Coach should always put together the strongest team possible in my opinion.Especially later ages

U14 is development.

Develop in training. Win games by playing the individuals who have developed the best in training. As long as the kids/parents know why they are not getting playing time then I say play the games to win.

Development, but start to introduce the concept of earning starting lineup positions and increased play time based on performance, committment and work ethic. The reality is at high school ages and beyond, it is all about performance, but U14 is meaningless. No one cares what you won on your club, town or middle school team at U14. It's like middle school academics: colleges don't care what you got for grades in 8th grade so you get a mulligan in 9th. However, 8th grade helps set the foundation for high school so focus on "development" and you hopefully will be prepared.

What a great, and thoughtful, post. Thank you.

If you aren't developed by 14, time to take up lacrosse

Maybe for girls as they are near done growing and have likely gone through puberty, but not for boys.

Physical development does not equal technical soccer development

The bigger the hips the more they whip

You are clearly not a coach needing wins to attract kids to your club. Select the big fast ones, bang balls over the top and defend with 9 behind the ball. Success with only a couple hour long practices a week, so you can coach multiple teams and earn multiple paychecks. As long as we win it's a win, win, win. Club happy. Coach happy. Parents happy.

Development in the term used for sales to parents. As a country we are so fractured and need to become one. Way too many leagues/clubs/organizations.

Interesting thread.

By U14, IMHO, if your coach is telling you that they are not concerned with wins and more concerned with development, then you're being conned. I coach a winning team. But now that my team is at the end of U16, most of the kids are losing interest in soccer and this will likely be our last year. So when do the kids get to win if their coach isn't concerned about winning at U14? U15 and U16 only?

Here's a secret. Kids know if they are on a losing team. And so do the parents. And if a coach doesn't have a winning track record, then the parents will find a coach who does.

Practice is for practice. But games are not for practice...they are for winning (or at least trying to win).

A couple of posts earlier, a fellow mentioned how sad it was that some teams will boot the ball up the field and then defend with 9. While true, an equally sad thing is the team that constantly tries to play it out of the back and loses the ball. The team that uses such a formulaic approach to scoring that midfielders will elect not to take an obvious, open, shot at goal because they're so programmed to get the ball to the forwards that they don't recognize a scoring opportunity. And the coach is OK with that because this is development???

At the college and professional level, teams play to win. If your kid is going to prepare to play at the level, they need to learn how to win. They need to train to win. They need to understand that winning may only happen if they take a chance up front. They need to understand that even in the Premier league, players will boot the ball up the field in a bid to win a game. Our kids need to learn what really works, and what doesn't. How else are they going to develop judgment appropriate for playing at the next level if they don't try to win, and sharpen their skills at recognizing opportunity?

Save the practice for practice. Saturday is time to win.

We play on Sunday, Townie. Enjoy your last year of boot-n-scoot. Maybe you'll get into the mtocs this year.

This is a good example of why US soccer "development" lags behind the rest of the world. A coach who obviously doesn't understand what development is or how to properly implement it. If you play all your games to win, 50% of your roster won't get much, if any play time. You'll start and play your "starters" and those on the bench will lose out on the opportunity to implement in a game, under pressure, what was learned in practice. You do this because every team has a skill and athleticism slant and you want to win, so you play your best. Do this at u13/14, when most players are making the adjustment to 11v11 and your bench falls behind further. Lavish your attention on those who had early growth spurts and you hurt those who could develop into strong players in high school.

Focus on the win and players won't take chances as they will be afraid of making mistakes. Soccer is a creative game, not formulaic, but coaches distill the game into simple passing drills and never coach the players on what those passing drills really are: patterns that you may see in a game. The questionof whether to play direct or a more possessive build up style shouldn't be dictated by a desire to win, but by a players understanding of the field before them and where all the pieces are. Do we have a speed/skill advantage up front? Is the back line pushed up high to give us the space to run on the ball? Is there a weakness we can exploit in communication/skill/reactions? We don't teach our players these things and because it's "win at all costs", we don't allow them the flexability to test and be creative. We yell and bark when a player "makes a mistake". We don't build up confidence to allow them to learn, even in a game. We want results. Guess what? They aren't adults and they aren't professionals. They are learning, and holding them completely accountable to the result is the antithesis to true development.

Too many coaches with a poor understanding of the game, youth development methodology and adolescent growth and development. Too focussed on results too early because it isn't about the players and the process to those coaches, it is about their record. My advice to parents is if the coach is focussed on winning games over playing all their players equally, yelling at players when they make mistakes instead of allowing players the opportunity to be creative and make mistakes in the process, especially under u14, where games are meaningless, find another coach/team/club.