Bottle Ball is an invasion game where teams defend a two-litre water bottle instead of a net. Every goal knocks the bottle over and spills some water, so the scoreboard sits right there on the field for everyone to see.
Play on grass or another surface where spilled water will not create a slip hazard. If you play indoors, keep a mop nearby or fill the bottles with sand and score by counting goals instead.
Use plastic bottles only, never glass.
Shots at the bottle should be kept along the ground.
No player enters a goal circle except a defender retrieving a stopped ball, and everyone else gives them space to do it.
Standard soccer contact rules apply. No slide tackles.
Slide a rubber band around each bottle and set it at the water line before you start. Every time a team gets scored on and stands their bottle back up, they roll their rubber band down to the new water line. It gives each team a clear marker of where they started and how much they have lost, and it makes the final comparison at the end of the game quick and obvious.
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Builds allow you to increase the game's complexity, one layer at a time.
Teams of three play the full game with the caps left on the bottles. Nothing spills, so a goal simply resets the play and the game runs back and forth.
Teams keep track of how many times they knock the other bottle over, and the team with the most goals at the end wins.
Play the game again, this time with the caps off. Every goal now costs the team that was scored on some of their water, and the team with the most water left at the end wins.
Because the water is visible from anywhere on the field, teams can see exactly where they stand at all times, which tends to change how they play as the game goes on.
This build takes its inspiration from OmegaBall, a version of soccer played on a circular pitch with more than two teams. Instead of running two separate games, combine them into one.
Mark out a large circular playing area and place four goal circles evenly around its edge, each with a bottle inside and the cap off. Four teams of three play at once with a single ball. Every team defends their own bottle and may score on any of the other three.
All of the rules from build two still apply. Nobody enters a goal circle, the team that was scored on stands their bottle up and restarts from their circle, and the team that scored retreats to their own rope before rejoining. There are no offsides and no throw-ins. When time is up, the team with the most water left in their bottle wins.
Because there are three targets to choose from at any moment, players have to keep their heads up and move the ball quickly to wherever the opening is. Passes need to travel further and arrive faster than they did in the two-team game.
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Games that build on the same tactics.
