Question about scrimmages. Should you scrimmage the team you'll be facing in an upcoming tournament?

Socal-Soccer-Dad

Socal-Soccer-Dad

Say you have a tourney coming up and want to line up some scrimmages to get competitive games in before it.

But the team that's available is a team that's IN YOUR GROUP stage at the tourney you're attending soon.

In one way, it's a great way to get a game in EXACTLY at the level you'll be playing at in the tourney.

In another way, do you want to "give away" how your team is before seeing them in the tourney? I guess that goes both ways as they'll be "giving away" info too.

What do you guys think?
 
Preface: I've never coached in any real competitive capacity; my experience is only parental coaching, and helping coach in AYSO.

I think parents with kids in club soccer put way to much emphasis on competitive results. For 99%+ of kids, tournament results are not going to make any difference at all, beyond maybe a little bit of "feel good" time for success. Individual players who are in the top 0.1%, and might get a scholarship to play in college (for example), will be scouted independent of team success. Time playing competitive competition is the only material things for individual player development and success, for the tiny fraction of players for whom that will make any difference at all beyond HS.

If I were a coach, I'd absolutely scrimmage that team, or any other close-level team, as much as I could. That's at least as valuable for the players as the game in the tournament (and maybe even more so). I think if a coach is prioritizing tournament success over additional competitive play time, they are not doing what's best for the kids in terms of development, and ultimately potential for success.
 
don't scrimmage the team your going to play , just set up scrimmage within your club with one age up , if you 2010 scrimmage the 09's , that way it can be done at practice and that's how a lot of the academies do it , starters very non starters works for mixing the two age groups two. You goal is to go into the tourney fit... its criminal that they play two to three games a day , absolutely stupid!!
So if you can condition your team so that their fit , you'll be in the best situation as players start to fade after 45 minutes imagine playing 3x 90 min games the same day ?? Wild that they do it
 
Scrimmage them. This isn't the world cup. Kids soccer parents put way too much emphasis on the importance of every little thing. In the big picture, it won't make one bit of difference. Get the extra training.
 
Our club did a private play date agianst the 2 best teams willing to play. We will see these teams down the road it was a good event. So yes play them now and you will be ready when it matters.
 
This one seems easy to me. If that's your scrimmage option, why not? You aren't giving up anymore than the other team is.

Both coaches will try to hide some of the cards.
 
In my experience, I only arrange scrimmages against stronger teams that are located far enough away to avoid the risk of losing a player to them.

I will consider scrimmaging a local team if my team is stronger and the opposing team plays in a lower level league. In those cases, the goal of the scrimmage is to evaluate and potentially recruit top players from that team.

However, I avoid scheduling scrimmages against local teams that are both stronger and play in a better league, as this could increase the likelihood of my players transferring to that team.
 
Tyler Durden said:
In my experience, I only arrange scrimmages against stronger teams that are located far enough away to avoid the risk of losing a player to them.

I will consider scrimmaging a local team if my team is stronger and the opposing team plays in a lower level league. In those cases, the goal of the scrimmage is to evaluate and potentially recruit top players from that team.

However, I avoid scheduling scrimmages against local teams that are both stronger and play in a better league, as this could increase the likelihood of my players transferring to that team.
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Unfortunately this is how I've always seen scrimmages work. Theres plenty of local teams to scrimmage but it rarely happens.
 
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