22-0

I would much rather be scored upon than played keepaway. Keepaway seems much more humiliating.

And again for the upteenth time, I put most of the blame on the losing coach. Call the game at some point or ask your players at halftime how they feel. Nobody is answering this question.
I would place some responsibility on the losing coach...but I would not want the coach to quit (sends wrong message to kids). Instead the losing coach can just pack in the defense into their own defensive third and just look for opportunities to counter-attack. It's hard to score when the entire defense is in their own box.
 
Sometimes the teams are so mismatched that it's very difficult to limit scoring. I reffed a game once (AYSO) where the stronger team -- after using a bunch of other strategies to keep the score down -- decided to keep all of their players in or near their own penalty area. Whenever one of them would win the ball, they would then dribble by themselves through the entire opposing team. Even going 1 on 11, they scored 5 times in a row.
 
As parents, I would think that we would want to avoid this imbalance at all costs. The idea that "this is competitive" is the worst idea as it does nothing to grow the sport to a broader base. This is the mentality that you often hear from wrestling, boxing and other sports that have gone to the waste side. The idea that goal differential matters after 5 is a terrible rule. I would much have teams go down to PKs or some other tie breaker rather than putting a 22-0 beating on a team. Also, since this team is in the wrong flight, this is driving the other teams to beat on them as well. "Hey Team X got 22, we need to get 23!"

We have been on both sides of these blowouts and no one is happy when it happens. The game turns into 90 minutes of messing around for the team that is winning and the losing team get frustrated. While the example given by OP was for young girls, this happened not just at that level. My concern is that there are teams that enjoy putting on this type of beating (and start showboating) where eventually the losing kids have enough and start fouling or going in hard. As surfref mentioned, once the kids get a bit older it will be harder to handle.

One of the main issues that was brought up is that is partially due to the landscape of how many tournaments we have. I think if there were fewer tournaments, then you would get teams more closely aligned to play together verses these blowouts or teams jumping into tournaments in the wrong flight (up or down) just because it is a free/low cost one. Not sure how to actually do this but something needs to be done.
 
As parents, I would think that we would want to avoid this imbalance at all costs. The idea that "this is competitive" is the worst idea as it does nothing to grow the sport to a broader base. This is the mentality that you often hear from wrestling, boxing and other sports that have gone to the waste side. The idea that goal differential matters after 5 is a terrible rule. I would much have teams go down to PKs or some other tie breaker rather than putting a 22-0 beating on a team. Also, since this team is in the wrong flight, this is driving the other teams to beat on them as well. "Hey Team X got 22, we need to get 23!"

We have been on both sides of these blowouts and no one is happy when it happens. The game turns into 90 minutes of messing around for the team that is winning and the losing team get frustrated. While the example given by OP was for young girls, this happened not just at that level. My concern is that there are teams that enjoy putting on this type of beating (and start showboating) where eventually the losing kids have enough and start fouling or going in hard. As surfref mentioned, once the kids get a bit older it will be harder to handle.

One of the main issues that was brought up is that is partially due to the landscape of how many tournaments we have. I think if there were fewer tournaments, then you would get teams more closely aligned to play together verses these blowouts or teams jumping into tournaments in the wrong flight (up or down) just because it is a free/low cost one. Not sure how to actually do this but something needs to be done.

"Gone to the waste side" now enters my list of spoonerisms.
 
As mentioned, and others have shown, you see this more in Tier 2 Brackets. This is because that team, usually good tier 1s, are placed into lower brackets so they have no chance beating "academy" teams. Its not on the team "abusive" team. Wouldnt be a good look for a Tier 1 team to beat one of their teams they are charging parents a boat load of $ for. So they let them beat up on their lower tier teams in order to avoid any splaining to parents. Big clubs usually dont have to explain anything to parents if the team they lose to only have "academy" or "super duper awesome" at the end of it
Yea, agree but it was not a team from the host club beating a rival. It was a team from another club. They played well.
 
enever one of them would win the ball, they would then dribble by themselves through the entire opposing team. Even going 1 on 11, they scored 5 times in a row.
I like that strategy by the winning coach: Kids need to practice one-on-one skills and the likelihood that the player will beat all 10 defenders by herself is low (you would think). Makes the defending players defend something without just watching 60 straight possession passes. Key is to make sure it's not the superstars who are doing that one-on-one carrying.
 
The tactic I’ve seen implemented in lopsided games is that when Team A (who is blowing out Team B) is required to connect x # of passes loses possession or Team b gets a touch, the ball has to go all the way back to the keeper before they can start their pass count again.
 
if its so one sided , pull as many players as you can, demand so many touches from your players prior to advancing, ultimately pull your goalie....
22-0 is a tough loss , and totally uncalled for......even if the team is not up to par , playing up in tournament or just not a good team......theres no reason for the score to be that high maybe 10,11......but 22???
A good spanking is always fun, but kicking and beating someone while their down is not part of good sportsmanship or how you should be raising these kids.
in the end this was uncalled for.
 
I've have always said that I would rather lose 1-0 then win 12-0 . ( and only partially in jest )
Having been on both sides nobody is happy or gains anything when one team is over matched.

And when the superior team starts playing keep away or starts taking turns having one player try to dribble the whole weaker team or some other variation , I find that even more humiliating and embarrassing .
If we are really serious about this problem , lets keep it simple and stop the game before it gets out of hand.

Perhaps for all youth games if a team goes ahead by 7 goals ( could be a different number ) the game is stopped . Nobody benefits by continuing to play an over matched opponent including when the better team tries various methods to stop or slow down the scoring. All that does is prolong the humiliation for NO GOOD REASON .

Even professional boxing has the 3 knockdown rule and the fight is stopped.
 
I was talking to my daughter yesterday about this topic and she reminded me of one of her college games and that sometimes it is okay to beat the crap out of the other team. She was a college freshman and in their third preseason game they played a team from Missouri that they beat the prior year 5-1, but the other team took two of my daughters team's players out for the season with a broken tib/fib and ankle. Both nasty intentional tackles. When my daughter played the Missouri team their goal was to get revenge by embarrassing them and running the score up. They ended up beating them 11-0 with no one getting hurt.
 
With only 5 teams in this age groups bracket it seems to me Pats and all their chapters could have offered at no cost or minimal cost to get (3) more 2009 teams so they could split the brackets into 2 tiers at a minimum. How do you not have your club teams support your own tournament?
 
My daughters a keeper and one game (U14) we were being blown out 11-0 there were circumstances that played into the lost injury, heat exhaustion.. The opposing coach never pulled back his players even when we were down to 9 players. When the whistle finally blew (thank God) I walked up to my daughter looking to console her and when I'm about 5' away she says " Dad I think that's one of the best games I played so far" it could have easily have been 22-0. My point being maybe us as parents are more concerned about the score then they are. JMO
 
Fair enough, but then the question becomes is what you want the winning coach to do, pull everybody but the goaly? What if the coach did everything humanly possible? To me, it’s more on the losing coach, either forfeit the game or call it at half.

I for one find it more insulting for the winning team to start pulling players. This happened to my dd’s back in the AYSO days and I told the coach to keep his full team in and not take it easy on us.

I agree with this 100%. It becomes hard when you start trying not to score and what it looks like to the other team. When I coached years ago in the u14 girls division we were beating a team 8-0 at half-time and when we started the second half we started to play keep away and connect 8 passes before going forward. The parents on the other team started yelling that we were just messing with them now and got all fired up. The girls got mad not he other side as well from their parents yelling. We had already rotated players from he front to the back and had all the subs on the field. However 22-0 is still out of hand.
 
My daughters a keeper and one game (U14) we were being blown out 11-0 there were circumstances that played into the lost injury, heat exhaustion.. The opposing coach never pulled back his players even when we were down to 9 players. When the whistle finally blew (thank God) I walked up to my daughter looking to console her and when I'm about 5' away she says " Dad I think that's one of the best games I played so far" it could have easily have been 22-0. My point being maybe us as parents are more concerned about the score then they are. JMO
Mijo, Really that’s a strong player and respect her for that. That’s a tough situation and in that case the other coach should have throttled back.
I agree with this 100%. It becomes hard when you start trying not to score and what it looks like to the other team. When I coached years ago in the u14 girls division we were beating a team 8-0 at half-time and when we started the second half we started to play keep away and connect 8 passes before going forward. The parents on the other team started yelling that we were just messing with them now and got all fired up. The girls got mad not he other side as well from their parents yelling. We had already rotated players from he front to the back and had all the subs on the field. However 22-0 is still out of hand.
Mija, I heard the OC Surf coach pulled all his forwards back and put his defenders and keeper up top! His keeper scored several of the second half goals! What more can the guy do?
 
There's nothing more humiliating that seeing that the other team is not playing at the maximum they can and still be losing. In other words, losing 5-0 to a team that is only passing and who has the goalie as forward and the shortest player as a goalie, etc., is not only humiliating, but disrespectful to the game and to the other team. Losing to a team who is playing to their max (or close to their max) 12-0 is honorable; it pushes the losing team to their top limits and every minute of the game they are learning. Learning new moves, new strategy, new ways to block, etc. You parents need to stop getting your panties in a bunch and just tell your kiddos that this is only a game and that they did great and to use everything they learned to improve, yadayada... At the end, losing 22-0 means you can improve that much, and would make it a bench mark to accomplish as a team.
 
There's nothing more humiliating that seeing that the other team is not playing at the maximum they can and still be losing. In other words, losing 5-0 to a team that is only passing and who has the goalie as forward and the shortest player as a goalie, etc., is not only humiliating, but disrespectful to the game and to the other team. Losing to a team who is playing to their max (or close to their max) 12-0 is honorable; it pushes the losing team to their top limits and every minute of the game they are learning. Learning new moves, new strategy, new ways to block, etc. You parents need to stop getting your panties in a bunch and just tell your kiddos that this is only a game and that they did great and to use everything they learned to improve, yadayada... At the end, losing 22-0 means you can improve that much, and would make it a bench mark to accomplish as a team.
Respectfully disagree. When youngers just try to play keep ball, they make mistakes, which ends up looking like a more balanced game. Every little kid knows when a goal is scored and it is black and white- failure/success- if you can turn the game into essentially a directional rondo, you've given everyone a chance to find something of value in the playing of the game, which is the point, not the scoreline.
 
Agreed. If you are winning by that big of a margin- it is likely that a handful of your goals came from ugly soccer. Not saying this team plays boot ball- but there’s probably a few fast, strong kids out there that were at a different level than the other team. Forcing those kids to think about passing first instead of blowing by the traffic cones on the way to goal can help overall development.
 
Just saw a girls 2009 score of 22-0 at Pats cup this weekend.
These are 9 year olds.
Clearly someone is playing in the wrong bracket, but come on?
Lots of discussion lately on inappropriate parent behavior on the sidelines. If there ever was a reason for a parent to lose it against other parents or coaches- I think this is probably the right time.
Just wow.
When a tournament is based on goal differential it opens up these type of scores. A simple 3 point system with various tie breakers (the WC had an interesting new one) usually is enough.
 
When a tournament is based on goal differential it opens up these type of scores. A simple 3 point system with various tie breakers (the WC had an interesting new one) usually is enough.

WC tiebreakers included unlimited goal differential before the interesting new one.
 
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