Travel Run-Away Games

[Anonymous]

I think it's bad sportsmanship to destroy teams by that much and does a disservice to the winning team. IF they are not learning from playing in the games, the could should switch their positions so that defense gets to be strikers and strikers get to be defense so that kids understand the entire field. And yes, many passes helps the kids develop technically. My 9 year old team is destroying competition in Classics right now and the coach (a dad) just loves these high scores. It's not doing anything to actually develop the players though. I'm sure we'll be moving up a division next season.

[Anonymous]

In our most recent game like this, the coach moved everyone to their weakest positions, strikers to defense, left footed players to right, etc. In a game last season where we were on the losing end, the winning team's coach forced his team to pass 8 times before taking a shot.

I like that there's no set rule because it gives the coaches some flexibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it is happening a lot, you need to try get into a higher division or higher league. It's not helping your team develop.

This.
What age is the team and what league are you in where these kinds of blowouts occur?

If it is a CCL team, there is nowhere to move up for any of the teams, except at tournaments.

NP here. We are having this situation in CCL Next Gen. It is our first year in that league and it seems like a really poorly designed system, from the development perspective anyway. All the A teams from the different clubs play each other and all the B teams play the other B teams. Our son's team is a pretty good, but far from unbeatable, B team and they have won all the games by double digits. I think maybe there has been one goal scored against. Sounds like the situation is the same for the A team from our club.

Our coach has not made any adjustments yet though maybe he will later in the season--we've only had 3 games so far due to weather cancellations. He already follows all the best practices of rotating players in all positions, including goalkeepers, equal playing time, and stressing passing. I don't really love the way the artificial restrictions like taking players out or requiring a certain number of passes work out for either team (have been on both sides of this in the past with other kids' teams). You are not really playing soccer in that case. What I hope is that maybe CCL will be willing to re-balance part way through the season so there aren't so many lopsided games. Probably doesn't work with their structure of having two clubs' teams all play each other on the same day though.

I think it's entirely possible that our kids are on the same team.
If so, the schedule does get a bit more challenging, as we start playing the bigger clubs from here on out.
But yes, the beginning of the season has been painful.

I would like to see a set rule that when a team goes up by 5, they pull one player, and if they go up by 10 they pull another.

You guys must be from Bethesda, who have you played and Next gen is U9/u10 so scores aren't really important. It's important to keep your kids grounded because if they begin to think they are unbeatable, I can assure you some team will put them in their place. If the coach isn't doing anything, I would encourage my player to try something new, don't go for goal, try that move you have been practicing, try to see if you can hit the upper 90 from further out, etc. They can challenge themselves because pulling off players only punishes the winning team, they all end up with less playing time. I agree with previous post, put the striker in goal, center back in a the attacking mid. Let them work on things they normally don't do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it is happening a lot, you need to try get into a higher division or higher league. It's not helping your team develop.

This.
What age is the team and what league are you in where these kinds of blowouts occur?

If it is a CCL team, there is nowhere to move up for any of the teams, except at tournaments.

NP here. We are having this situation in CCL Next Gen. It is our first year in that league and it seems like a really poorly designed system, from the development perspective anyway. All the A teams from the different clubs play each other and all the B teams play the other B teams. Our son's team is a pretty good, but far from unbeatable, B team and they have won all the games by double digits. I think maybe there has been one goal scored against. Sounds like the situation is the same for the A team from our club.

Our coach has not made any adjustments yet though maybe he will later in the season--we've only had 3 games so far due to weather cancellations. He already follows all the best practices of rotating players in all positions, including goalkeepers, equal playing time, and stressing passing. I don't really love the way the artificial restrictions like taking players out or requiring a certain number of passes work out for either team (have been on both sides of this in the past with other kids' teams). You are not really playing soccer in that case. What I hope is that maybe CCL will be willing to re-balance part way through the season so there aren't so many lopsided games. Probably doesn't work with their structure of having two clubs' teams all play each other on the same day though.

I think it's entirely possible that our kids are on the same team.
If so, the schedule does get a bit more challenging, as we start playing the bigger clubs from here on out.
But yes, the beginning of the season has been painful.

I would like to see a set rule that when a team goes up by 5, they pull one player, and if they go up by 10 they pull another.

You guys must be from Bethesda, who have you played and Next gen is U9/u10 so scores aren't really important. It's important to keep your kids grounded because if they begin to think they are unbeatable, I can assure you some team will put them in their place. If the coach isn't doing anything, I would encourage my player to try something new, don't go for goal, try that move you have been practicing, try to see if you can hit the upper 90 from further out, etc. They can challenge themselves because pulling off players only punishes the winning team, they all end up with less playing time. I agree with previous post, put the striker in goal, center back in a the attacking mid. Let them work on things they normally don't do.

I'm one of the posters you are responding to, and have no desire to get into what club we are from or what teams we've played. As mentioned above, the parents I know on the team by no means think our kids are unbeatable or any kind of soccer stars, and no one who was familiar with our experience in our prior leagues or tournaments would either--we've been on the losing side of a blow out many times. No one cares about the actual scores, which aren't published anywhere. The question is just about how you can end up with an appropriate level of competition for all the teams involved.

In terms of sportsmanship and etiquette, I think the thing to do is follow the league rules for lopsided games, if there are any, or talk to the coach of the losing team at half time to see if they have a preference for how to shape the game going forward. Obviously, the winning team and parents need to to be respectful of the other team and not make a big deal of goals after the first few. It's harder to say what should happen from a soccer development standpoint. Our coach already rotates all players through all positions in games, whether we are winning or not. Playing time is equal. All players take turns playing in goal. As you mention, if you pull kids off, then that reduces playing time for the remaining ones. Requiring players to string together multiple passes x number of times before passing seems like it would be humiliating to the other team, and actually trying to count the passes gets players too much in their heads and not seeing the field. I think a requirement for players to receive or shoot with their off foot while otherwise playing the way that they've been taught has some merit.

[Anonymous]

To end up with an appropriate level of competition, you have to be in an open league with promotion/relegation, which would eventually place the teams in appropriate divisions according to their ability. CCL is a closed league so there is no surprise here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To end up with an appropriate level of competition, you have to be in an open league with promotion/relegation, which would eventually place the teams in appropriate divisions according to their ability. CCL is a closed league so there is no surprise here.

Agreed. As discussed in other threads on this topic, hopefully EDP can become a robust pro-rel league with convenient games if there's no chance of NCSL resuming that role.

[Anonymous]

There isn't a easy to fix this and has nothing to do with development. It happens in all leagues, open or closed. You play the team that's in front of you and if it's a blow out, the coaches have been instructed on different strategies to accommodate a lopsided game. Keep in mind, this isn't a pro league at if your club is in a dense population, you get a larger player pool, if you are way out in the burbs you may have a much smaller player pool and limited talent. U9/U10, I don't see an issue with what is happening to the OP, the coach should adjust the game strategy.

[Anonymous]

It happens a lot less is open leagues because they make adjustments by moving teams up and down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It happens a lot less is open leagues because they make adjustments by moving teams up and down.

Club v Club is just a different approach and therefore can't do relegation because of the performance of age group to age group. If there were a perfect structure someone would have implemented it. As consumers we have the right to choose and therefore if you are not happy with the competition you can move teams where they participate in a league closer to your liking. All this BS about open vs close is just an opinion. Our coach has 3 teams in our club and is excellent, if we were to go to a open league he would have to limit his ability to cover teams that could play in different areas on any given day. For us having 3 kids in travel, the CCL structure makes for a great sunday of staying in 1 local area for all the games.

If you look at the big picture, one can't deny that the CCL teams have had great success at all levels from State Cups - DA. I agree with the previous comments about using these blow outs to challenge the kids in a different way.

[Anonymous]

Have your team backup to the midfield line on goal kicks and tell your players that they can only score and shoot from outside the 18 yard box or whatever you would call it at ten years old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It happens a lot less is open leagues because they make adjustments by moving teams up and down.

I don't disagree, but I wish that happened all the way up and down youth soccer. DA, ECNL, EDP, if clubs had relegation and promotion all the way, it would create a better environment for everyone. But there's no chance that would happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It happens a lot less is open leagues because they make adjustments by moving teams up and down.

I don't disagree, but I wish that happened all the way up and down youth soccer. DA, ECNL, EDP, if clubs had relegation and promotion all the way, it would create a better environment for everyone. But there's no chance that would happen.

The word on the street is that boys' DA will move to a tiered system in the near future. I don't know if it will be MLS clubs in D1 and everyone else in lower levels, or a different structure. Seems like it could increase travel for kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it is happening a lot, you need to try get into a higher division or higher league. It's not helping your team develop.

This.
What age is the team and what league are you in where these kinds of blowouts occur?

If it is a CCL team, there is nowhere to move up for any of the teams, except at tournaments.

NP here. We are having this situation in CCL Next Gen. It is our first year in that league and it seems like a really poorly designed system, from the development perspective anyway. All the A teams from the different clubs play each other and all the B teams play the other B teams. Our son's team is a pretty good, but far from unbeatable, B team and they have won all the games by double digits. I think maybe there has been one goal scored against. Sounds like the situation is the same for the A team from our club.

Our coach has not made any adjustments yet though maybe he will later in the season--we've only had 3 games so far due to weather cancellations. He already follows all the best practices of rotating players in all positions, including goalkeepers, equal playing time, and stressing passing. I don't really love the way the artificial restrictions like taking players out or requiring a certain number of passes work out for either team (have been on both sides of this in the past with other kids' teams). You are not really playing soccer in that case. What I hope is that maybe CCL will be willing to re-balance part way through the season so there aren't so many lopsided games. Probably doesn't work with their structure of having two clubs' teams all play each other on the same day though.

I think it's entirely possible that our kids are on the same team.
If so, the schedule does get a bit more challenging, as we start playing the bigger clubs from here on out.
But yes, the beginning of the season has been painful.

I would like to see a set rule that when a team goes up by 5, they pull one player, and if they go up by 10 they pull another.

You guys must be from Bethesda, who have you played and Next gen is U9/u10 so scores aren't really important. It's important to keep your kids grounded because if they begin to think they are unbeatable, I can assure you some team will put them in their place. If the coach isn't doing anything, I would encourage my player to try something new, don't go for goal, try that move you have been practicing, try to see if you can hit the upper 90 from further out, etc. They can challenge themselves because pulling off players only punishes the winning team, they all end up with less playing time. I agree with previous post, put the striker in goal, center back in a the attacking mid. Let them work on things they normally don't do.

If your coach is interested in development in these situations, every time they lose the ball to the opposing team, they can play the ball all the way back to their keeper and start over--playing out of the back with short passes, 2-3 touches on the ball per player. Shots can be one-touch off of a pass only. This avoids "counting passes" and will actually require the kids to think and make good decisions.

[Anonymous]

What ever happened to pulling the starters and letting 2nd string play the rest of the game?

Or letting that kid who has always want to try play goalie for the first time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What ever happened to pulling the starters and letting 2nd string play the rest of the game?

Or letting that kid who has always want to try play goalie for the first time?

At least pretend to read the thread before commenting.