Blowouts in Girls Soccer

[Unregistered]

Playing keep away is just as humiliating.

I was going to respond with the same, couldn't agree more having seen it -- keep away at up 6 will get you respect from the adults and anger from the players, scoring until 9 will get you anger from the parents and respect from the players.

[Unregistered]

There are many more lopsided games than just BB's games. Just because you have wood for BB doesn't mean that you need to take the discussion off in a tangent.

It is not just BB it seems cultural at EB. It's not good enough to win you have to humiliate your opponent and keep your star player happy by letting her score at will.

[Unregistered]

It is not just BB it seems cultural at EB. It's not good enough to win you have to humiliate your opponent and keep your star player happy by letting her score at will.

Some coaches want to be able to claim responsibility for a NT player or All American, etc. BB maybe falls into that???

[Unregistered]

I was going to respond with the same, couldn't agree more having seen it -- keep away at up 6 will get you respect from the adults and anger from the players, scoring until 9 will get you anger from the parents and respect from the players.

Totally disagree. The bottom line is always the score. There is a right and a wrong way to do. Playing monkey in the middle to embarrass someone is one thing but passing the ball around the field is another. The coach should know how to do it the right way.

[Unregistered]

Totally disagree. The bottom line is always the score. There is a right and a wrong way to do. Playing monkey in the middle to embarrass someone is one thing but passing the ball around the field is another. The coach should know how to do it the right way.

Coaches are so full of themselves sometimes. The egos never cease to amaze me.
There are only 2 reasons why a coach allows a team to run up the score.
1) He/she is not a good coach, either through improper training or just clueless
2) He/she has an axe to grind with the opposing coach.

Usually the case is with reason #1. But I recall one of my kids telling me that their coach said he encouraged the team to run up the score because he had a run-in with the other coach previously.

For the clueless, there are lists out there with examples on how to not run up the score and they take into account the classy way to do it. Many have already been cited. Keep away is one, but that gets obvious after a while. Simply pull a player or two off the field. And all shots must be opposite foot outside the box only. And for heaven's sake, give the other team a chance to possess the ball up to half field.

[Unregistered]

Coaches are so full of themselves sometimes. The egos never cease to amaze me.
There are only 2 reasons why a coach allows a team to run up the score.
1) He/she is not a good coach, either through improper training or just clueless
2) He/she has an axe to grind with the opposing coach.

Usually the case is with reason #1. But I recall one of my kids telling me that their coach said he encouraged the team to run up the score because he had a run-in with the other coach previously.

For the clueless, there are lists out there with examples on how to not run up the score and they take into account the classy way to do it. Many have already been cited. Keep away is one, but that gets obvious after a while. Simply pull a player or two off the field. And all shots must be opposite foot outside the box only. And for heaven's sake, give the other team a chance to possess the ball up to half field.

Yes, you can absolutely back off. And in a blow out, your studs should be no where near the field of play instead of padding stats.

[Unregistered]

Yes, you can absolutely back off. And in a blow out, your studs should be no where near the field of play instead of padding stats.

You hit the nail on the head. It's all about padding stats.

[Unregistered]

You hit the nail on the head. It's all about padding stats.

Unfortunately, when folks like newspapers pick all star teams and hand out awards, they look at stuff like that. They have no idea who the real top players are and can't afford to see them all, so they rely on stats to get them started. Stat padding ensues.

[Unregistered]

Totally disagree. The bottom line is always the score. There is a right and a wrong way to do. Playing monkey in the middle to embarrass someone is one thing but passing the ball around the field is another. The coach should know how to do it the right way.

You can disagree all you want and suggest doing it the right way will make all the difference (I didn't imply what you've suggested).

Is a coach playing some taunting version of monkey in the middle okay? No. Would that be sporting? No.

But to my point, it's just a fact that a coach can sensibly put constructive and challenging restrictions on a possession game so that the vastly superior team demonstrates sportsmanship (and gets some sort of value out of the soccer) in any blowout by 5, 6 or whatever (instead of making it 9, much less more) and that isn't always going to be a difference maker for those players on the losing end. Some kids (and adults) don't know any better or don't care.

I'm not suggesting the winning coach has done anything wrong or that a negative reaction to an effort to be sporting is an appropriate or justified thing. It's not. I've just had the experience often enough firsthand, where I've tried to make that blowout into a productive practice (it's not really) while treating the game and our opponent with respect.

Sad truth is, not every time, but enough, that some kids on some teams simply don't like to lose (newsflash!) and they don't like going down to keep away any better than when the team is "trying" (because they see it as a different form of humiliation perhaps).

[Unregistered]

You can disagree all you want and suggest doing it the right way will make all the difference (I didn't imply what you've suggested).

Is a coach playing some taunting version of monkey in the middle okay? No. Would that be sporting? No.

But to my point, it's just a fact that a coach can sensibly put constructive and challenging restrictions on a possession game so that the vastly superior team demonstrates sportsmanship (and gets some sort of value out of the soccer) in any blowout by 5, 6 or whatever (instead of making it 9, much less more) and that isn't always going to be a difference maker for those players on the losing end. Some kids (and adults) don't know any better or don't care.

I'm not suggesting the winning coach has done anything wrong or that a negative reaction to an effort to be sporting is an appropriate or justified thing. It's not. I've just had the experience often enough firsthand, where I've tried to make that blowout into a productive practice (it's not really) while treating the game and our opponent with respect.

Sad truth is, not every time, but enough, that some kids on some teams simply don't like to lose (newsflash!) and they don't like going down to keep away any better than when the team is "trying" (because they see it as a different form of humiliation perhaps).

Ok coach hope your Mia doesn't get her knee blown out.

[Unregistered]

Totally disagree. The bottom line is always the score. There is a right and a wrong way to do. Playing monkey in the middle to embarrass someone is one thing but passing the ball around the field is another. The coach should know how to do it the right way.

By the way, I should correct myself from the initial post -- I took "keep away is just as humiliating" as "CAN BE just as humiliating" -- that was my point but my initial response "I couldn't agree more" certainly wasn't clear, so I understand the disagreement. I made it sound like there's no right versus wrong difference in the approach of keep away or running up a score. I don't run up the score, I never will, but in being dominant over inferior teams, sometimes your efforts just aren't enough. It's not a good situation regardless, but that's a problem with scheduling sometimes that you can't control.

[Unregistered]

Totally disagree. The bottom line is always the score. There is a right and a wrong way to do. Playing monkey in the middle to embarrass someone is one thing but passing the ball around the field is another. The coach should know how to do it the right way.

You are wrong, the HS game is already chippy by nature, when
the teams that are losing will resent even a fair keep away game.
This is when you see frustration with leg-breaker slide tackles and heated shoving matches when the dominate team tries to take the ball into the corner in the waning minutes.

[Unregistered]

So this topic come sup every so often...and the answer really should always be based on the context of the situation. My recent example involves my son's new U13 team, now based on birth year, not grade like before which is what we are all doing now of course. New team, many kids havent played together before or much at all and teams really dont know what they have as yet. So in our first Labor Day weekend game, we were down halftime 5-0 and it wasn't even close, and we had one sub and kids were worn down from the heat. The other coach clearly played his weaker players more in the second half and they were not running up the score and ended up 7-0, could have been 10-0. But both teams kept playing hard, and the only comment my son made after the game was "I am hungry, can we stop and get something to eat". I think when it is done at the very young ages and intentionally done, thats bad sportsmanship. when they get older and both teams keep playing hard and one is simply much better than the other, the kids know it and it doesnt bother them more than a few minutes when the game ends. Just my personal experience.

[Unregistered]

So this topic come sup every so often...and the answer really should always be based on the context of the situation. My recent example involves my son's new U13 team, now based on birth year, not grade like before which is what we are all doing now of course. New team, many kids havent played together before or much at all and teams really dont know what they have as yet. So in our first Labor Day weekend game, we were down halftime 5-0 and it wasn't even close, and we had one sub and kids were worn down from the heat. The other coach clearly played his weaker players more in the second half and they were not running up the score and ended up 7-0, could have been 10-0. But both teams kept playing hard, and the only comment my son made after the game was "I am hungry, can we stop and get something to eat". I think when it is done at the very young ages and intentionally done, thats bad sportsmanship. when they get older and both teams keep playing hard and one is simply much better than the other, the kids know it and it doesnt bother them more than a few minutes when the game ends. Just my personal experience.

Well done by opposing coach

[Unregistered]

You are wrong, the HS game is already chippy by nature, when
the teams that are losing will resent even a fair keep away game.
This is when you see frustration with leg-breaker slide tackles and heated shoving matches when the dominate team tries to take the ball into the corner in the waning minutes.

That happens when you do the keep away wrong. If its done correctly like a previous poster said you won't be in those situations. You need to dump the ball off way before the "leg-breaker tackle" comes. When it's a blow out why are you still going so hard for the 50/50 balls? You sound like you're overly concerned about giving up a goal to a bum team. What's wrong with winning 5-2?