With more and more countries investing in their domestic women’s leagues each year, the variety of markets that major clubs around the world have been able to shop in has continuously grown, and it has been increasingly common to see them searching in previously unchartered waters in their bid to secure the best young talent available in the modern game.
One of those nations currently producing some outstanding players is Colombia. The likes of Real Madrid Femenino’s Linda Caicedo, Chelsea Women’s Mayra Ramírez, and Bayern Munich Frauen’s Ana María Guzmán are just a few of those who have hailed from the South American nation and are clear examples of the quality that can be found within it.
With that in mind, this tactical analysis will look at another player from the same nation widely backed to follow in their footsteps, with 18-year-old América de Cali Femenino player Gabriela Rodríguez regarded by many as someone with the talent to become a world star. The analysis will look at why she has been attracting so much attention and what she would offer any future employer who opted to sign her in the future.
Attacking threat
Given that she is an attacking midfielder by trade, many might expect Gabriela Rodríguez to have a prolific goalscoring record and that she continually ranks highly in assist tallies, too. However, the truth is that that part of the game is not what she has become most known for, with her instead offering a lot more to her team when they get into the final third, as this section of the scout report will set out.
The first thing that she brings is an ability to frequent the spaces between opposing lines and to play her part in building attacks, and it is this and the fact that she has only averaged 3.38 touches inside the penalty area per game this season that shows why her productivity is not where some might have thought that it would be (she scored two goals and provided three assists last season, whilst she has one of each so far in the ongoing one).
It is never anything that has concerned América. Instead, they built their game around it, with Wendy Bonilla knowing where her teammate would be, so she sent the ball into the space that had been opened up in the Deportivo Cali Femenino ranks.
The reason that Rodríguez likes to stay this far out is that it keeps her options open once she does receive the ball, with her now able to either pass it towards a teammate in numerous directions or to shoot at goal, and she does, in fact, opt for the latter here. Whilst her effort travelled just wide of the post in the end, it is worth noting that her only goal so far this season came from a similar range during the match with Real Santander Femenino, so she can find the back of the net from these areas and asks questions of opponents even when it appears that that is not her primary aim.
She doesn’t only pose a threat from further out, though. She is just as capable of making the runs that would be expected of an attacking midfielder in these positions, breaking between the Deportivo Pasto Femenino defensive line here and once again shooting at goal.
Whilst the effort once again fails to come off, that is not the key point to make here because what really stands out is her ability to read situations early and to make moves before those around her can react. In this case, she noticed that there was a chance of getting into the territory behind the Pasto line, and her pass into the feet of substitute Vanessa Castillo only increased that, with Mabel Matabanchoy getting sucked towards Castillo and allowing Rodríguez to run through the space that she had vacated.
Once that had happened, Castillo sent the ball back to Mildrey Pineda, and the latter threaded it towards Rodríguez, which set up the shot. However, whilst it was a collective effort overall, Rodríguez’s movement and anticipation were instrumental in it coming about, and it is that that has made her such a critical player for her team during her still-fledgling career.
That theme of Rodríguez being more than someone who simply assists and scores goals continues when looking at how decisive she is with the ball at her feet, too. Here, she notices the space behind the Santander players and that forward Ingrid Vidal is signalling for the ball to be sent in her direction and the fact that she doesn’t hesitate or overthink the move proves to be vital here, with her bending it in perfectly and allowing her teammate to head the ball home in a simple fashion for the third goal of the game.
Whilst this cross did become her only assist so far this season, there have been plenty of others that have not come off, with only one of her seven attempted deliveries from wide finding their intended targets. Nevertheless, she has always shown decisiveness and has never second-guessed herself, and it is that that makes her one to watch for the future.
Midfield play
Whilst the variety of things that she offers at the top of the pitch is noteworthy, where Gabriela Rodríguez has really thrived has been in the central third, with her constantly carrying a presence around the halfway line in particular and playing a key role in helping América to average 62.34% possession per game so far.
Her ability to be a force to be reckoned with in the middle of the field particularly comes into importance when considering that América have deviated away from the hybrid system that was implemented last season under head coach Carlos Hernández, which blended together the basic principles of direct and progressive tactics into something that was quite unique, and are now much more reliant on shorter passing sequences under his successor Daniel Mejía that minimise the risk of the ball being given away in transition.
As a result, whilst Hernández had no need for players to sit in the central third, Mejía has, and that is where Rodríguez has come in. With a passing accuracy of 85.1% for the season so far, she has shown that she can be a constant and an assured presence inside the central third for her team, and the way in which she received the ball from Jessica Caro here and instantly turned under pressure from Santander’s María Martínez to send it towards the far side of the field is indicative of that composure.
This is not to say, though, that América have moved on entirely from Hernández’s tactical ideas, with there still being some traces of them in their 2024 performances. In particular, there is still a desire to positionally rotate when they have possession, with Rodríguez, a key player in making that possible through her aforementioned awareness and decisiveness.
Here, both of those are clear to see as she wins a long Deportivo clearance before instantly passing the ball forward and then following it, altering in an instant from being a deeper-lying disruptor into a supporting offensive player, and she is not the only one who has changed roles in this manner as the season has gone on.
The chance might not have come to anything in the end, with fellow young talent Gisela Robledo failing to find a teammate with her cutback from the nearside wing. However, the point still stands that this is another side to Rodríguez’s game that will appeal to major clubs around the world, especially with so much of the modern game demanding that players not one-dimensional and are instead capable of fulfilling the demands of two or three positions around the pitch.
It is also worth noting that it is not only in open spaces that she can create issues in the central third, with her causing them just as many headaches in tighter areas too. In this case, she has received the ball from Venezuela international Leury Basanta and has Bonilla running ahead of her to offer an immediate passing option.
However, she is unable to send the ball towards the latter player due to Matabanchoy closing her down quickly in the same manner as she did earlier in the analysis. As a result, Rodríguez now has to abandon any thoughts of sending the ball up the pitch for Bonilla to get on the end of. Her attention instead turns towards retaining the ball and not conceding it in an area from which Pasto can launch a counterattack.
Fortunately for América, this doesn’t and never has phased her. She successfully evades Matabanchoy, Melissa Herrera, and Helen Sevillano’s attempts to win the ball from her here before passing it into the open space inside her and allowing her team to build again.
Therefore, she is just as effective a player to have on the ball in situations like this as she is when there is less immediate pressure, and that again highlights how América have a huge talent on their hands and one that is widely expected to make a big money move to a major league at some stage in the future.
Defensive contributions
Gabriela Rodríguez’s contributions don’t stop there, though, with it also clear to see in América’s games that she is a good player to have on the field whenever they are without the ball, too. Therefore, again, she is someone who can assist her teammates in all aspects of their performances, once again highlighting how well-rounded she is and why signing her will appeal to many clubs as they look to enhance their squads.
It should be noted that her ability to have a defensive influence on things is perhaps aided by América’s desire to press high and to win the ball as early as possible once it has been lost, meaning that those at the front become the first line of defence.
However, that doesn’t mean that players can execute the demands that that brings with the required quality, and so the fact that Rodríguez can shows again how valuable a player she is to have on the pitch. In this case, it is her pace and anticipation that once again come into use, with Deportivo breaking out and looking to exploit América’s unguarded back line following a corner. She times her tackle well to prevent Natalia Hernández from getting too far up the pitch here.
This is just one of a number of crucial interventions that Rodríguez has made so far this season, with her already contributing six high regains, eight counterpressing recoveries and one dangerous recovery to help América never to cede too much territory once they do lose control of the ball.
What is particularly striking is that these numbers come after just a few weeks of the 2024 campaign, and yet she has already made almost half of the total number of high regains that she made in the entirety of last season and over a third of the counterpressing recoveries that she made last time out too. Therefore, it is clear that this has been one of her key strengths so far this season, and it can be expected that those numbers will only increase as the campaign goes on.
Whilst all of that will come as no surprise to most people, what might raise a few eyebrows is that Rodríguez is also happy to track back even further whenever her team are without the ball. In this case, she has recognised that teammate Tatiana Castañeda has been caught out of position in her attempt to come out and tackle Internacional Palmira Femenino’s Yulissa Sánchez and that that has now left a hole open on the right-hand side that the opposing side can use to their advantage.
As a result, she runs back here to occupy that space, and her determination sees her overtaking Sánchez in the process of doing so. In the end, she wasn’t needed to do anymore, with Sánchez pulling the ball back and it then being regained by defender Laura Orozco, but the intent was there and the fact that she has succeeded in 65.4% of her defensive duels shows that this is yet another strong point in her game.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this tactical analysis has examined América de Cali Femenino starlet Gabriela Rodríguez, highlighting the different ways in which she asks questions of her team’s opponents, both with and without the ball, and why she has been listed among the best young talents anywhere in the world during the last couple of years.
With her still being just 18 years old, there should be no rush for her to move anywhere and the points made in this scout report highlight that she is at a good club at the moment who will nurture her and who have her best interests in mind.
However, whilst it is important to stress that there have been no rumours or links to other clubs at this moment in time, the simple fact is that the Liga Femenina is not at the same level as other divisions around the world. Therefore, with her obvious talent, there will likely come a time when a bigger club comes calling and she will have a decision to make, and moving to the right team could help her to realise her true potential and to become the world star that so many believe that she will be.
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