What are the pros and cons of Playing a game with 3 teams?
The conventional wisdom tells us that a team sport's game requires 2 teams playing against each other in a certain amount of time. This has been going on for years and it is the obvious way of playing and determining a winner for a game.
In amateur sport, playing a game with only 2 teams has a lot of flaws:
- Some players have more playing times than others who stay on the bench.
- The games have a lot of boring sequences especially when both teams are tired.
- Players get complacent because they know that they have enough time to make up for their mistake or their lack of efforts.
- Weaker teams are easily embarrassed by lopsided scores.
- The winner of the game is known relatively to one opponent team only.
There is an alternative to that conventional game's system and it consists of playing a game with 3 teams.
That game's type is usually played in non organized pick up games when there are not enough fields to organize multiple games at the same time.
ShowUpAndPlaySoccer has adopted the system of playing a game with 3 teams in their Drop in Soccer league and it is a huge success.
3 teams of 5, 6 or 7 players each rotate every 10 minutes and the winner of each sequence stays on the field for a maximum of 3 sequences in a row. In case of a tie, the most recent team on the field stays on the field. In case of a tie in the first sequence, a coin toss or gentleman agreement is used to determine which team leaves the field.
There are multiple advantages of playing this type of game:
- A single game can be played with more players than a 2 team's game. This is a financial boost for amateurs teams, because with more players in the same game, the fees per player can be reduced considerably.
- The game is more competitive because if your team wins, you are rewarded by staying on the field and if you lose, you get out.
- Each team has 10 minutes to give its best and win and have a shot to play another team in the same game.
- After a loss, you have 10 minutes to regroup with your teammates, get some rest and come back better prepared for the next sequence.
- The entire game is never boring because there is always a new fresh team team on the field that wants to win and send their opponent out.
- When your team is out, you have time to talk to your teammate and get to know them better.
- This type of game eliminates the bench that usually frustrates a lot of players.
- If your team plays well and wins, you are rewarded with more playing time.
There is a real possibility that this type of game will be implemented in professional leagues because of the financial advantages and mostly because the game will be more competitive and more interesting.
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