---
title: "Triangle Goal"
description: "Three poles make three goals and one neutral keeper has to guard all of them: move the ball round the triangle to the side the keeper is not facing."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/triangle-goal
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Triangle Goal

> Three poles make three goals and one neutral keeper has to guard all of them: move the ball round the triangle to the side the keeper is not facing.

U8 to U14 · 9 to 13 players · 25 × 25 m · 15 min

Also called Barrel Ball, 1v1 to a ball, Bags.

![Diagram of Triangle Goal](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/triangle-goal)

## How to play

1. Mark a 25 by 25 metre pitch. In the middle, put three poles in a triangle with sides of 4 metres. Each side of the triangle is a goal, so there are three.
2. Two teams of four to six, and one neutral keeper in a different colour who stands inside the triangle and guards all three goals. Nobody else may go into the triangle.
3. Both teams can score through any side, shooting from outside the triangle, below the top of the poles. Whoever has the ball attacks, and whoever wins it can shoot straight away.
4. After a goal or a save, the keeper rolls the ball out to the team that did not shoot. When the ball leaves the pitch, restart with a pass or a dribble in from where it went out.
5. Play rounds of 4 minutes. After each round, one player swaps with the keeper and the old keeper joins that player's team. With more than 13 players, set up a second pitch.

## The decision it trains

One keeper cannot face three goals at once. Whichever side the ball is on, the keeper turns to face it, and the side behind them opens up. So the player on the ball has a choice: shoot now through the side in front, where the keeper is waiting, or pass round the triangle to a teammate at an open side before the keeper can turn. That makes everyone look before the ball arrives: which way the keeper is facing, who is on the far side, and whether the pass round is quicker than the keeper. With no fixed direction, winning the ball means attacking at once, so the decision comes the moment the ball changes hands. Defenders have no goal to stand in front of, and choose between pressing the ball and covering the player waiting at the open side.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** make the sides of the triangle 5 metres, so the keeper has further to go to the open side.
- **Too easy:** make the sides 3 metres, or limit everyone to two touches, so the ball has to go round the triangle faster than the keeper turns.
- **Next step:** four poles in a square make four goals; two keepers share them, and the distances get longer.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "Where was the keeper facing when your team scored?"
- "When did you shoot straight away, and when did you pass round the triangle first?"
- "Defending, how did you stop them getting the ball to the open side?"

## Where it comes from

Triangoli is documented on mobilesport.ch, the Swiss Federal Office of Sport's platform for teachers and coaches, as a football exercise taken from its mobilepraxis series (issue 50, 2009). The page plays two teams of four to six round three pole goals with one neutral keeper, and offers four goals and two keepers as a variation. No source names who created it.

## Documented by

- Swiss Federal Office of Sport (mobilesport.ch) (Switzerland): Triangoli
- US Youth Soccer (United States): Barrel Ball, Triangle Goal, 1v1 to a ball, Four Sides, Bags
- Ontario Soccer (Canada): 1v1 beach ball!, Score some goals!!!, Shooting competition!, 1v1 to a ball
- Sport Australia (Australia): Skittle football
- Football Australia (Australia)
- FIFA Training Centre (International)

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