U11 Rec Soccer - killing mo

My child (10 year old boy) started playing soccer at 9, so is still relatively new to the game but he does love it. He isn’t an amazing player, but is athletic, throws out some well thought out passes that leads to goals, and has had a few goals of his own in 3 seasons.. (indoor/outdoor).

We joined a community/recreational soccer league and we thought the coach was great - he’s developed the kids into higher performers in just 3 short seasons. I do feel like the coach has been supportive and wants to develop the players and wants them to “win”. We have been with him for 3 seasons. Kids don’t always get equal playing time but all kids generally play. 2 or 3 weeks ago he was starting line but his time seems to be getting less and less.

A new kid joined the team this season and it has distracted my child, and he spent a lot of time on the side lines “goofing off”, in some cases we thought he didn’t get much play time because he was too busy being “goofy” and not paying attention. We had a serious discussion around not goofing off and mentioned that if he could be more in the game then he would get more time.

Fast forward to today at a tournament (just one day after said discussion), he put in the effort and successfully avoided the other kid who kept distracting him…..but was given 0 time on the pitch. This has never happened before, usually he’ll get at least a few minutes of play.

Well this is disheartening to him and also me, cause now what we say doesn’t have as much credibility. Reminder that this is community /recreational soccer, so while I understand in a tournament the kids want to win/ they also love to play. I don’t know a circumstance where kids should be benched the entire game in rec soccer.

What to do? Should we look for another rec league/team? It takes time out of our day to show up for him to not play at all, and I feel like it’s going to hurt his love of the game if he is just sitting on the bench. We aren’t looking for pro/competitive soccer - this is meant to foster something he loves to keep active/fit. And now I feel like this has ruined it for him. Looking for real advice - I don’t know if other teams will be any better but it might need to be an option.