Whether you are setting up a mini soccer field for the kids in your back yard or equipping the office team in hopes of making the playoffs, there are a number of soccer goals for sale both on the internet and at your local sporting goods store. Which soccer goals are best for you will, of course, come down to your teams ages, numbers and budget.
One of the great things about soccer is that the rules can be customized to accommodate smaller teams. If you do not have the required number of players for regulation play, you can simply adopt the no goalie rules and play on a smaller field with a correspondingly smaller goal to maintain the desired degree of difficulty. Teams of smaller children should also play with a small goal to accommodate the shorter legs and slower speed of the goalie. Some of the more full-featured goals allow them to be adjusted to various sizes to accommodate different modes of play.
Portable soccer goals are a great choice for taking with you to practice or play fields that are not pre-equipped with them. Such units are usually made of lighter weight materials that break down into sections for easy transport. Backyard soccer goals are usually designed to be portable so that they can be disassembled when the yard is needed for other activities. Of course, the most portable option is an inflatable goal. These child-friendly units will avoid serious injury if an overeager young player plows into one at full speed and are by far the easiest to transport. Great care must be taken, however, to stake them down well before the game so that your goals do not blow away when the breeze picks up. The nature of these devices also lend to damage during play, so a patch kit similar to ones used to repair rubber rafts and waterbeds should be a mandatory accessory to bring along to the game.
Whether to play with or without a net is another matter of personal choice. Soccer goal nets are recommended when playing on fields where the ball might roll into an inaccessible area if kicked hard through the goal. If your team consists of children and there is any chance at all that, the ball could roll into traffic with a young one in pursuit, a net is an absolute necessity. Nets are also very handy items to avoid arguments as to whether the ball actually went into the goal or not, since some players can shoot the ball so fast that it can be difficult to follow with the naked eye. A quality net should be durable, but soft enough so as not to injure a player who collides forcefully with it. When small children are involved, the weave of the net should also be tight enough that little arms and legs cannot get tangled in it…it is, after all, called a ‘net’ for a reason.
The final, but often overriding, consideration on which soccer goal to choose will be one of cost. Goals can range in price from under $50 to over $5,000 depending on the size, material and quality of construction. As is always the case, one must carefully weigh cost against quality. While the least expensive goal that fits your size requirements may seem like the most attractive choice, if it is so poorly made that it will break and require replacement half way through the season, your money will not have been spent wisely. Before making a final selection, one should carefully review all the available information about that particular model and compare it to its competitors.