What is an acceptable score before the soccer game gets "shameful"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whats bad is when your team is down 0-8 and the opposing teams parents continue to cheer each additional goal like it was a World Cup goal.

Yes. Over-celebration by parents, coaches, or kids is the only thing that can be “shameful” in a soccer blowout. Its not the fault of either team that there is a mismatch. I think it’s usually more respectful to the losing team to simply play the game the way you’ve been taught with no special rules re number of passes or other obvious artificial maneuvers. That always comes across as patronizing. Starters should absolutely sit for a while at a certain point, players should be rotated out of their usual positions (goalie should absolutely be getting field time) and shooting or passing with a non-dominant foot is OK. But I’ve been on both sides of 20-0 type games, and everyone is usually fine so long as there is no more than tepid clapping by the winning team after it’s clear to all that the game will be uneven.

If you are ever on the winning sideline in a game like this, my advice is to spend most of your time chatting with other parents and to avoid acting like you are avidly watching the game and glorying in all the goals. Admiring babies and dogs on the other team’s sidelines is also helpful. Basically anything that makes it clear that you are enjoying having an excuse to be social outside on a nice day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whats bad is when your team is down 0-8 and the opposing teams parents continue to cheer each additional goal like it was a World Cup goal.

Yes. Over-celebration by parents, coaches, or kids is the only thing that can be “shameful” in a soccer blowout. Its not the fault of either team that there is a mismatch. I think it’s usually more respectful to the losing team to simply play the game the way you’ve been taught with no special rules re number of passes or other obvious artificial maneuvers. That always comes across as patronizing. Starters should absolutely sit for a while at a certain point, players should be rotated out of their usual positions (goalie should absolutely be getting field time) and shooting or passing with a non-dominant foot is OK. But I’ve been on both sides of 20-0 type games, and everyone is usually fine so long as there is no more than tepid clapping by the winning team after it’s clear to all that the game will be uneven.

If you are ever on the winning sideline in a game like this, my advice is to spend most of your time chatting with other parents and to avoid acting like you are avidly watching the game and glorying in all the goals. Admiring babies and dogs on the other team’s sidelines is also helpful. Basically anything that makes it clear that you are enjoying having an excuse to be social outside on a nice day.

What do you mean? Each goal means we get to chug a beer. It gets better with each goal. Cmon man!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whats bad is when your team is down 0-8 and the opposing teams parents continue to cheer each additional goal like it was a World Cup goal.

That’s because the kids scoring are from the bench and Have never scored before

[Anonymous]

84-0

[Anonymous]

Growing up, you'd stop at 9 to not embarrass the other team.

[Anonymous]

There are ways to manage a team without runnning up the score. Give your goalkeeper field time , preferably in an attacking mode. Put your defenders as forwards or midfield and have your strikers playing defense. Defensive players get the opportunity to score and appreciate the roles of the forwards and midfielders on the team. Strikers learn to see the field from a defensive mindset. And of course, have all your bench players on the field. There is no reason to run up the score just to give lil Johny/Jill the opportunity to score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are ways to manage a team without runnning up the score. Give your goalkeeper field time , preferably in an attacking mode. Put your defenders as forwards or midfield and have your strikers playing defense. Defensive players get the opportunity to score and appreciate the roles of the forwards and midfielders on the team. Strikers learn to see the field from a defensive mindset. And of course, have all your bench players on the field. There is no reason to run up the score just to give lil Johny/Jill the opportunity to score.

I posted before about DD's first goal being in a blow out and us cheering for her. She's a GK. She obviously does not score very much. She takes PKs regularly and plays striker in blowout. Of course I'll cheer when she scores. If the other team can't stop a GK turned striker being fed by the backup full back playing attacking mid, then that isn't my daughter's problem.

[Anonymous]

Whats your thoughts in a blowout. When the goalie tries to dribble up field and score making more of an embarrassment to the losing team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whats your thoughts in a blowout. When the goalie tries to dribble up field and score making more of an embarrassment to the losing team.

You sweep the leg

[Anonymous]

14 - 0 - Good Counsel boys over Archbishop Carroll this season. Shame on Good Counsel coaches and players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are ways to manage a team without runnning up the score. Give your goalkeeper field time , preferably in an attacking mode. Put your defenders as forwards or midfield and have your strikers playing defense. Defensive players get the opportunity to score and appreciate the roles of the forwards and midfielders on the team. Strikers learn to see the field from a defensive mindset. And of course, have all your bench players on the field. There is no reason to run up the score just to give lil Johny/Jill the opportunity to score.

I posted before about DD's first goal being in a blow out and us cheering for her. She's a GK. She obviously does not score very much. She takes PKs regularly and plays striker in blowout. Of course I'll cheer when she scores. If the other team can't stop a GK turned striker being fed by the backup full back playing attacking mid, then that isn't my daughter's problem.

Eh, I’d clap politely but I wouldn’t cheer my kid for something that’s easy to do—which in this case, is scoring against a crappy team. We played a blowout game before and the coach did everything to play everyone in a new position. The kids who are usually very boisterous celebrators did not celebrate the goals but played as usual because the other team kept playing as hard as they could and continued to be cheered on by their parents. Kids can act appropriately in these situations so long as parents don’t eff everything up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whats bad is when your team is down 0-8 and the opposing teams parents continue to cheer each additional goal like it was a World Cup goal.

Exactly this. When parents do this, I tend to assume it’s because of their own feelings of inadequacy and need to live through their kids. Parents should be modeling good sportsmanship, which includes not gloating and basically taunting when you’re blowing out another team. I’ve been on both sides of it, and when we’re blowing out another team I always try to remember that each time we run up the score that much more, that may be a little more heartache for the parent sitting 10 feet from me who knows how their kid is feeling out on the field in the moment.

Be classy, parents. It’s not that hard.

[Anonymous]

Rather than focusing on behavior of parents, why not place blame on the coaches and clubs that run up the score?

[Anonymous]

You should not hold your players back from competing. However, putting in the reserves and working on aspects of the game that aren’t your strengths once up by 5 or more goals in the second half are ways to try to contain the score while still getting value out of the match. Most coaches do this, but sometimes the team you’re playing is so mismatched it doesn’t matter. This is why HS established a mercy rule. The youth leagues should too. Something like if 15 minutes or less left in the game and goal difference reaches +6 then the game is called.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rather than focusing on behavior of parents, why not place blame on the coaches and clubs that run up the score?

Why not blame the administrators who register teams in leagues where they can't compete?