PORT ANGELES — There is an elegance to the way Miguel Gonzalez plays soccer.
It comes out in a malleable improvisational style that bends and contracts to the pressures around him on the pitch.
In the blink of an eye, the Peninsula College forward exposes angles that don’t even seem to exist.
He contorts his body through traffic like a gymnast, all the while keeping the ball on his feet as if it was attached by a string.
Give him even the slightest of openings, and he’ll fire it at his target with the precision of a marksman.
After a few minutes, one gets the idea they are watching some sort of soccer savant — a natural playing the game on a different plane than everyone else around him.
“Every 10 minutes is a new level of Miguel,” Pirates head coach Andrew Chapman said. “If you watch him closely enough — and I see it over and over again — he’ll do something where it’s like, ‘I didn’t know he could do that.’
“I’ve seen him play for two years and he’s doing things I didn’t know he could do.”
As Gonzalez’s final fall in Port Angeles winds down, he is doing things no Pirates soccer fan has ever seen.
The diminutive sophomore has already scored a school record 28 goals in 16 matches this season, nearly doubling his previous mark from a year ago (15), and is three assists shy of Jesse Retan’s single-season mark (13) from 2007.
He’s scored at least one goal in every match but one — the first of the season.
And in that match, a 3-1 win over Columbia Basin, he had the first of his 10 assists.
Simply put, Gonzalez has put his stamp on every game the Pirates (9-0-1 in West, 15-0-1 overall) have played this year and is a major reason why they are still undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the NWAACC with three matches to go in the regular season.
“He’s always moving,” said teammate Dean Gaynor, an Irish import who has 10 goals and nine assists. “He’s always looking to get a goal.
“He’s always buzzing when he’s on the ball. He’s always wanting to do things with it.
“He’s technical, and he’s also fast.”
Different approach
Given Gonzalez’s background, it seems odd that he would have such a firm grasp of the technical aspects of the game.
An immigrant from the state of Michoacan in southwest Mexico, he first arrived in the Pacific Northwest with his three brothers, two sisters and mother at the age of 8.
He played little to no club soccer growing up on the I-5 corridor in Yelm, instead opting to team with his brothers and cousins in adult leagues and pickup games throughout the area.
While that may not be the path most players his caliber take, it’s one Gonzalez credits with helping him develop his unique style of play.
“If we weren’t working and stuff, we were playing soccer,” said Gonzalez.
“[My older brothers] helped a lot. Even Daniel, my brother here [a freshman midfielder for the Pirates], he helped a lot. They would never go easy.
“It was harder to play against them than when we would play against other people.”
Chapman went down to watch him play in high school and saw him score two goals and an assist.
He finished with 31 goals and 19 assists as a senior at Class 3A Yelm.
Yet for whatever reason, Chapman was one of just two NWAACC coaches to extend him an offer to play.
“He was by far the best player on the field,” Chapman said. “We knew he was going to be good, and we expected big things.”
Obviously, he lived up to that and then some in his first year, scoring 15 goals while helping the Pirates to their first NWAACC title.
With even more talent surrounding him now, including his brother Daniel (4 goals, 12 assists) and Gaynor, Miguel has unleashed even more offensive brilliance this season.
So much so that he has the attention of Division I schools like Seattle University, Chico State and University of Washington.
“Because Miguel is so fast, we try to play balls in behind,” Gaynor said.
“We get the ball, we kick it into space for him to run onto. As you can see, he scores goals from doing it.
“You know he’s going to be there. You know he’s going to be making that run.”
All angles
Of course, Miguel finds all sorts of ways to score.
Sometimes, he does it by dribbling through a collection of defenders. Other times, he runs into space or simply places the ball with a pin-point directional kick into the corner of the goal.
With his tremendous leaping ability, he can even get his solid 5-foot-8 frame in position to play balls in the air off crosses from his teammates.
There really is no cookie-cutter approach for him to score.
Just whatever presents itself to Miguel in that moment.
“A lot of people say ‘How do you do it?’ But to me it’s just like anything else, I don’t even think about doing it, I just do it,” said Miguel, a good student with a 3.7 grade-point average who speaks English and Spanish fluently.
“I’ve already thought about it in my head, I don’t even have to think about it at that time.
“I guess I’m just used to it, I don’t know. It’s weird.”
Whatever “it” is, it’s something few soccer players have.
And it’s hardly something that Chapman — the Pirates coach for nine seasons — takes for granted.
“I’d love to say that I taught him everything he knows, but, no, this kid has got that natural talent,” Chapman said.
“He watches a lot of games. He gets better. He picks up on everything, so all we really did was surround him with players that complement him and help him out.
“It’s pretty amazing. It’s fun to watch.
“He’s definitely an artist up front, and he’s a bit of a warrior, too.”