Aiden’s Athlete Card

Aiden is a 12-year-old club midfielder for Empire LC with the thing you can't coach — he's a genuine athlete and a dynamic dodger who can beat his man off the dribble. The gap this season has been that he's one-dimensional, and good defenders have figured it out. He can only really go and finish with his strong hand, so defenders overplay it and take away half the field; when he does get a shot, he rips it as hard as he can and sprays it wide instead of picking a corner; and away from the ball he tends to stand and watch instead of moving to get open. The spring's work went straight at those three, and he's becoming a threat you can't take away with one adjustment.

• ▸A dynamic, athletic dodger — he can beat his defender off the dribble, which is the hardest thing to teach.
• ▸Real speed and a burst that separates him in the open field.
• ▸Competitive and coachable; he wants the ball and he'll do the reps to get better.
• ▸Starting to trust his off-hand, which means defenders can no longer just take his strong hand away.

Aiden is working to become a complete, un-take-away-able threat. Specifically: an off-hand he can dodge and finish with, so defenders can't overplay his strong side, shooting for corners with placement instead of ripping everything as hard as he can and missing the cage, and off-ball movement — cutting, give-and-gos, feeding — so he's dangerous even when he doesn't have the ball. The athleticism and the dodge are already there; this season is about the pieces that turn a one-trick dodger into a player defenses have to account for everywhere.