Lopsided Scores

timbuck

timbuck

I was looking at some of the West Coast scores today because we have friends in various age groups (boys and girls).
I get that we are still in summer and some teams might not know where they belong, but these are a bit crazy.
They are playing 7v7 up to U10. Are these small fields and are goals being scored from halfway like at Surf Cup?

In Bu10 (07) Flight 2 the following scores are posted:
16-1
18-0
11-0

Bu8: 15-0

Girls u10: 16-0

Girls u13: 10-0
 
There was some bad bracket placement. WCFC is known for that, at least amongst the unconnected.

Also might be that these teams ate still so new and the age groups so messed up that it is hard to know how the teams will play.

Bad sportsmanship in any case.
 
New tournament rule -- if you win by more than 5 goals (or 8, or 10, or whatever seems appropriate for the age group/ability level) you get -2 points in the standings.

A long time ago I suggested that teams that win 1-0 get a bonus point, so that in a tournament where you get 10 points for winning 3 (or more) to 0, you would get 11 points for winning 1-0.
 
Here's what clubs don't seem to get.
At the younger ages, when you flat out crush a team and continue to pile it on, parents remember that.
The kid from the team you crushed might be looking for a new team in the near future. Don't be a jerk and they may wind up at your tryout.
My daughters team played in a coed futsal league 2 years ago. It was a 2 year age band. We were the only all girls teams and on the bottom end of the 2 year age bracket. There was one or 2 coed teams. The rest were boys teams. We got dismantled by a boys West Coast team. The coach was a complete ass about it too. I think the score as 25-2. Her team was clearly in the wrong place. He could have done a lot to teach his boys. He could have put his keeper in our goal (because he wasn't getting much action). But they were ripping shots from distance. And burying the rebounds.
I steer people away from them and I use that story as an example.
 
Honor, integrity and sportsmanship are not always characteristics of many of the soccer coaches I have seen over the last few years....
 
I remember the games, the coaches and clubs that did this to my kid, and that my kids clubs did this more than most other games.

So, yes. A certain WCFC coach that has been around is getting a taste, maybe not 10-0 but karma none the less.
 
Tim, I have to say I agree with you 100% about the sportsmanship part of it.

My child has been on the short end of a couple double-digit losses this summer, and a couple times I've really wanted to go give the opposing coach a piece of my mind (but haven't), as they have clearly done nothing to make adjustments in such instances (move players around, play more possession, etc). In fact, they've done nothing but run up the score and leave the lineup unchanged the entire game.

It makes me sick, honestly. I feel like a coach is a steward of the game and some of that responsibility transfers to the opposition in the youth game.

I'm proud of my own coach as in the few games where we've laid the smack-down on someone, he's gone to a possession-style play.
 
I've been on both ends of a lopsided game. It's not good for either team.
My girls teams know specific "codes" for when to back off.
-We'll make sure everyone touches the ball consecutively before they can shoot.
-They have to shoot outside of the frame of the goal (Anyone that scores when this is "on" will come off of the field).
- They can only shoot from outside of the 18
- They have to play (or at least shoot) with their weak foot

I know this is competitive soccer. But nobody's cashing million dollar checks at u11. At 4-0, if it is obvious we are going to have an easy time, we'll ease up and move players that don't score much into positions to try and get a goal. At 6-0, we stop scoring.
When we have been on the receiving end of a whipping, I make sure to acknowledge that they've backed off and thank the coach at the end of the game. (I know they want us to know that we haven't suddenly found a way to stop their onslaught).
Classiest team that was killing us- Kickers SC from Central Coast.
 
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Until tournaments stop giving points for a shutout then this will keep happening. Some teams cannot afford to simply knock it around, play players out of position, or any other creative method of limiting the scoreline as the risk of conceding a goal and getting knocked out or a lower seed hurts them.
 
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If you beat a team by 16 goals and still need 1 extra point for a shutout to get into the finals, something is wrong with the seeding.
 
Last edited:
ajaffe said:
Until tournaments stop giving points for a shutout then this will keep happening. Some teams cannot afford to simply knock it around, play players out of position, or any other creative method of limiting the scoreline as the risk of conceding a goal and getting knocked out or a lower seed hurts them.
Click to expand...

Shutout is something worth playing for. 12-point win is not.
 
ajaffe said:
Some teams cannot afford to simply knock it around, play players out of position, or any other creative method of limiting the scoreline...
Click to expand...
Michael-What-the-office-10400786-400-226.gif
 
You've seen ulittle games where a team is so sound in possession that they don't make errors at the back that result in chances for the other team?
 
ajaffe said:
You've seen ulittle games where a team is so sound in possession that they don't make errors at the back that result in chances for the other team?
Click to expand...

Yes, I have. But so what?

But even if not-- does fear of the opponent scoring really justify winning 10-0, 15-0 or by some ridiculous score?

And if you lose points for giving up a shutout-- is it really that much more important than grinding a bunch of 9/10 year old opponents into the ground? Doesn't that on some level make you feel kind of bad? Aren't there more important issues at play than just winning? If your parents/coach think it is all about the win or points, then they've lost perspective.

I agree that no parent of an opposing team will forget it, which could easily cost you in ways you don't see.

But beyond this, don't you have some greater responsibility to teach the game in the right way?
 
I'd go as far as saying that forcing your own team to have the chance at a mistake in your own defensive end will teach them a lot more than scoring a 15th goal ever will.
And - if your team only plays 1 keeper (which at the ages mentioned earlier isn't usually the best for development), your keeper is probably bored to tears anyway.
 
Lopsidedness happens. Should there be a mercy rule, yes. Should the teams who win by a large margin be punished for there not being a mercy rule, no. I've seen 30+ to zero futsal games, just sayin....
 
Play your bench, put kids that have never scored at forward while putting your top scorers on the bench or on defense, reset from the back every time you get the ball, really isn't that difficult to keep a score down even when one team is much better than another. Last year I coached an AYSO GU10 team, we maxed at 5-0, with strict orders to my top two players to not score. I like the idea of losing a point if a team wins 10-0 or greater.
 
In the futsal league my daughter played in, they had a man-down rule for lopsided scores.
If you went up by a certain margin, you lose a player.
If that margin increased, you lose a second player.
Keeps games from getting to out of hand.
 
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