Originally Posted by Anonymous
Sometimes not "playing" the game as intended is more disrespectful to the other team. Winning by 20 will always appear to be running up the score, but you always have to consider the following:

1. Back-ups, bench players and junior players will always want to impress the coach, their teammates, friends and the other team (you would too). They should be told to slow it down, but they are going to shoot eventually.

How about some hard passes to the goalie, she makes the save and then you work on your transition and defensive game?

2. Holding the ball for enormous periods of time tells the other team you are pitying them (and that is far worse than getting beat badly).

3. Any coach will tell you that it is their defense's job to stop the other offense -- it is not the job of the other team's offense to stop itself.

So, is winning by 15+ goals bad sportsmanship, or not? Depends on the game, and the teams involved. I suspect that if a team wins by 15 or more, they probably could have won by 20 or more. If they were passing a lot, cleared the bench and slowed it down, then they showed good sportsmanship regardless of the final score. I am sure the losing team would agree.