Scarlett Camberos is a Mexican international who developed as a player at UC Irvine Anteaters in the NCAA before joining Club América in 2022 and making her first step in the Liga MX Femenil.
She put on some convincing performances with Club América and attracted the interest of Angel City who ultimately signed the Mexican player. In fact, Camberos’ transfer to Angel City did not take place just because Camberos wanted to move to the NWSL but also because she was facing security issues due to online harassment. Therefore, it would be completely understandable if she wouldn’t be able to perform at her best during her first few games at Angel City since she might be still fragile mentally due to the problem she had to face recently.
Nevertheless, This 2023 NWSL season represents an excellent opportunity for Camberos to prove her worth and develop even further as a player and to become a starting Angel City forward and a fundamental piece in the team’s tactics, to eventually pave the way for a successful NWSL journey.
This tactical analysis scout report will focus on identifying Camberos’ abilities while trying to determine whether she is more useful as a winger or as a striker. Moreover, the article will include an analysis of her attributes in comparison to some of her teammates to spot the difference and explore whether she can get a starting spot easily or will she have to improve on some aspects in order to be able to challenge them for a starting spot.
RW, LW or ST? Where can Camberos perform at her best?
In reality, Camberos has been tried in the three mentioned positions with the Mexican national team as well as at the clubs she played at, in addition to playing as an advanced playmaker at times as well.
Following her move to Angel City, the coaching staff chose to try Camberos as a left winger and she didn’t disappoint and showed some promising signs even though she is yet to complete her first 90 minutes. Camberos’ main qualities at the moment are pace, passing, shooting and excellent use of both feet. Whether she will continue playing as a winger or switch to a striker at Angel City, what is certain is that her pace and quick movements with the ball can always put defences in danger and create dangerous attacking opportunities for the team.
Moreover, Camberos’ ability to use both feet with almost the same power and accuracy makes her playing possibilities even higher and explains why her head coaches often alternate her between the RW and the LW positions. It is simply because Camberos is not only pacy but also unpredictable on the wings and can cut inside from the right and from the left before shooting with the inverted foot.
She is also able to cross using both feet depending on the situation. This is certainly a rare characteristic that makes Camberos special and gives a good reason for Freya Coombe to play her more often since the Mexican international can occupy different positions without finding issues in adapting to the required role.
Here is an example of how dangerous Camberos can be when playing on the right wing. During this action, she was able to exclude two players by cutting inside dribbles in order to pave the way for herself to attempt a powerful shot towards the far post.
Likewise, and even with more skill and mastery, Camberos is capable of harming her opponents using her cutting inside dribbling techniques and especially her excellent right-footed shots. What is special though is that she can be dangerous even before reaching the box as she resorts to long-range shots at times and punishes goalkeepers thanks to such unpredictable curved shots.
Camberos tends to provide key passes towards the box using her left foot whenever she advances on the left wing and this helps her in protecting the ball and in crossing with ease while not risking getting the ball intercepted.
Her ability to use her left foot accurately makes it easier and more frequent for her to provide assists to her teammates. All that is needed is movement without the ball from the players inside the box, such as what happened in this example when Camberos spotted her teammate’s movement and provided her with an assist by passing the ball between her two direct markers in order to meet the goalscorer at the right spot.
The following graphic highlights Camberos’ successful actions on both wings and shows that she has been used more on the left wing recently. Also, she is able to dribble with success in the opponent’s half and aim for crosses towards the box frequently.
Yet, she will have to concentrate more when dribbling in her team’s own half because she loses more duels in this half than in her opponents’ half, knowing that losing the ball in your own half is always more dangerous since it often leaves no time for the team to react well defensively.
In fact, Camberos’s characteristics are more suited for the left-winger position while the right-winger position comes in the second spot simply because playing as a left-winger is more natural for her and that allows her to play with more accuracy and eventually be more dangerous. But, we should explore the striker characteristics of Camberos to assess whether she can be a useful good striker option or not.
Does Camberos have what is needed to become a reliable/starting Angel City striker?
Having excellent acceleration attributes and an ability to use both feet with accuracy is something good enough to rely on Camberos as a winger or as an advanced playmaker since she has the necessary vision as well. However, it is not a sufficient motive to make a final decision about Camberos’ most suitable position since strikers are also required to be quick nowadays, not only wingers. At the same time, strikers need to be evaluated on their finishing abilities, physical strength, ball protection under pressure, reflexes and positioning inside the box, especially with and without the ball.
In terms of statistics, Camberos has got some fairly good numbers especially when it comes to xG and the number of shots on target. It is true that she doesn’t score a lot of goals compared to the number of shots, yet, that can be tolerated because these shots are usually executed while Camberos is being a LW or a RW. Therefore, her goalscoring numbers would logically improve if she will be used as a striker since she will be playing closer to goal as she would be served more frequently.
When it comes to the characteristics needed to be a good striker, it can be argued that Camberos masters most of the characteristics needed.
Finishing has never represented a problem for Camberos who showed on multiple occasions that she usually makes the adequate finishing decision depending on the situation. Camberos was played as a striker and especially as a second striker on numerous occasions and therefore she is used to being positioned centrally and not on the wings. Plus, she intelligently uses her pace and her ability to win duels in order to be as dangerous as possible during counter-attacks.
During the below action, she intercepted a wrong pass and fixed her direct opponent while slowing down her run before accelerating with body feint towards her right in order to create some space for shooting towards the opposing corner. Scoring such a goal without hesitation and with accuracy in dribbling and shooting shows that such dynamism and intelligence inside the box can always make the difference.
Another aspect that would make Camberos a good different alternative for the striker role is her ability to apply fruitful high pressing relying on her pace as well. She can always score goals using this high pressing to intercept the ball and then rely on her quick movements to anticipate the goalkeepers’ disturbance and shoot on goal.
During this action, she spotted the fact that the defender was having a hard time controlling a bad pass and immediately ran towards her, intercepted the ball and chipped it over the goalkeeper despite the latter attempting to confuse Camberos and anticipate her shot by getting out of goal. Such actions highlight Camberos’ excellent decision-making in terms of finishing as well as her ability to react quickly and efficiently to sudden circumstances.
In addition to the mentioned abilities, Camberos has proved on numerous occasions that she can score goals using her left foot, that she positions herself well inside the box and that she can execute headers accurately as well. In reality, she can resist marking and still win offensive aerial duels as this example shows. Here, she was able to jump higher than her direct marker and get the impact she wanted on the ball, putting it inside the net.
It is fair to say that Camberos’ comfort zone is the left-wing position because that’s where she plays most of the time and therefore she can play at her best in that position knowing that her attributes allow her to shine as a LW.
Nevertheless, Camberos’ efficiency as a striker should neither be underestimated nor ignored because she has the ability to do well in that position, especially if she gets the opportunity to play as a striker in a regular way. This means that Coombe has got a very useful, different and reliable backup striker ready to perform whenever the starting strikers underperform or get injured.
In addition, Angel City will most likely need a striker with the characteristics of Camberos during some specific games and therefore it would be better if Coombe gives some playing time to Camberos as a striker even when the rest of the strikers are fit.
Also, improving her positioning and working on ball protection and physical strength would make Camberos an even more impactful striker for Angel City since the striker role requires more physical resistance and ball protection than the other attacking positions.
Camberos vs Jun Endo: Who’s Angel City’s better LW?
Using radar, this section aims at comparing Camberos’ statistics to those of Jun Endo, who has been starting the first few games of the NWSL season as a left winger at the expense of Camberos. The aim is to know whether Camberos deserves to start over Endo or the latter has got the advantage to remain Angel City’s first-choice left winger.
When looking at the graphic, we can clearly notice that Camberos’ stats are mostly better than those of Endo, especially attacking-wise. Camberos wins in shots per 90, dribbles per 90, touches in the opposing box, goal contributions, passing and aerial duels won as well. Endo, however, is better in terms of positioning, passing accuracy, dangerous passing and defensive duels won.
This means that Camberos is better suited than Endo for the LW position. Yet, Endo can be a better option than Camberos if Coombs would like to rely on a more defensive winger since Endo is better than Camberos in defence. We should also bear in mind that Endo was often used as a left midfielder previously and not frequently as a left winger, which explains her poor goal contribution average for instance.
But overall, Camberos deserves to get her full chance at this position very soon and Coombs has already started giving minutes to Camberos in a gradual way. Starting her from the beginning soon would be an opportunity to assess Camberos’ personality and see if she deserves to become a starter or not.
At the same time, keeping the rivalry between the two would serve not only the team but also the two players themselves well since not having the comfort of having a fixed starting spot would motivate them to work even harder and strive to win the confidence of the coaching staff.
Conclusion
Scarlett Camberos performed very well at Club América and she deserved the move to Angel City. Now, the time has come for her to prove that she can be impactful in the NWSL as well. If she succeeds in making the difference with Angel City this season, she would more likely attract the interest of some of the top European teams such as Barcelona, Chelsea, Lyon, Bayern Munich or others and why not try gaining more experience by playing in more than one “big” league, knowing that she already has the abilities needed to play and convince in one of these leagues, especially if she keeps improving her performances.
