You turn up to your seven-year-old's first game expecting eleven players a side and find four, on a field about the size of a basketball court, with no goalkeeper. Nothing has gone wrong. Small-sided formats are a published US Soccer standard, mandatory since August 2017, and they cover every age group through U12.
Here is the chart, what changes at each step, and which parts of it are rules rather than suggestions.
Why the game starts small
US Soccer gives its own reasons in the Player Development Initiatives, the document the standards live in. It lists four objectives for small-sided games: develop improved skills with the ball, improve confidence and comfort, develop intelligence with and without the ball, and promote faster decisions and better awareness. The blunt version is on an earlier page of the same deck: "Kids under the age of 12 don't win World Cups so we should not treat them like adults or professional players."
The document does not publish a count of touches per game, and neither will we. What it publishes is a shape: fewer players, less field, more of the game happening near your child.
The chart
This is US Soccer's Small-Sided Games Chart, in full.
| Age group | Format | Field (yards) | Max goal | Ball | Game time | Offside |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U6 to U8 | 4v4, no goalkeeper | 25-35 long x 15-25 wide | 4 x 6 ft | Size 3 | 4 x 10 min | No |
| U9 to U10 | 7v7, 6 outfield plus a keeper | 55-65 x 35-45 | 6.5 x 18.5 ft | Size 4 | 2 x 25 min | Yes |
| U11 to U12 | 9v9, 8 outfield plus a keeper | 70-80 x 45-55 | 7 x 21 ft | Size 4 | 2 x 30 min | Yes |
Two things to notice. The format is tied to the age group, not to how good the team is, so a strong U10 side still plays 7v7. And the chart stops at U12.
4v4, at U6 through U8
Four a side, no goalkeeper, no offside, and no penalty kicks. If a free kick is given it is indirect, meaning someone else has to touch the ball before it can go in. Opponents stand ten feet back at restarts rather than ten yards. Corner flags are not needed and neither are registered referees: US Soccer says the coaches manage the game from the touchline.
The parts that surprise parents most are the ones about structure. US Soccer says formal games are not needed at all at this age, and that playing at the end of each training session, one or two a week, should be enough. It says formal rosters and teams are not needed either, and suggests running the age group as one pool of players who get mixed up rather than as fixed teams. It also suggests carrying six players per side for a four-a-side game, so that everybody gets a long turn.
Deliberate heading is not allowed. If a player heads the ball on purpose, the other team gets an indirect free kick from that spot.
7v7, at U9 through U10
Goalkeepers arrive, offside starts being called, and the field roughly triples in area. Games become two halves of 25 minutes. A team may not start or continue with fewer than five players.
This is also the only format with the build-out line, and it is the rule new parents ask about most. A line is marked across each half, halfway between the top of the penalty area and the midfield line. When the goalkeeper catches the ball, or at a goal kick, the whole opposing team has to retreat behind that line before the ball comes back into play. The keeper may then pass, throw, or roll it. Punts and drop kicks are not allowed, and a keeper who punts concedes an indirect free kick. The same line marks where offside can be called: between the halfway line and the build-out line, nobody can be offside.
The point of it is to make a nine-year-old play out from the back rather than boot the ball as far as possible, and it is worth knowing before you watch a referee award a free kick against your team's goalkeeper for something that looks legal.
Heading is still not allowed at 7v7.
9v9, at U11 through U12
Nine a side on a field most of the way to full size, two halves of 30 minutes, and a size 4 ball still. A team may not start or continue with fewer than six players.
Heading is where U11 and U12 part company. Deliberate heading is not allowed in U11 games, punished with an indirect free kick. In U12 games heading is allowed, and US Soccer adds that its member organizations are "empowered to limit or ban heading at this level of play", so some leagues do. Your league's rulebook is the authority on that one.
Separately, US Soccer's Recognize to Recover concussion guidelines say players in U11 programs and younger should not head the ball in training either, and that heading training at U12 and U13 should be capped at 30 minutes a week and 15 to 20 headers per player per week.
11v11, which US Soccer does not set nationally
The standards end at U12. There is no US Soccer chart for U13 and older, so the full-sided game your child moves into is defined by your state association or your league rather than by the federation.
The ball goes up to a size 5 at U13 and older, and U13 is the usual point at which 11v11 starts, though that is a state-association convention rather than a federation rule. Utah Youth Soccer's field size recommendations, built on US Youth Soccer guidelines, put U13 through U15 at 11v11 with 35-minute halves at U13 and U14 and a roster of no more than 18.
That is one state's chart, not a national rule, and field dimensions in particular vary. Ask your league what it uses.
What is a rule and what is a recommendation
This is the distinction most worth carrying, because parents argue about the wrong half of it.
Mandatory since August 2017: the formats, field and goal sizes, ball sizes, game lengths, offside, the build-out line, and the heading restrictions above.
Best practice, explicitly not mandated, in US Soccer's own words: rosters of no more than 12 at 7v7 and no more than 16 at 9v9; no more than 20 games a calendar year at 7v7 and 30 at 9v9, and never more than one game in a day; two to three training sessions for every game played; every player getting at least half of every game; at least two rest days a week during the season; travel held under an hour at 7v7 and to day trips at 9v9; tournaments run without champions or placement games; and no results or standings recorded at all.
If your U10 team is playing 40 games a year and topping a published league table, nobody is breaking a rule. They are ignoring a recommendation, which is a reasonable thing to raise with a director of coaching, and a reasonable thing for them to have a considered answer to.
What this means on a Saturday
The concussion protocol is the one to know cold. If a player is suspected of a head injury, the referee stops play, and if the player leaves the field for evaluation the substitution does not count against the team. The player may not come back on unless a health care professional or certified athletic trainer has cleared them. If a coach or parent insists on returning an uncleared player, the referee is instructed to end the game. In 4v4 there is no referee, so that job belongs to the adults on the touchline.
The rest is easier. Small-sided games are loud, scrappy, and short on shape, and the standards are written on the assumption that this is what learning looks like at six.
Where these numbers come from
- US Soccer Player Development Initiatives (February 2017). The Small-Sided Games Chart in full, the stated objectives for small-sided play, the per-format standards of play for 4v4, 7v7 and 9v9, the build-out line rule, the in-game heading restrictions, the concussion protocol, the roster and games-per-year best practices, and the August 2017 mandate date.
- US Soccer Recognize to Recover, Concussion Initiative Guidelines (November 2015). No heading in training at U11 and younger, and the weekly limits for U12 and U13.
- Illinois Youth Soccer, field info. The move to a size 5 ball at U13 and older.
- Utah Youth Soccer, field size recommendations. One state association's chart for U13 and older: 11v11 from U13, half lengths, and roster caps.