Playing Girl Teams

Hello All,
My daughters new team plays in boys leagues extensively, and while it seems beneficial to the girls game (and they often are the victorious) i have often wondered what the parents of the boys teams thoughts are on this.

My experience has been that my BB was afraid to touch the girls early on (u7-u13) and at U11-u13 the girls on average were bigger than the boys. The girls were always more physical early on so it was good more my son. At U14, all things being equal, boys dominate.

Pretty sure the boys dominate at u10-11. Some switch flicked at that point and girls could not keep up. But prior to that girls were better. Or at least as good and better able to consolidate talent.

As far as playing them goes, well nobody liked losing to girls. And girls had something to prove. Games a little edgier. But hard to complain about playing similarly talented teams no matter the gender.

But yeah u13 girls are big.

Once the girls hit about 15  the boys could careless about soccer they care more about boobs  . At the younger ages I agree with the other posters.

If you are playing a superstar girl team or superstar younger team, don't celebrate too much. You look ridiculous.

Personally I don't like it for my boys teams (U8-U10). They play different against girls teams, much more passive. I've seen it carry over for a game or two afterwards - certainly doesn't help in their development.

Can you imagine a boys team trying to play in a girls league? Why don't the girls just play up in age if they need stronger competition?

I've tried to get my boys to play "normal" against girls with multiple outcomes. First, some boys just go into a shell against the girls (won't play aggressive). Second, the refs call the games much tighter against the boys which adds to frustration. Third, when a girl gets hurt and starts crying it throws my entire team off.

I think in futsal it is a bit different as it is less physical and more technical by nature.

I'm sure it is beneficial to the girls and I've seen many talented girls teams. I've also seen many girls teams win games, however, I'd also say their opponents often aren't playing like they normally would against boys teams.

I remember when I played (way back) and faced a girls team for the first time. I think I was a U14 playing indoor and a ball found its way to me shortly after kickoff and I drilled a shot on instinct. The ball smacked their goalie in the face, blood streamed from her nose, tears flowed. I felt terrible and asked the coach to pull me from the game and begged not to be put in again. If it had been a boy I wouldn't have thought a thing about it.

Think how boys are taught to treat girls. Girls amp their game up playing boys, boys do the exact opposite in most cases.

I remember when SRSA 03G tormented the boys in TBPL, it was hilarious. Unfortunately some teams and coaches complained and on a few occasions even forfeited instead of risking a loss to those girls.

I thought that they were mighty impressive and had the same nutter parents as the boys which made the competition even more exciting since their fans were just as boisterous as we were.

My BB was shocked at how well they played, but he was even more impressed that they had their own digital video equipment and recorded each game.

I checked on them after reading this post and they are tied for first in D1 LHGCL in the 02 division so I would say they are still going strong (maybe playing in the boys league helped them more than we realized). NTX Girls Rule!

CoachPaul wrote:Personally I don't like it for my boys teams (U8-U10).  They play different against girls teams, much more passive.  I've seen it carry over for a game or two afterwards - certainly doesn't help in their development.

Can you imagine a boys team trying to play in a girls league?  Why don't the girls just play up in age if they need stronger competition?

I've tried to get my boys to play "normal" against girls with multiple outcomes.  First, some boys just go into a shell against the girls (won't play aggressive).  Second, the refs call the games much tighter against the boys which adds to frustration.  Third, when a girl gets hurt and starts crying it throws my entire team off.

I think in futsal it is a bit different as it is less physical and more technical by nature.

I'm sure it is beneficial to the girls and I've seen many talented girls teams.  I've also seen many girls teams win games, however, I'd also say their opponents often aren't playing like they normally would against boys teams.

I remember when I played (way back) and faced a girls team for the first time.  I think I was a U14 playing indoor and a ball found its way to me shortly after kickoff and I drilled a shot on instinct.  The ball smacked their goalie in the face, blood streamed from her nose, tears flowed.  I felt terrible and asked the coach to pull me from the game and begged not to be put in again.  If it had been a boy I wouldn't have thought a thing about it.

Think how boys are taught to treat girls.  Girls amp their game up playing boys, boys do the exact opposite in most cases.

Boys get a lot of advantages in life relative to girls, I figure can cut the girls some slack on this one.  

For our age, the only real time that the top girl's team made a huge push to play against boys is when they were U10....and thus could not play up against older girls.  So that made sense to me.  

Chances are the great girls teams are not used to losing games.  If they play in boys leagues, at some point, they are going to lose games.   And, as with any team that is not used to losing games, that may cause some people to act like idiots.  So there is that to consider.   That's not particular to girls teams, that's probably the case with any team that is not used to losing.  Can't think of any boys examples.   Maybe that is inevitable and a good thing to work out of your system at a younger age, so perhaps more unexpected benefit than caveat.   But BBs team quit playing girls cause the girls coach was an idiot when they lost.    

As a good general rule, if you celebrate too much about youth soccer against anybody you look ridiculous.  But concern about looking ridiculous does not seem to be high on anybody's list of priorities.   Self included I'm sure.

This is always a hot topic for the bored members. Personally, I agree with what many have posted: There's nothing in it for the boys.

I have to admit that after 40 plus years in this sport I have never heard a boys team get pumped up and go play in a girls league.

I do recall one game at Inwood several years ago when my youngest was U8 and a girls team showed up to play. My bb was like, what are they doing here? In the first minute of the game, a girl decked him and put him on the ground. He got up, shook it off, then scored 10 goals. The tragedy is that although he put up some good numbers, he was not excited about the outcome. There never was anything to prove.

To each is own, but sooner or later another overzealous dad will come on here, thumping his chest and talking about how his girl is beating the boys.

Yawn. Next.

My BB played on a 6v6 outdoor team that played against girls when he was U12, and the girls were U13.  We had boys with busted lips, bloody noses, and other bruises and abrasions because the girls played so much more physical against the boys.  And for the most part, the boys were initially very passive.  Then they got down right mad and started playing normal.  Of course it didn't help that the ref was also one of the girl's teams coaches.

I didn't really see any advantage for the boys other than they started passing faster to avoid getting clobbered.

Girls are always meaner than boys, that is why I used to love going to watch my wife play in high school, there was always a fight.