Only Weakness in Joy Biefeld’s Game Is Her Lack of Confidence : Soccer: Edison High graduate is standout on U.S. national team. Her club team is in Torrance for weekend tournament.

It seems the only person who questions Joy Biefeld’s soccer ability is Biefeld herself.

Anson Dorrance, who coaches Biefeld on the U.S. national team, and Bill Merrill, who coached her at California, are convinced that the former Edison High School standout is one of the best players in the world.

Citing Biefeld’s natural skills, speed, quickness, endurance, discipline, tenacity, resiliency, strength of character--Did he leave anything out?--Merrill declared the 22-year-old one of the 10-best players on earth.

Dorrance, the North Carolina coach who has guided the Tar Heels to eight of the past nine NCAA women’s championships, didn’t totally agree.

“But I would definitely classify her as one of the best outside midfielders in the world, possibly the best,” Dorrance said.

Biefeld, whose California Tremors club team is in Torrance for a weekend tournament at Columbia Park, is flattered by such compliments. But don’t expect her head to swell, because that would clash with Biefeld’s inferiority complex.

Strange but true: The higher Biefeld has ascended in this sport, the more insecure she has become.

“Being with such great players makes me question whether or not I belong,” said the 5-foot-4, 128-pound Biefeld, who is in her third year on the national team. “I’ve always had a problem with confidence. No one could tell by just watching, but if they know me well, they can tell.”

Biefeld’s insecurity manifests itself in subtle ways. For instance, her teammates will know Biefeld can beat a certain opponent one-on-one, but instead of dribbling past her, she’ll pass off. Instead of looking for a goal, she’ll try for an assist.

Instead of being the dominant, assertive player she was in college and high school, Biefeld is content to play more of a secondary, supportive role on the national team, which will compete in the first Women’s World Cup in China in 1991.

“Isn’t that ridiculous?” Dorrance said. “Whenever I have a private conference with her, I spend the whole time telling her how good she is. With most players, I’m correcting parts of their game, telling them what to do.

“With Joy, I have to tell her she’s an incredible player, because she doesn’t believe it. Her humility gets in the way. This is a common problem for players who have reason to lack confidence. But Biefeld is not one of those players, and she’s beginning to realize that.”

Said Biefeld: “I should take charge more when I’m playing with the national team, but I’m not confident enough to do that yet. Maybe if I just relax a little more, I’ll be all right. I think I’m getting better.”

Confidence aside, there are certain benefits that come with playing on the nation’s best team.

“Everyone is so good, you can give them any kind of ball and they’ll handle it,” said Biefeld, who grew up with seven soccer-playing siblings in Huntington Beach. “You’ll always know when they’re going to make a run, and you always know where they are.”

And opponents don’t always know where Biefeld is. It wasn’t that way in high school, where Biefeld scored 130 career goals from 1983-86, and college, where she scored a school-record 54 career goals from 1986-89 and led the Golden Bears to the NCAA tournament semifinals twice.

The marking at the international level is pretty intense, said Biefeld, who has played in tournaments in China, Italy and Taiwan. But she usually has only one player--not two or three--covering her. In high school and college, Biefeld incurred her share of bumps and bruises.

“They’d put assassins on her, and all she’d do is dance with them,” Merrill said. “She has been brutalized on the field, but she fights it off and does what she has to do. It would take an atom bomb to get her out of the starting lineup.”

Or a pulled hamstring. That’s the only injury that has caused Biefeld to miss any action at Cal.

“I’ve played a lot of games and taken a lot of poundings, but I’ve survived pretty well,” she said. “I haven’t had any major knee injuries, knock on wood. You expect that they’re going to hit you, so you jump and stay light on your feet.”

Besides her skills, what separates Biefeld from most midfielders is a rare blend of speed and endurance. Players with exceptional speed usually don’t have great endurance, Dorrance said, and players with great endurance usually don’t have great speed.

“And endurance doesn’t mean going 90 minutes a game,” Merrill said. “It means going 90 minutes full speed. That’s what sets her apart. She’s not on one game and off the next. She’s never off.”

Merrill seemingly has an A-through-Z list of superlatives for Biefeld, who will graduate from Cal with a degree in physical education next winter. He already has asked his athletic director for permission to retire Biefeld’s jersey, No. 5, which would make her the first Cal women’s soccer player to receive such an honor.

“It’s an honor, but I get kind of embarrassed,” Biefeld said. “I don’t like all the attention. It makes me uncomfortable.”

After she graduates, Biefeld hopes to enter a master’s program at another school. She plans to stay on the national team through the World Cup and possibly the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, if women’s soccer is offered as an exhibition sport.

She already has been to Europe and China, and it appears her world travels will continue.

“It has been neat to see a lot of different places for free,” Biefeld said. “I’ve grown and become more self-confident as a person.”

Now, if only she could carry that confidence onto the field.

“As soon as she gets that confidence, her level of play will go up significantly,” Dorrance said. “She’ll be the best in the world.”