I’m talking about a form of street football that would be mostly played among youth just horsing around and having fun. You could play it in a smallish field with some kind of ad hoc goal set up (t-shirts, chairs, etc.). You could play it in an urban environment … say in an alley or against a brick wall on an adjacent parking lot (you could draw the goal with chalk).
In any case, it would essentially be soccer played with one goal only. Perhaps on changes of possession, the new possessors would have to “clear” the ball past some line opposite the makeshift goal (cf halfcourt basketball). Also, perhaps one player can be an “all-tme goalie” (cf “all-time” quarterbacks in street American football).
The all-time goalie thing sounds like a fun way for an older kid or an adult to facilitate a game with young players. So anyway, how commonly is this kind of informal thing done in soccer/football hotbeds (Europe, South America, etc.)?
We used to play a game called “three and in”. First player to score three times gets a turn in goal, the “goal” typically being delineated by something like a shirt and a nearby tree.
All the time, everywhere. Even though I wasn’t big into fottball as a kid I’ve played 1000’s of games on streets and parks like you describe. Kids+ball = some form of game. 3 and in being very popular version. We also played a games called “names” where you kick a ball against a wall and call out the name of the person who next has to kick it against the wall, the main tactic was to try and get the angle as small as possible so the named player had a very hard time trying to hit the wall.
2 players or more could play “Wallie”, where you kicked the ball against a wall and your opponent had to do the same, without the ball touching the floor more than once. You could also play “Keepie Up”, which was a bit like tennis, without the net… and the court… and rackets.
We had a game similar to “names” when I was at school, except that we determined the order at the start of the game. One handy venue, as our school was on a hillside with the playing field at the bottom of a steep bank, was near the concrete staircase that ran down the bank - it made a reasonable-sized hard target. The idea was to hit the ball off the staircase and set up a difficult shot for the next player up - either at a sharp angle or simply at as long a range as possible. Whoever missed was out, last man in was the winner.
Another one-goal variant was that the scoring shot had to be a header or a volley, or else it counted for the keeper instead.
It’s played all the time. I have not encountered any rules re: possession such as you describe them but there can be some rules as to whether there’s a goalie or not and if there is, what they can do exactly.
I quoted the whole thing because that’s pretty much exactly how we used to play it. Small grass field, trash can is the goal, all-time goalie. Your team has to take it behind a line to “get possession.”
Agree with the other respondents, just wanted to add another variation, called “World Cup Doubles” where I live (but it doubtless has other names - why “World Cup”, I don’t know) which is where everyone plays in teams of two, shooting into one goal (with one permanent goalie who is not on any team). You can thus have several pairs playing against each other at the same time. However, more than three or four pairs leads to quite an unsatisfying game, as with four pairs (for example) you are essentially playing two attackers (the pair with the ball) versus six defenders, making scoring a goal something of a lottery.
You can also have singles, trebles, etc. of course.
Ah. My youth team always played World Cup at practice with a small goal (2-3 feet) made of cones. King of the field style, winner stays, goals had to be scored on one touch shots.
We play a game similar to these. Basically if you have an odd number (say 5 or 7 people) than you split into two even teams with one keeper. The attacking team has to pass the ball at least once before they can take a shot, but they don’t have to “clear” it behind any line after taking possession. First team to 3 wins and the losers janken (rock, paper, scissors) to see who goes in goal. That way the keeper is always changing, and the teams change up a little every round, too.
All the time. We used to play all sorts of games like this. Knockout (aka Wembley), headers and volleys, red arse, tackle and shoot (aka 3-and-in), doubles (tackle and shoot with 2 players in each team, one goal), etc.