Soccer is the most popular sport for children in American as the U.S. Youth Soccer Association counts over 4 million members. For simple backyard games that don’t involve a full eleven on eleven game of soccer, there are several things you can do that make soccer enjoyable in smaller spaces with fewer people.
Cones
Cones make a simple goal. All you need is four, two for each goal and whatever space you need for a field. Simple games of soccer can be played with any number of players without a goalie since there are no true goals. When you can’t make it to your local schoolyard park with real soccer goals there are all kinds of fun things you can do with cones and some green space.
Simple passing games such as 2 on 2 or more complicated games with defending three attackers with only two defenders are all fun things to do with a ball and cones. You can even make up your own rules that are different from soccer such as no goalies, no offsides, and no out of bounds for limitless fun.
Target Practice
Passing and shooting a soccer ball takes timing, practice, and good aim. Even something as simple as a trash can, a pole, tree trunk, or a plastic cone can serve as a target for a soccer ball. Make a game to hit the target ten times before moving onto the next target.
You can even set up obstacles to get around. In order to make the ball swerve or curve around to hit the intended object, you can simulate a wall of defenders to bend a shot to the goal and hit a specific target.
Group Juggling
Juggling a soccer ball is a way for players to exercise with the ball that is unlike any play or pass you will make on the field. Even though juggling a soccer ball is fun, juggling improves coordination and timing as well as developing the right touch of pressure to put on the ball when you use your body to control it. Juggling involves keeping the ball in the air while you use any part of your body except your hands to prevent the ball from hitting the ground. Here is a video example here on YouTube.
Juggling in a group consists of standing in a circle as if you are forming a circle such as for hacky sack. Start with one player who can juggle the ball as much as possible. Then that player can pass it, in the air, to someone else in the circle. There doesn’t have to be any rules except no handling of the ball and it can’t touch the ground. You could enhance the experience by having an elimination system by which the player that causes the ball to touch the ground will be out until there is one person left.
