How 3v3 works
3v3 is fast, and most of it explains itself once the whistle goes. Here are the calls that make it different from the soccer you know. On the day, your Game Manager makes these calls on the pitch.
Kick off
- The game is starting
- Ball in the centre, each team on its own goal with a hand on the net. On the whistle, they race for it.
- A goal just went in
- The team that scored retreats to their own goal. Restart with a kick off from the halfway line, first touch backward.
Restarts
- The ball left the pitch
- The Game Manager collects it and throws it back in to the other team, from in front of their own goal.
- A foul or a handball
- Play restarts from the fouled team's own goal. The Game Manager keeps a running foul count for each team.
- A player is parked on their own goal
- There are no goalkeepers in 3v3. Nobody may stand within about a metre of their own net or park themselves in front of it, so the Game Manager will move a player who is camping there.
- The clock
- The clock runs the whole game and never stops. Play pauses to check on a hurt player, and for anything worse than a knock we stop and call first aid.
Penalties
- A team's third foul
- Penalty. Every foul counts, per team, and the third and each one after is a penalty.
- A slide tackle, aggression, or a foul that stops a goal
- Penalty right away, whatever the count. There is no slide tackling.
- How a penalty is taken
- From the halfway line, on the black stripes. One shot into the empty net, no rebound. Everyone else on the side bumpers.
- Something serious happens
- The Game Manager stops the game and calls the organizer, who is the official on the day and makes the final call.
- The penalty missed
- No rebound. It is the other team's ball. Play on.
Goals
- A shot went in from their own half
- No goal. A team cannot score from inside its own half.
- A knockout game finishes level
- A knockout game needs a winner, so it goes to one against one and the next goal wins.
- A player put it in their own net
- An own goal counts wherever it was struck from.
Squad
- A team wants to change a player
- Subs happen on the fly and the game never stops. The player coming off leaves as the new one steps on. Only players on the team sheet, wearing that team's wristband, may come on.
- A team has four players on the pitch
- Only three play at once. Four from one team is a penalty against them.
The sideline
- Where to watch from
- Please watch from the side opposite the Game Manager. It keeps the game being called by the person running it rather than by whoever is shouting loudest.
- Game Managers do not take sides
- A Game Manager calls the game straight and never supports a side. If their own club, team or child is playing, they hand that pitch to somebody else.
Questions on the day? Ask any Game Manager. They are the ones in the bibs, running the pitches.