Two of soccer's purest tests of skill don't need a full field, twenty-one other players, or ninety minutes — just a ball, a target, and nerve. Penalty kicks and juggling ("keepy-uppy") distill the sport to its essentials, and both have deep roots in the world's oldest and most popular game. Here's how to play them on RivalPit, and where football itself really began.
How to Play on RivalPit
RivalPit hosts two standalone soccer skill games. In Penalty Kicks, you step up as the shooter and aim your strike at one of several zones across the goal, adjusting power and placement to beat the keeper, who reacts and dives to make saves. Score by picking a corner the keeper doesn't cover — go to the same spot too often and a sharp opponent (or CPU) will start guessing correctly. Matches typically run for a set number of attempts per player, with the higher score after all rounds winning, echoing a real shootout's pressure-cooker format.
In Soccer Juggling, the goal is control and endurance rather than power. Tap or click with the right timing to keep the ball off the ground, stringing together as many consecutive touches as you can before it drops. Rhythm and light touches beat big powerful strikes — the ball needs to stay in a tight, controllable zone above you, and small corrective taps keep a shaky juggle alive longer than one big kick. Both games support real-time challenges against a friend or solo runs against the clock and your own best streak.
The History of Soccer, Penalty Kicks, and Juggling
Modern soccer's official rulebook dates to 1863, when a group of English clubs formed The Football Association in London and published the first unified Laws of the Game, formally separating "association football" (soccer) from rugby-style handling games. That codification is what most historians point to as the true birth of the sport as an organized, rule-bound game with a standard field, ball, and scoring system, and it's why England is widely credited as the home of modern football.
But kicking a ball at a target is far, far older than 1863. FIFA itself has formally recognized Cuju, a ball game played in China as early as the Han dynasty (roughly the 3rd to 2nd century BC), as the earliest documented form of a kicking game. Historical texts describe Cuju both as military training for cavalry soldiers — improving footwork and coordination — and as public entertainment, with players kicking a ball through a small hoop opening using any body part except their hands. By the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD), Cuju had matured into a genuinely professional sport with dedicated stadiums, clubs, and imperial patronage, centuries before European football clubs existed.
Penalty kicks entered the modern game later, introduced into the Laws of the Game in 1891 as a way to punish deliberate fouls inside the goal area, and they've been one of soccer's most dramatic moments ever since. Ball juggling, meanwhile, grew up organically wherever kids and street players had a ball and open pavement — it's a foundational skill-building exercise in street-football cultures worldwide, perhaps most famously in Brazil's futebol de rua ("street football"), which is often credited with shaping the close-control, improvisational style that Brazilian players brought to the world stage.
Why Play on RivalPit
- Free and no download. Runs instantly in your browser.
- Real-time multiplayer. Challenge a friend with a link, or play a solid CPU opponent.
- Points, never money. Earned by playing, never purchased or wagered.
- One of 100+ free games on RivalPit, with new games added every week.
Penalty Kicks and Soccer Juggling are part of our sports games lineup, alongside dozens of other quick-play classics. And to turn a quick match into a group hangout, see our guide to playing games online with friends with no download.