What is the consensus on small sided games for the younger age groups? I have one who started playing 11v11 as a U11. The other is just about to graduate to 11v11 next year as a U13. As a U11 and U12 it has been 8v8. It works well and there are definitely more ball touches in the 8v8 games. I remember watching a team from the same age group play 11v11 in a local tournament (both formats were offered), and there was much more kick and run on the 11v11 field. On the 8v8 fields there was more ball control and passing.

I confess I have been pleasantly surprised at how easily the team has adapted to playing 11v11 on the bigger field during scrimmages and in a pre-season tournament playing up an age group. It will be interesting to see how the team competes against teams that have been 11v11 for a couple of years. When they played a team that normally plays 11v11 on the small field with the 8v8 format, they were able to out-possess the other team and generally looked more comfortable on the ball. Who knows if we would see the same thing on the big field.