---
title: "Any Goal Counts"
description: "Three against three with four goals and no direction of play: whoever has the ball can score in any goal, so win it, look up and go for the one nobody is guarding."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/no-direction
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Any Goal Counts

> Three against three with four goals and no direction of play: whoever has the ball can score in any goal, so win it, look up and go for the one nobody is guarding.

U5 to U12 · 4 to 8 players · 20 × 20 m · 15 min

Also called Beat the grown up!, Outside Goals, Multi Goal.

![Diagram of Any Goal Counts](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/no-direction)

## How to play

1. Mark a circle about 20 metres across and put four mini goals on its edge, evenly spaced, all facing the middle. Two teams of three, in bibs.
2. There is no home goal: both teams can score in all four goals, and nobody keeps goal.
3. The moment a team wins the ball, it can attack, in any direction.
4. After every goal, and whenever the ball leaves the circle, the coach plays a new ball in from the edge, to a different spot each time. Keep a pile of balls by the circle so play starts again within a second or two.
5. Play rounds of 3 to 4 minutes with a drink in between. With eight players, play four against four; with more, set up a second circle beside the first so nobody sits out.

## The decision it trains

In a normal game, a player who wins the ball first has to turn towards the goal they attack. Here the nearest goal may be behind them or beside them, so the first job after winning it is to look up: which goal is closest, and which one has no defender near it? Three defenders cannot guard four goals, so there is almost always an open one, and the choice is between dribbling at it and passing to a teammate who is nearer. The team without the ball has to decide who goes to the ball and who drops back to cover the goals closest to it. And because the ball changes hands all the time, everyone switches between attacking and defending in a second.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** add a fifth goal, or play two against two, so every child gets more of the ball.
- **Too easy:** take one goal away and play on three, or give each team two goals of its own to defend, which brings a direction back.
- **Older players:** swap the mini goals for five gates of two cones, 3 metres wide, spread around a square of about 25 by 25 metres. A goal is a dribble through any gate, or a pass through it to a teammate on the other side.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "When you won the ball, how did you choose which goal to go for?"
- "How could you tell which goal nobody was guarding?"
- "When the other team had the ball, who went to the ball and who looked after the goals? How did you decide?"

## Where it comes from

Several sources document it. The South Baden FA (Südbadischer Fußball-Verband) uses it in its children's training sheets from under 7 to under 11, dressed up as a wizards' game: "Zauberer: Kugel-Spiel" or "Kugel-Fußball" (the magic ball game) and "Zauberer: Bäume-Spiel" (the trees game), three against three on four mini goals in a circle 20 metres across, with both teams allowed to score in all of them. Its under 11 sheets also play it on cone and pole gates. The Hamburg FA's training proposals for its youngest players have 2v2 or 3v3 on every target in the field as the game in a session called "Super Mario sammelt Münzen", which the sheet credits to three Hamburg coaches. US Youth Soccer's Skills School manual calls it "Outside Goals", PA West Soccer's U10 module has a dribbling version called "Multi Goal", and Football Australia's National Football Curriculum plays a 4v4 with five gates. No source names who created the game itself.

## Documented by

- German regional FAs (Bavaria, Hamburg, South Baden) (Germany): Zauberer: Kugel-Fußball, Kugel-Spiel, Zauberer: Bäume-Spiel, 3-Pässe-Torfarben-Spiel, 3-Tore-Sieger
- US Youth Soccer (United States): Outside Goals
- Football Australia (Australia)
- PA West Soccer (United States): Multi Goal
- FIFA Training Centre (International)
- Ontario Soccer (Canada): Beat the grown up!

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