of the best potential players going far because they are stuck in the back during their developmental years...The midfield and  forward positions are so jammed packed many are forced to ride the bench or play defense or quit as they get older
 World class defenders in fact world class players hardly ever play one position when they are younger....they are either pushed to the back or have no choice....BUT the one thing that midfielders have; if they are athletic enough, are good technical skills....
BOTTOM LINE...NATURAL DEFENDERS HAVE that "DAWG" IN THEM; something that alot of the teams need more of..they come with a blue collar mentality......Some of these coaches are selfish and would rather win than develop...if they took the best athletes and made them play a midfield position part of the time they would be some of your best soccer players but unfortunately this hardly happens..and the USA will eventually suffer on the women’s side and the Men are definitely suffering as we speak....Good athletes are normally your best natural defenders but ironically have a hard time developing to the best soccer players and this is sad.....NATURAL DEFENDERS ARE THE SALT OF TH[/quote]

1,000,000% YES.

We have been having this dialogue with our son's team.  He unarguably has the best ball skill and field IQ on the team.  They put him in Center D and found nobody could get past him and he was so calm and collected.  Any other player they put back there---the team would collapse, get scored on and back he went,  The other parents would argue he needs to play there.

The kid for past 2 years was not getting opportunity elsewhere. He came from a team where he was a top scorer/attacker.  Kid frustrated.  His team can't finish but they won't take him out of back because the score would be even larger against them.   The  few times (rare) he's moved up---he's scored a hat trick on what prior was a 0-0 game for the majority.

We have told them we are looking in our kid developing EVERYWHERE.  It is in his best interest and they have been drumming any of the versatility he had right out of him.  Less tourches, less dribbling and less opportunity to practice finishing.

We are done this year and going elsewhere.  He's the kid that will 1 v1 and speed dribble and finishing contest at large camps--yet for whatever reason since no kid can fit back there for them there he goes (not.our.problem.)  They'd rather come out defensively every gdamn game instead of putting up somebody that could finish. If you put goals in the net initially, you would worry less about getting scored on at the start of the game.  Fine, move him back after the team is up and then move him back.[/quote]

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