Soccer drill · Small-sided games
3v3 to Wide Goals
The workhorse ending for almost any soccer practice: maximum touches, constant decisions, and a built-in reason to look up and switch play.
Why this drill works
Three-v-three is the smallest true soccer, containing every role and decision in the sport, and wide goals bend all of it toward one lesson: the field’s width is a weapon. Because either goalpost area can be attacked, crowding the middle stops working, and players discover spreading out not as a coach’s nagging but as the thing that wins. Touches per player run five times higher than in large-sided play, which is the quiet engine of everything.
How to coach it
Referee lightly and let the geometry teach; your interventions go to spacing moments, freezing play once or twice when the field shrinks to show the open far side. Keep teams balanced and games short with quick rotations so intensity never dips. Add simple constraints as dials, two-touch for dominant teams, a pass minimum against goal-hangers, and remove them once the behavior appears. The scoreboard matters to them; the spacing is what you are actually scoring.
- Ages
- 7–14
- Skill levels
- beginner, developing, intermediate
- Players
- 6–18 (ideal 12)
- Time
- 15 min
- Setting
- either
- Space
- 25 x 30 yard field per game
Equipment
- 1 game ball plus spares
- 16 cones
- pinnies for two teams
Setup
Mark a 25 x 30 yard field. On each end line, place two 2-yard cone goals near the corners, four goals total. Two teams of three; spare players rotate in every 90 seconds.
How to run it
- Each team attacks the two goals at the opposite end and defends its own two.
- Score by dribbling or passing through either goal below knee height.
- Restart from the defending end line after every goal.
- Rotate substitutes on a set interval, not on goals, so everyone plays equally.
- Midway, add the rule that a team must complete two passes before scoring.
What success looks like
When one goal is crowded, players switch the ball to the far goal, and defenders communicate about who presses and who covers.
Coaching cues
- "See both goals"
- "Switch it when they crowd you"
- "Spread wide, make the field big"
- "Nearest player presses"
Common mistakes
- Everyone chasing the ball to one side; freeze and point at the abandoned goal.
- Players standing in front of their own goals like statues; defending starts by pressing the ball.
- One player dribbling through everything; the two-pass rule fixes it without singling anyone out.
Make it easier or harder
Easier: Widen goals to 3 yards, play 4v4 so support is easier to find, and allow unlimited touches.
Harder: Limit to three touches, or award double points for a goal scored within five seconds of winning the ball.
Adapt it to your team
Small roster: Six players play 3v3 straight; with 7, use a neutral all-time attacker who plays for whichever team has the ball.
Large roster: Two fields of 3v3 beats one game of 6v6; more touches for everyone, and winners rotate between fields.
Limited space: A half-gym 3v3 with one-yard goals still forces switching; play shorter shifts at higher intensity.
Limited equipment: Only cones and a ball are essential; without pinnies, one team tucks in shirts.
Safety
Keep substitutes and spare balls behind the end lines, and enforce below-knee scoring so no one blasts shots through cone goals. See the safety page for general guidance.