In 2016, US Soccer (the national organization that oversees youth soccer in America) made some pretty dramatic changes to soccer for the younger players.  From U5 through U8 teams, they altered some major rules to how the games are played in an effort to improve the soccer experience for the particpants.  (If you want to read the details yourself, click here.)

The most notable changes to what is now commonly referred to as "micro soccer" are:

• the field is much smaller
• only 4 players are on the field at time
• there are no goalies
• there are no referees

Using the recommendations of US Soccer as a foundation, our league (the Folsom Lake Soccer League) has developed a modified rules for micro soccer in our area.  Not counting the field diagram, it's two pages long.

If you are new to micro soccer, you'll be glad you spent 5 minutes to read it before your first micro soccer experience!