Blowouts

Woodwork

SILVER ELITE
Saw a CSL G07 team blew out another team 17-0 last weekend. What is the worst blowout you've ever seen?
 
Wow. 17-0. I've never seen that before. What is the point? Worst I've ever seen is 12-0 during a tournament. League play coaches usually play keep away before it hits double digits. Especially at that young of an age.
 
I just checked the schedule again and, not only did my eyes not deceive me on the 17-0, but there was another team blowing out their G07 opponent in the same group 12-1. Is the goals differential tie-breaker causing nuclear proliferation?
 
Scores that lopsided have to be a result of poor bracketing or seeding choices by the league or the coaches. Obviously, those two teams shouldn't be competing against each other. Could be that the losing team's coach thought they were better than they were, or the winning team's coach sandbagged to get in a lower division? Years ago, my daughter's brand new U11 bronze club team played in a local city league during the summer against U13 teams some were silver elite and in one case gold. We got crushed by double digits multiple times. I think the worst was maybe 15 to 0. And it was demoralizing. But honestly, I felt bad for the winning teams, too. After the 5th or 6th goal, they weren't having any fun either cause it was just too easy and clearly they weren't any better off for the experience. In some ways, as a parent, I was angrier when they played keep away, because it was like they were toying with the weaker team by showing them that they couldn't even touch the ball. At least when the other team was scoring, our defenders and keeper were getting a work out. When they played keep away, our girls would just end up standing around, exhausted from chasing the ball. So there's really no good way to handle a mismatch that big.
 
My bad. I missed in the OP that this was U7, so I guess there probably aren't many options for knowing where to bracket them because they are probably all new teams, and only two choices. I wonder if the new small sided rules make it easier to get results like this?
 
Mystery Train, it is actually G07, so Under 10. Certainly mismatch has something to do with it, but that explains maybe 8-10 goals. After that, someone is making a decision as to how this is going to be handled and the score will reflect that. Somehow, most other teams have kept it under 12. I've seen a "blowout" defined as a 5-goal difference. 17 goals is the highest I've ever seen. If you were to draw a line where you changed strategies, how many goals ahead are you before you make that call?
 
If I had a magic wand and could change one thing about youth soccer, it would be allowing a coach a "Time Out" once per half if they are losing by more than 4 goals.
Sometimes you can make a few changes. Sometimes you can give a little advice. And sometimes you just give the kids a "play your hardest, don't worry about the score. Your parents still love you."
 
When they played keep away, our girls would just end up standing around, exhausted from chasing the ball. So there's really no good way to handle a mismatch that big.

Sounds like the coach could have thrown in the towel? I don't think parents on either side would of had a problem with that...
 
Unfortunately blowouts at U8-U10 are very common. Some teams are just very good, and some should be still playing Rec soccer. Many parents are delusional about their kid playing ability and crook coaches are capitalizing on this. Leagues on the other hand should do better job placing and bracketing teams. In SCDSL there is flight 1, 2 and 3 at U8-10, in CSL it's only Bronze for girls at this age, so there is more blowouts in CSL.
 
If you were to draw a line where you changed strategies, how many goals ahead are you before you make that call?

Ok, yeah, the whole U-age and calendar year thing is screwing with me. Under 10, got it. I agree with you totally about changing strategies. When it happened to us, I thought about what I'd do differently if I was a coach of a team that was blowing out an overmatched opponent. For me, if it is clear the other team can't possibly score on us, I'd try to stop them from shooting after 5 or 6. And that's maybe too much already. We had a coach who instructed his players that they could only shoot from outside the box after they were up 4-0 within the first 20 minutes. They ended up still scoring 3 more, but it was a much better game. There are definitely things you can do to avoid a 17-0 game.
 
Sounds like the coach could have thrown in the towel? I don't think parents on either side would of had a problem with that...
Actually that is kind of what happened for us. Our coach talked to the ref and they agreed to shorten the game. In our case it was an age disparity as well as skill, so nobody was too bent out of shape about it. In the 17-0 game the OP is talking about, I have no idea what the circumstances were, but it does seem that the winning coach missed an opportunity to show some class.
 
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So, are we just supposed to accept that it is what it is? Is 30 - 0 acceptable even if the coach plays the starters most of the game and doesn't run her team a player down to level it a bit? I have always played for coaches that would pull a player and let the subs have at it once it was about 6 up. Putting aside the losing team's feelings, are players able to feel good about being on the winning side of a 20-0 game?
 
I see who did the 31-0 and I can't say I'm surprised. The consolation is that they may play the G08 version of the G07 17-0 team, who may have to take it as well as their older team gave it.
 
In SCDSL there is flight 1, 2 and 3 at U8-10, in CSL it's only Bronze for girls at this age, so there is more blowouts in CSL.

So you could have flt 1 equivalent teams playing against flt 3 teams at the early ages? CSL doesn't have skill divisions at early ages???
 
So you could have flt 1 equivalent teams playing against flt 3 teams at the early ages? CSL doesn't have skill divisions at early ages???
With promotion/relegation, I think they don't believe any team can earn promotion so early. For the 31-0 team, in the G07 level I think their "A" team doesn't even play CSL because they need higher competition, which isn't offered by CSL at G07. With the birth date changes, CSL could definitely stand to change this, since each group is actually older than before.
 
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