Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Watching a bunch of the games and have been watching some of the preseason AA mid field players. Seems strange to me that many are not what I think of as a midfielder ie they really dont play both sides of the ball. Seems to me they are actual attack players who coaches say are midfielders, is this , done to help them get those post season awards ? I say this because alot of the post season awards are based on stats and its alot easier to compare stats with actual 2 way middies then the Scane ,Tyrels of the world. That said it seems unfair to the actual 2 way players who are often in a rotation etc .Curious what others think.

Unfortunately, goal scores get the attention of the majority of parents/fans primarily because the majority of people watching the game can not quantify anything else. Championships are built on "Team Defense" which the true two way midfielders are an extremely important part of. College coaches (especially at the best programs) put a premium on versatile athletes who do a lot of the work that goes unnoticed by the majority of fans/parents.

When it comes time for "awards" it's tough on all players except for the goal scorers simply because it's difficult to measure the impact that other players make on the success of a team. Think about offensive linemen in football, most of us can watch a game but we will not be able to tell just how much of an impact the linemen have (but we will all see the few plays throughout the game when the lineman gets beat or makes a mistake).

Not sure that coaches are trying to position attack players as "offensive midfielders" in order to set them up for post season recognition, I just think it is very difficult to quantify anything except goals / assists .

Just the nature of the beast, it's a Team Sport and all of the positions are important, a team will not win a championship without exceptional players across the board (and good coaching).

While I agree it seems to me that when the post season awards come around actual midfielders should get the recognition . Seems like actual defenders get the defensive awards, actual attack players get the attack awards but many of the midfield awards go to attack players. Is what it is but its not that difficult for them to figure it out.