SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Boys Varsity Soccer At what point or score should the offense pull back, or should they?

As coaches and players and fans and parents when is a margin wide enough to start pulling back? Our girls team is a first year team and the margin has only been 10 goals at its worst and that was against Hilton Head in our very first scrimmage. Where is the imaginary line drawn? Remember the do unto others rule when answering.

Hey!! Well i have that Question too but my coach she always wants to cremate teams and score as much as possible but if anyone scores like 3 on there own she puts them back in defense. I guess it depends on what type of coach they are. But i don't like it when they score like 15 by the end of the game the game gets really boring if it isn't close. U know what i mean?

to whhs mom, are you saying that the a team should stop shooting? as a coach am i to tell my players to stop playing? i relize that i should sub, and i have in the past but is it fair to tell these kids who work hard and practice hard not to go out on the field and play 100%? how would the girls team at whhs feel if a team played keep away for the entire half in order to keep the score down. think about these questions and then reply.

If a game has gotten to 10-0, then the other team should back off. Our team does not reach that plateau very often, but when we do it is keep away. I know that this makes the other team feel bad, but if you can score at will, then the players are unfortunately use to it. It is a tough line to draw, but at some point the game needs to slow down. Has anyone considered calling the game after 10? I have heard that it is done in other states. Let me know what you think about this idea.

no not quit scoring, just give second string a chance to play, or add more touches before scoring. I would never tell a team to quit scoring all together, just not intentionally run it up.

I think a 10-0 rule would be good, but until that is something put into effect i think i have plenty of room to say that this is VARSITY soccer, even at 10-0, i dont think a team should pull back, at most, put in some of the younger offense that might need some time playing Varsity, but i dont think pulling back is right. If players "feel bad" or "get discouraged" cause they lose by a 10 goal margin, they need to suck it up a little bit, this isn't rec league soccer.

no mercy.

Keep away is wrong...there are ways to hide how you are keeping the score down....such as only shots from outside the 18....or only shots off of crosses....and maybe even left footed (right for others) shots only.

yeah, try to find creative ways of scoring. cause personally, i think it would be more embarrassing to have a team play keep away for 10 or 20 minutes and making the other team looks dumb. just stick the bench warmers in there and have them play.

The truth is racking it up is cheap. Its just a cheap way to get good stats for your offenders. And that ends up hurting both the offender and the other team. Once your past 10 whats the point of the match. Put in the second string and create rules for scoring: number of passes, blah blah blah. It isn't cheating the team thats winning. Its teaching them about respect. Like Coach Brown says "You can beat a man without taking his dignity." Running it up is just for stats and to make yourself feel better after you've been stomped by a team better than you.

let me get this stright, if i am on the 2nd string and i get in the game because it is 10-0, the only way i can score is to follow some rules?! what about the 2nd string kids feelings. he only gets to go in when the score is high and now you tell he can't play like the starters. thants not fair to him. let them play and the other team will have to work harder to get better.

As a coach whose team has been blown out on more than one occasion, I sympathize with you. Lou Holtz once told another coach whose team he had just embarrassed, "Its not my job to hold the score down, its your job to keep me from scoring." The best idea I have seen to keep players competitive but allow for continued aggressive play is to pull player off the field as the score gets higher. A team plays 1, 2, 3, etc men down as the game goes on and as goals continue to be scored.

I agree that running up the score is cheap. Scoring goal after goal even after the 10-0 mark doesn't make a team better. (as in it doesn't improve their skill) I'm all for putting in subs or telling the offense to only score on headers-I've seen the Chapin girls do this. Only scoring on crosses and only outside of the 18 also work well. These "rules" make it more challenging for the offensive players and I believe more fun and gratifying. You could also move offensive players into the defense and vise versa. If a player continues to score the same way over and over the game gets boring.

Also I feel that if a Coach teaches his/her players to "show no mercy" it reflects badly, not only on the team and coach, but on the school they are representing as well! I could never have respect for a bunch of spoiled-brat-sore-winners. Running up the score is like shoving the score board in the other teams face...really it sometimes gets childish.

coach j, I don't think you have it totally right. I don't think we're saying make the 2nd string follow rules. Its more like put in 2nd string or challenge the starters with more difficult ways to score goals...not both at the same time. Now if your 2nd string is good enough to keep getting more goals then you could try the "rules."
Anyway I think that's what everyone was suggesting.

ok, here's what my team does and i think it's what should be done...but first ok, my team really has no 2nd string, anyone could play for the next on any day and everyone plays every game even when we play #1 in an amazing game. But when we do play weak teams, we do have restrictions. We're never allowed to score more than 6 goals unless we're playing our rival (which by the way will never happen) or if we're in playoffs, (where 6 is the most we've gotten there) but from the start of a game against a weak team, we usually know what's going to happen, that we're going to dominate, and about the time we get our 2nd goal we know the routine. The rest of the goals have to come on a volley from a cross out of the air, or header, outside the 18, if someone gets a 1v1 with the keeper, they can't just take a clear shot but have to score by making a move or doing something tricky around her or finally if you can, score by flicking it up to yourself for the volley. Most of these things can be pretty tricky to get together and you can't really say it's easy to do. For our team it does suck sometimes that we can't score more than 6 cause we can get those things done and the games seem a little prolonged (don't we all wish we could have a competitive game EVERY time we stepped out on the field?), but mostly it does give the game a challenge. I know I hate playing against teams that can't challenge you at all. When the score is run up you still get no thrill out of the game. It's actually fun to yearn to beat every team 6-0, and look good doing it, making our plays beautiful. And actually if you really wanna treat a team, we often make the goals belong to certain people only. For example, last year we had about 3 people who hadn't scored on our team, our 2nd goalie and a couple other people, so we designated goals so they could have some as well. Now that got a little hectic but it made everyone on our team feel equal, and what most people tell us about our team anyway is that there's not really any standout from the team, we just all stand out, which really shows how well we've come to play together. And even for designated goals, you could have a game with birthdays of such and such months to score ya know, make it fun, and just work on your techniques. I don't know about your team but we dont' have enough players to full field scrimmage one another, so this is the best practice you can give your team...it's just way too easy to let your team just score. What are they getting out of taking on a whole entire defense. They're getting confidence where often times they shouldn't deserve it and in the future they're going to lose the ball to the better players they come up against, trying to carry too long...plus just show a little respect for your competitor. There's just so many reasons to hold the score back, I could really go on forever, and this is from a player on a team who's never gotten beat bad.

Hey guess what! If your team sucks that bad then they deserve to get DOMINATED. Why should my team stop playing just because the opposition just learned of what this sport is and that being "kick ball hard". We will take the field and annihilate every team out there who has no skill. We will play our starters every minute of the game and continue to pound away any team and will not give in just because someone from the sideline who doesn't play thinks "ohhh its unfair". IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT PLAY A DIFFERENT SPORT. IF YOUR A MOM THEN QUICKLY MAKE ME A PIE INSTEAD OF CRYING FOR YOUR DAUGHTERS. You learn from experience, and if it takes us owning your pathetic team then so be it. We will take your team to the BANK. $$$ $

Thanks captain moron! If you think "pounding away" some team is "what this sport is" then you're a complete jerk. Plain and simple. This sport is about competition, SPORTSMANSHIP, respect....etc. Running up the score has nothing to do with it!!!

Another thing- how can you sit there and completely disrespect someone?-especially your elder and a parent at that! "MAKE ME A PIE"!!!!!! I don't like to cuss-so right now I'm thinking of a word that also means donkey-perfect description for you!!!!
You obviously lack HOME TRAINING. If I went to your school, was on your team, or was related to you-I'd be ashamed!!!!

rsoccerhs3...are you actually an athelete?? I can't imagine a true athlete having thoughts like that! A true athelete knows about sportmanship!! You sound like a bitter bench warmer or maybe even a wanna-be player who sits in the stands...I'm sure the Riverside coach would not condone your attitude. Maybe you just made that post for shock value...either way...you degrade Riverside!

rsoccer, YOUR parents are obviously faliures for teaching you such little respect for your elders...On the subject of running up the score, however, if we know the team we're playing might not make it a very competitive game (first year team, etc...), we dress out all of our JVs and sub liberally. In high school you have an unlimited number of subs, so if the game is 8-0 in the first half, why not play a team of freshmen?

I sort of agree w/ all the ones who say keep on. The others are right; this is a varsity sport, high scores are part of the game, and a team knows the possibilties of a high score when they play another team. Our coach does put in second string when someone gets up to 3 goals and encourages those people to play as hard as they can; they've worked hard in practice and deserve a chance to show what they learned. There's no such thing as 'lost dignity'; if you played hard but lost by a large margin, there's nothing to be ashamed of. Life and soccer will go on.

all i have to say is that my brothers freind got on my sn on this message board and wrote this.. they think they are funny.. so dont hold anything agaisnt me.. sorry.. i swear i got mad at them for writing it~

Thanks, L-E Dude! It is gratifying to know you are listening. Perhaps, I needed a reminder myself. It may be the time for a "mercy rule" in soccer. Although, adherance to the ideals of "sportsmanship" would preclude institution of another rule or requlation. The ideals of "humility in victory and grace in defeat" are not outdated. I hope that we never forget that character education is an integral facet of sports.

well in my opinion i don't think any team should go doulbe digits that will make the team feel bad. if u play a team that is bad and u beat them double digits u should be ashamed of your team. even if the are the worst team don'beat them bad to make tehm fell bad well anyway thats my opinion if u have in other opinion email me peace out [EMAIL]kap526@aol.com [/EMAIL]

I think that a "mercy rule" could be more damaging than getting beat by 15 goals. If you get beat by 15 goals, you could find solace in the fact that your team "fought until the end" or maybe you get a break and stick a late goal in to mkae it 15-1. Or maybe your team doesn't allow a goal in the last 10 minutes. As the losing coach, you could then focus on that instead of the 15 goals. If there is a mercy rule, the other team will try and put 10 goals in ASAP so that they can go home. This makes the game a waste of time for both teams! Why do people keep mentioning a "mercy rule" instead of restrictions. For instance, after you get up 5-0 on a team, your team must complete 5 passes before they can go to goal OR all goals must be scored from a cross OR the coach takes out all startes and put in all freshaman, sophomores and less significant players. Just like it is not right to run up the score, it is also not right to ask a player who maybe has never seen the field to go in and not try for the sake of the feelings of the other team. If this is the case, when will teams with no JV get younger players experience?

If there is a "mercy rule" then teams will not brag about how many goals they scored but the fact that they scored 10 goals in 20 minutes and that they beat the other team "into mercy". Then what? Do we say that a game has to go at least 40 minutes but that any goal after 10 does not count? There is no fair way to contain scoring or poor sportsmanship except with coaches that understand how to properly implement restictions. If a player violates one of the restictions, then that player is benched. Teams are going to lose and lose bad in all sports. That is just the nature of competition. Coaches can use games like that as a "practice" by correctly implementing the restrictions system. This gets the winning team needed work and maintains the dignity of the losing team.

If you want a real solution, read Kyle Heise's "Proposed SCHSL Table Alignment" in the subscriber's section. This does away with 4A/3A,2A and 1A destinctions and makes four divisions that, to start with, are determined by winning percentages over the past 10 years. This makes teams play against teams that are supposedly equal.

The teams will sort themselves out over a three or four year period through a promotion/relegation sysytem.

One team has to win and one team has to lose so y is everyone worried about the score casue its not the score that matters its how well a team plays.

now i dont know if this is right and if it isnt dont want 100 ****y soccer fans on my back because i play golf so step off...an example would be rv and sv...they have both shared victories against one another and the region can be decided by how bad rv or sv beat another team or basically how they compared against other teams...so sometimes a big number has to be put up because last year when rv beat sv and then sv went and played lr and beat them 20something - nil incase they beat rv the second time around..is this right and if it is then that is why alot of games are the way they are

i think if you are good enough to score how ever many goals then u should donthold back when u feel sorry for a team. if they arent good enough o well

Sexual Grapefruit says Never Ever Ever Ever.

i say just go out there and play soccer that is what u r there for.

a team should never back off. if you are worried about respecting the other team the best thing to do is to play hard against them the entire game. what is it saying to a team when you pull pack and intentionally not score anymore? its like saying that they are such a terrible team they dont even deserve our effort.

I have the same idea as blazer. You should never pull back. Also on the varsity level you need to send a message. if or wheni coach club when i get older. Ill coach classic and that will be my theory. Beat the $(*^ out of the other team and send a message to others. Especially in tourneys, other teams try to follow other teams and compare scores to see if they are good or garbage. Alwys run up the score and look good. And the do unto others rule..... If you come up to another team that does the same thing and u get annihlated...then you have something to work on and you have met a better team. There are better teams in the state and nation, it is not like everybody is even. i had a game during the school season where we played a team. Where After we scored a set amount of goals we had to play 2 touch and use left foot and not score. If we got caught doing the opposite we had sprints at practice and that made me very upset. But my theory: SEND A MESSAGE!!!!