🏆 Not everyone plays everyone in the pool

Not everyone plays everyone in the pool

Sometimes there is not enough time or not enough fields to let every team play all the other teams in its pool. The Number of matches in the pool phase setting decides how many matches every team plays in the pool phase: when generating, as many round-robin rounds are scheduled as it takes for every team to reach that number. Empty or 0 = everyone plays everyone. Fill in more than a full round-robin and return matches are added, with home and away swapped — see Scheduling matches under Schema (schedule).

You will find the field at the top of the Schema (schedule) tab, in the settings card. With more than one category it sits in the Time settings per category block — so the U7 can play two matches while the U9 completes its full pool.

How many matches is that?

In a pool of 4, everyone against everyone means 3 matches per team: 3 rounds, 6 matches per pool. Fill in 2 and 4 matches per pool remain, with every team facing 2 of the 3 other teams. Every team plays the same number of matches and never meets the same opponent twice.

An odd pool: in a pool with an odd number of teams, one team always sits out each round. Every team still ends up on exactly the same number of matches, but it takes one round more: 2 matches per team in a pool of 5 gives 5 matches across 3 rounds, the last of which holds just one.

Example: 8 teams, 2 pools, 2 matches per team, then cross-pool finals

A frequently requested format: 8 teams in 2 pools of 4, every team plays 2 matches in its own pool, and then the winner of pool A and the winner of pool B play the final, the two runners-up play for 3rd–4th, and so on. Here is how to set it up:

1. Get your 8 teams ready on the Deelnemers (participants) tab.
2. Go to Indeling (layout). If the category has no structure yet, pick the format card Group stage and placement matches; otherwise click ↻ Assign and enter 2 pools. You get pool A and pool B with 4 teams each. Want to decide who goes where yourself? Drag the teams into the right pool.
3. Go to Schema (schedule) and enter 2 in Number of matches in the pool phase. Nothing to save: the setting is stored straight away.
4. Click ↻ Generate / recalculate. You get 8 pool matches: 4 per pool, 2 per team.
5. Go back to Indeling (layout) and click 🏆 Add knockout (or ↻ on an existing bracket). The 🏅 Placement matches block sits at the bottom of the dialog: leave All positions and click Create placement matches.

The result: 1A–1B is the final (places 1–2), 2A–2B plays for places 3–4, 3A–3B for places 5–6 and 4A–4B for places 7–8. Together with the pool phase that is 12 matches. The teams are filled in automatically as soon as the pools are finished, and the final is always the last match. Only want a final and a third-place match? Then pick Up to pool position 2 — more about that in the article Placement matches.

Who plays whom?

The generator picks which two opponents a team gets: it takes the opening rounds of the round-robin, so in a pool of 4 two fixtures drop out. Want to decide that yourself? Change the home and away team on the match card in the schedule, or add a match yourself with + Free match on the Indeling (layout) tab.

The pool standings with fewer matches

The standings are calculated the usual way, and on equal points the tiebreaker rules apply. Do keep in mind that teams with only 2 matches end up level more often, and that the head-to-head result does not always settle it: two teams on equal points may not have met. So check that the order in Puntentelling > Regels bij gelijke stand (scoring > tiebreaker rules) is what you want — e.g. goal difference before goals scored. See also How does the head-to-head tiebreaker work?