---
title: "Goalie Wars"
description: "Two players, two goals, one ball: each guards a goal and shoots at the other from their own half. Every save is the start of an attack."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/goalie-wars
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Goalie Wars

> Two players, two goals, one ball: each guards a goal and shoots at the other from their own half. Every save is the start of an attack.

U8 to U16 · 2 to 2 players · 15 × 20 m · 12 min

Also called King Louie, Goalkeeper wars, Goalie Wars Extreme.

![Diagram of Goalie Wars](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/goalie-wars)

## How to play

1. Mark a pitch 15 metres wide and 20 long with a goal about 4 metres wide at each end (pop-up goals or two poles) and a halfway line. One player in each goal. Set up as many pitches as you have pairs: everyone can play, not only your keepers.
2. Each player stays in their own half. Save with your hands; score by throwing, kicking from the hands or shooting off the ground, always from inside your own half.
3. Release the ball within six seconds of winning it, or it goes to the opponent. A rebound that comes back to you is yours to play again.
4. Games of 3 minutes, one point a goal. Then winners move up a pitch and losers move down, so every round brings an opponent of a similar level.

## The decision it trains

The player who has just saved decides at once: shoot fast while the other is still off their line, or set the ball and pick a corner. A throw, a volley and a shot along the ground each beat a different position. Then the roles swap in a second, and the same player must get back to the middle of the goal, read the shooter's body and choose where to stand. A player who rushes the shot often leaves their own goal open.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** shorten the pitch to 14 metres so every child can reach the other goal.
- **Too easy:** only feet can score, no throws, as in the Brazilian gol a gol.
- **Younger players:** a pitch 10 to 12 metres long and a lighter ball that may be rolled or thrown.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "After a save, when did you shoot straight away, and when did you wait?"
- "Where was the other player standing when you scored?"
- "Before their shot, how did you decide where to stand?"

## Where it comes from

In the US it is an event of the MLS All-Star Skills Competition, a feature of early All-Star weekends that returned in 2023; the New York Red Bulls publish youth rules for it with pitch sizes by age. No inventor is documented. Brazil plays it as gol a gol, where hands may save but only feet may score, Argentina as La Corra, and a South African schools coaching manual has it as goalkeeper wars.

## Documented by

- Italian FA (FIGC) (Italy): I Bomber
- Swiss Federal Office of Sport (mobilesport.ch) (Switzerland)
- Canada Soccer (Canada)
- German regional FAs (Bavaria, Hamburg, South Baden) (Germany): Pong-Ballschule
- Swedish FA (Sweden)
- US Youth Soccer (United States): Goal To Goal
- Ontario Soccer (Canada): The King Louix, King Louie
- Unicamp (Brazil): Gol a gol
- UFMG (Brazil)
- Revista Pensar a Prática (UFG) (Brazil): gol-a-gol
- EFDeportes (Argentina): La Corra
- Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil)
- New York Red Bulls Academy (United States): Goalie Wars
- Sports Illustrated (United States)
- Fox Soccer Academy (United States): Goalie Wars Extreme
- Discovery Vitality Schools (South Africa): Goalkeeper wars
- World Class Coaching (United States): Goalie wars

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