If you are being beaten 10 nothing at halftime

[AABestor]

What would you say to your team? If you were just outclassed in everyway, Is their any games or goals you could set for your team. 11-18boys soccer competitive. It seems pretty sad to have to set a goal for like 5 goals in the second half.

[Twenty26Six]

The score shouldn't even enter the discussion at this point.

You should be addressing the basic principles of defending that need to be corrected. Then, depending on age, give them a little rah-rah about pride and send them out there to try and hold the other squad.

[GKbenji]

Set some goals for the second half that have to do with things you have been working on in practice, that don't necessarily have to do with scoring but that can be measured. Put your focus on the process of how to play, and not necessarily the result. For example, some things I have used in the past:

* Make at least four good back passes (no matter if they were completed or not; the measure is was it a good decision?)

* Fewer than 3 unchallenged balls in the air (they don't need to win it, just challenge for it)

* Switch fields at least twice (count it even if you lost possession)

At the end of the game, your kids can come off the field and you can say, we achieved (or didn't achieve) X, Y and Z... without regard for the score of the game.

[HSEUPASSION]

"Get stuck in, hard"

[ranova]

I agree. You didn't even say whether they played well or not. The score is irrelevant to player development and you need to make it irrelevant to player morale.

[BigGuy]

What would you say to your team? If you were just outclassed in everyway, Is their any games or goals you could set for your team. 11-18boys soccer competitive. It seems pretty sad to have to set a goal for like 5 goals in the second half.

First apologize to your team for over matching them. So your going to over match them again? That's not good.

Explain it to me and then I give you some kind of answer.

So was it you were overmatched and you still got the second half to go. Well it too late to do anything at that point in time.

When you get to the practice field you address what happened. Then you work on individual defending and group defending so it would be harder for that to happen again.

Try not to over match them that badly again.

[Val1]

I would ask your kids if they had ever read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. If they have, they'll remember that some days just suck, and that it is best to put it behind as quickly as possible. I was on the tag end of a couple scores like this for one season, and I think I would have found the "let's measure success by completing three passes in a row" proposition to be incredibly patronizing. I'd know we were getting skunked and I'd know what the score was.

So, to answer your question, I'd acknowledge that your kids are having a miserable time, but that all you can do is keep playing hard and trying. Trying to frame "alternative measures of success" for demoralized people takes a long time. Unless this is an every week occurrance, I wouldn't take the time and I'd just move past it. Then, have your most fun practice you can think of next week.

[masshysteria]

What would you say to your team? If you were just outclassed in everyway, Is their any games or goals you could set for your team. 11-18boys soccer competitive. It seems pretty sad to have to set a goal for like 5 goals in the second half.


Welcome to my world. I took over a team of U17 girls in a town with a new program. Seven of the girls hadn't even played organized soccer before.

Nearly every time we stepped on the field we were outclassed. About three or four games into the season we were playing against the best team in the league. At half-time we were down 8-0. The first half was just awful, the girls couldn't maintain possession of the ball, we couldn't get an attack going for the life of us, the forwards were even coming way back to play defense because they had lost all confidence in their defense. It wasn't the kind of game we wanted to play.

Now many coaches see getting beaten badly as a problem with defense. Saying you need to shore up the defense and contain the score. I'd say this is a myth. No matter how good your defense is you can never play your best without attacking and good possession. (Check out The FA book on Coaching Basics for a chapter on what a successful team does. You'll notice is breaks down into attacking, possession, and flexible play.)

So, back to the story. I watched the girls walk off the field at half-time with their tails between their legs. It was terrible and I knew I had to do something to get them back in the game.

My half-time talk went something like this:

I pulled out a piece of paper and wrote on it: goals, shoots, attacks, possession, winning contested balls, headers, style/creative play and told the girls to forget the first half. From now on it doesn't matter how many goals they score on us, we are turning this game into an exercise in attacking. I told them we'd be keeping our own score, one point for each of the things listed on the page and 5 points for goals. (I outlined what I did in more detail here: http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?p=11851158#post11851158)

I then outlined some basic tactics and positioning to use the second half., including pushing the defense way up to and even past mid-field. They entered the field pumped up and turned the game around.

They attacked brilliantly and took control of the game away from the other team. Despite having a big lead and even scoring a few goals the second half, the opponent found themselves in panic mode for much of the game, not working as a team, but only as individual players. I forget what I heard the other coach yell to his girls, but I remember reading between the lines and hearing, "Oh no, we're falling apart!" (I gave my girls 10 bonus points for that because it was a classic.)

Despite losing the game by a significant margin (11-0, I think), the girls came off the field excited. They wanted to know how many points they scored and congratulated one another for their effort. Throughout the season they would bring up that game as an example of how they can turn things around, play well, and attack successfully.

We were also able to use the point tracking system to compare our progress from game to game.

I guess what I'm saying is twofold: (1) Turn a bad into a good. You as the coach have the ability to do this. (2) Good attacking and possession will make up for poor defense and ignite a good defense. I have yet to read a post on this forum that a coach complains about scoring 3, 4, 5, goals and their opponent always scoring 4, 5, 6 goals.

Good luck and keep us informed.

[AABestor]

We just ending up playing the best team in our age group during the tournament.

[cleansheetbsc]

"OK, second half, the score is 0-0. Let's see if we can win this half."

[saabrian]

"Let's see if we can win this half" is a little unrealistic. It's good if you're down 4-0, but if you're down 10-0, is any player going to buy into it?

This happened to me once and I simply said, "You know what guys, sometimes it's just not your day. We're not going to win this game but let's go out there and get a few goals."

You lose credibility when you insult your players' intelligence.

[cleansheetbsc]

"Let's see if we can win this half" is a little unrealistic. It's good if you're down 4-0, but if you're down 10-0, is any player going to buy into it?

It worked with 10 year-olds recreation players two weeks ago. Losing 6-0 at half. Second half we won 1-0.

This happened to me once and I simply said, "You know what guys, sometimes it's just not your day. We're not going to win this game but let's go out there and get a few goals."

You lose credibility when you insult your players' intelligence.

Gee, thanks for your vote of confidence. It means so little. Good thing I'm coaching dumb kids. They fell for it.

[bk4realyall]

this all depends upon the age bracket. I player-coach my adult team at a local premier level, and I have coached a U10, and a U14 state-cup level teams. I've taken just as many beatings as I've dished out. It's very hard to stay positive in that situation.... but the age group that you work with depends completely on how you approach it. 11-18 is too broad because the focus of the game for a 12 year old boy is "watch this sick step over" where as a 17 year old boy is more inclined to pass a ball. No matter the level, confidence is the key.

At the younger age groups I'd focus on smaller victories in the game such as winning 1 on 1 challenges, hell... taking on an opponent is good. "that team is one of the best in this league, and you're not even scared of them! You're taking them on like they're babies!" Confidence is one of the hardest things to develop in players, so doing it in whatever way you can is good. For the older age groups, focus on posession. They will be able to tell how good they're doing if the other team is having a hard time getting the ball. "Guys... that team was beating us 10-0 in the first half, and in the second half we controlled the ball just as well as they did for X minutes." Good movement on and off the ball is certainly something to celebrate. but help them out. Give the forwards a couple runs they could make to become more available. Encourage them to pass the ball back and not force it forwards. Stuff like that will help them build confidence.

[saabrian]

It worked with 10 year-olds recreation players two weeks ago. Losing 6-0 at half. Second half we won 1-0.

Gee, thanks for your vote of confidence. It means so little. Good thing I'm coaching dumb kids. They fell for it.

It may well work for younger kids. I coach 12 yos and up and it doesn't work for them.

Though 6-0 isn't 10-0.

I'm sorry you took it the wrong way.