1 each

[Tealeaf]

Remember that eye roll inducing bad joke? “I reckon it’ll be one each, even the goalkeeper will score”

That happened this morning in my County Cup game. Woefully mismatched sides, score well into double figures with the goalkeeper scoring the first of the second half. 12 different scorers all in.

An anecdote and a farce. Do think it’s time the cups were tiered at youth level to keep ties competitive.

 

[Gabriel]

Agreed. I had the same U16 side twice last season in cups. One game they won 10-0. The other they lost on pens after it finished 1-1. Quite the difference

 

[NoFoulsAllowed]

Problem with youth games is the teams completely change every year and they lose players really easily. So extremely hard to balance the teams as there often isn't a lot of time to get it right. I know some leagues will rejig the leagues after a few games.

 

[Tealeaf]

Totally understand the complexity argument. But in the last 5 ties I’ve done it’s been 16-2 (yesterday), 11-0, 6-0, 10-0 and 3-0.

Only the last was competitive. In my CFA - Berks and Bucks - at least given it’s such a wide geographic area I think splitting into two levels would be useful. Like yesterday I had a JPL side versus a Division 5 side and it showed.

Wonder if a split - JPL sides, “academies”, division 1 and 2 sides in the cup; division 3 and below into a shield would work better.

It’s what the largest youth league round here does for their league cup.