running up the score

[biittner77]

My son is in a soccer league for 7,8 & 9 year olds. Two of the teams are stacked with 9 year olds. Most of the kids on my son's team are 7. There are 2 that are 8 but neither have played before.

 

The game Sunday ended up 9-0. One of the parents on our team said he was going to say something to the other coach about not running up the score against an obviously inferior opponent.

 

Is it wrong to run up the score on an opponent?

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Not at that age. When I was that age or slightly older, when our team got up big our coach just told us not to shoot. We played keepaway. Even more productive is seeing how many passes you can string together instead of scoring. Just running down the field and scoring can demoralize the other team, especially at that age and competition level.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Not at that age. When I was that age or slightly older, when our team got up big our coach just told us not to shoot. We played keepaway. Even more productive is seeing how many passes you can string together instead of scoring. Just running down the field and scoring can demoralize the other team, especially at that age and competition level.

 

I agree. I coach elementary school football and we've been told not to run up the scores or else. One of the other teams jumped ahead big time last Saturday, so that coach had some of his other kids who don't play skill positions get in and have some fun there. The other team also scored once because of this and they weren't as depressed.

 

I think it's really wrong to run up the score with kids that age.

[Careless]

ok, I voted "yes, after clearing the bench" before reading the part about 9 year olds. It's fine in, say, college, where you need to get your players some real experience and it's screwing your team if you only have 1 quarter to get that in.

[imb]

I think it's worse to play a team that is just dicking around out there in the field, not trying. Might as well let your kids learn a lesson and toughen up.

[Marco4]

Which is the 'Yes - if Goal Difference counts' option?

 

A cup game might be harsh, but in the league, if there's two teams playing a poor team and one wins 2-0, whilst letting off, and the other 9-0, that's a 7 goal difference. The difference between a title and not a title.

[CuseCubFan69]

If my bench is empty no way do I stop the kids that have worked hard to play from having success. I do not steal but that's as far as I go. Also as IMB said, it's more embarassing when the team takes it easy because it's very hard to do it right without showing the other team up. You can work on certain aspects of the game if it's getting ridicules in soccer and let kids play different positons.

 

I remember when I was a kid we were playing a team and winning 31-0 after 3 innings and we all turned around and hit the opposite way. I think that embarassed the other team more than the 31-0.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

If my bench is empty no way do I stop the kids that have worked hard to play from having success. I do not steal but that's as far as I go. Also as IMB said, it's more embarassing when the team takes it easy because it's very hard to do it right without showing the other team up. You can work on certain aspects of the game if it's getting ridicules in soccer and let kids play different positons.

 

I remember when I was a kid we were playing a team and winning 31-0 after 3 innings and we all turned around and hit the opposite way. I think that embarassed the other team more than the 31-0.

 

Soccer's a different game, and the kids are half the age of your high schoolers Cuse. There are plenty of things you can do. You can tell the team not to shoot until they have X amount of passes strung together, or with their off foot, or at a more advanced age, to try and score on aerial balls. Kids at 7-9 are pretty prone to giving up when their hopelessly outmatched. Not scoring(or putting restraints on your team) is the sporting thing to do out of courtesy.

[CuseCubFan69]

If my bench is empty no way do I stop the kids that have worked hard to play from having success. I do not steal but that's as far as I go. Also as IMB said, it's more embarassing when the team takes it easy because it's very hard to do it right without showing the other team up. You can work on certain aspects of the game if it's getting ridicules in soccer and let kids play different positons.

 

I remember when I was a kid we were playing a team and winning 31-0 after 3 innings and we all turned around and hit the opposite way. I think that embarassed the other team more than the 31-0.

 

Soccer's a different game, and the kids are half the age of your high schoolers Cuse. There are plenty of things you can do. You can tell the team not to shoot until they have X amount of passes strung together, or with their off foot, or at a more advanced age, to try and score on aerial balls. Kids at 7-9 are pretty prone to giving up when their hopelessly outmatched. Not scoring(or putting restraints on your team) is the sporting thing to do out of courtesy.

 

I understand that CPatt. That's why I said to work on different things during the game.

 

Besides it's soccer and a 0-0 tie sends everyone home a winner so why keep score? :D

[treebird]

I think it's worse to play a team that is just dicking around out there in the field, not trying. Might as well let your kids learn a lesson and toughen up.

 

completely agree. i remember wanting to start a fight once in a game when i was 14 because we were losing by about 37 runs or so, and the other team was just out on the field screwing around and laughing and stuff.

[CheeseHead Cubs Fan]

That is what the Packers did this past Sunday, up 17-0 at half. "Hey boys, lets not run the score up on these Vikings..."

 

WHOOPS! A big fat 1-5 now !

[biittner77]

Which is the 'Yes - if Goal Difference counts' option?

 

A cup game might be harsh, but in the league, if there's two teams playing a poor team and one wins 2-0, whilst letting off, and the other 9-0, that's a 7 goal difference. The difference between a title and not a title.

 

In this particular case total goals doesn't factor in at all. Also, there was no bench to clear as everyone was on the field since both teams were missing players.

 

As far as not trying goes, I really don't think our kids would have been insulted by the other team not trying though I have no way of knowing for sure.

 

That being said I still don't know how I feel about that other coach. I wish that he had let his younger players play offense instead of letting one of his very talented 9 year olds score 4 more goals when the game was already in hand at 5-0. If he does that and they still score goals then I have no problem. Back ups like to score too. I guess the real question is it really any better losing 5-0 than 9-0?

[Careless]

That is what the Packers did this past Sunday, up 17-0 at half. "Hey boys, lets not run the score up on these Vikings..."

 

WHOOPS! A big fat 1-5 now !

No, that was just incompetence. Oh, and the prevent defense. I can't believe A) they gave up a field goal with 25 seconds left, and B) edinger kicked a 56 yarder

[BigbadB]

Depends on who you are playing. When I was in 6th grade, we played a basketball team that was more than twice our size. Big and clumsy. We were tiny and they met us at half court during lay up drills before the game and joked "where's your center?" It was obvious they had no respect for us as they laughed and joked before the game even started.

 

We ran a full court press on them in the first half and "if" they could get off an inbounds pass that we didn't steal, they couldn't get across the half court line. We were up on them by over 30 at the half. Me and another guy (pressing guards on defense) had more than 30 points in lay ups alone.

 

They weren't laughing at our size anymore. But, nothing would have pleased us more than to continue the full court pressure the entire game and win by an incredibly lopsided score and embarrass the hell out of them so that we could joke later "our center couldn't fit through the door, so he had to stay home". The coach didn't see it that way and not only called off the press, but sat us for the 2nd half.

[NCCubFan]

No, that was just incompetence. Oh, and the prevent defense.

Same thing. :D

[littleburr24]

Soccer's a different game, and the kids are half the age of your high schoolers Cuse. There are plenty of things you can do. You can tell the team not to shoot until they have X amount of passes strung together, or with their off foot, or at a more advanced age, to try and score on aerial balls. Kids at 7-9 are pretty prone to giving up when their hopelessly outmatched. Not scoring(or putting restraints on your team) is the sporting thing to do out of courtesy.

 

 

This is what my brother's high school coach would do (unfortunately he got a better offer by the time I was about to play for him). But he would have them make a certain number of passes, or he would make it so they can only score on a header, etc.