Best backyard soccer goals

Fabric for under-tens, steel for everyone else. A pop-up goal is a target — light, instant, and fine for a child who kicks a ball rather than drives it. The same shot from a thirteen-year-old moves it. A powder-coated steel frame stays where you put it, which is what makes the Elite goal a real goal rather than a toy.

Check the count in the box. The pop-up set is two goals, which is a game. The Elite is one, which is practice — two means buying twice.

1. Verified in stock at the maker. One GoSports goal we looked at — the basic 6 by 4 portable goal — was sold out and is not recommended here.
2. A published size. The whole buying decision is size; a listing without one is useless.
3. Anchoring in the box. Both include stakes. A goal that blows over or tips forward onto a child is the one real hazard in this category.

We have not used either. Figures are the maker's — how we pick.

An unanchored goal is the only genuinely dangerous thing about backyard soccer. Children hang on crossbars, and a goal that tips forward lands on whoever is underneath. Both picks publish ground stakes as included; use them, every session, including the “quick kickabout” ones.

The pop-up goals are light enough that this is mostly about wind. The steel goal is heavy enough that it is about injury.

The goalmouth dies. Every shot, every save and every scramble happens in the same few square feet in front of the goal, and by midsummer that patch is bare dirt. The fix is the same as for every high-traffic game: move the goals a few feet every week so the wear spreads out. The full treatment is in yard games and your lawn.

For the space side of the question, a 12 by 6 goal wants a genuinely long lawn — games for big lawns. For a team game with no goals at all and a stronger case for mixed groups, see backyard flag football.