Soccer word search
Thirteen match day words are hiding in this 12x12 grid, and all eight directions are in play. Six more soccer boards print from this page, one each for the positions, the kit, the skills, the pitch, the rules and the cup nights.
Curated by 
Esme Rook
·
Updated August 2026
Play it right here
Drag across the letters to select a word. Words hide across, down and diagonally, forwards and backwards. Works with mouse and touch.
What words are hidden in this soccer word search?
Thirteen words in a 12x12 grid: goal, match, score, fixture, pitch, corner, hattrick, equalizer, cleansheet, supporters, chant, winner and extratime. They hide in all eight directions, so read the diagonals and read backwards too. CLEANSHEET and SUPPORTERS are the ten letter anchors and the sensible first targets; GOAL is the short one that hides longest.
Soccer only, not twelve sports and not the gridiron
Every word on these seven boards belongs to one game, the one played with a round ball. There is no tennis and no cycling here: twelve different sports on a single grid is the sports word search. There is no quarterback and no touchdown either, because American football has a page of its own, the football word search. The three pages share no word at all, checked list against list before this one shipped. If your table prefers clues to hidden words, the sports crossword puzzle is next door.
Seven soccer boards to print, one for each part of the game
The board on this page is the general one. Six more print from here, and each takes one part of the game and gives it a whole grid of its own: the positions, the kit, the skills, the pitch, the rules and the cup nights. Every sheet is built from its own word list and carries its own solution page, so a coach can hand seven different sheets to seven players on the same bus. Two word terms run together on the board, the way word searches have always set them: clean sheet is CLEANSHEET, six yard box is SIXYARDBOX.
The 12x12 board on this page
The soccer word search you can play above: thirteen match day words in a 12x12 grid, running in all eight directions, diagonals and backwards included.
Positions: every name on the team sheet
Ten squad roles on a 12x12 board, from the goalkeeper who never leaves the box to the manager who never sits down, taking in the sweeper and the playmaker that formations keep arguing about.
Kit: what comes out of the bag
A tighter 11x11 grid for the ten things a player and a groundskeeper carry onto the field, from the jersey and the shinguard to the cornerflag nobody notices until it is missing.
Skills: the gentle one, for the youngest
Eight moves on a 10x10 grid, across and down only and never backwards, so the smallest player in the club can finish a sheet unaided the same week she first hears the word nutmeg.
The pitch: every line and post
Twelve markings and fittings on a 13x13 board, walking the ground from the goalline and the sixyardbox out to the halfwayline, then past the dugout to the floodlights above the terraces.
Rules: the words that settle arguments
Twelve refereeing terms on a 14x14 board: offside and handball, the yellowcard and the redcard, the freekick, the throwin and the goalkick, and the injurytime nobody in the ground agrees on.
Cup nights: the hard one, 15x15
The hardest sheet on this page: sixteen tournament words in a 15x15 grid using all eight directions, from the qualifier and the groupstage to the shootout, the aggregate and the silverware.
Print it or play it
Play the 12x12 right on this page or print the free PDF; the separate solution sheet marks all thirteen words on the same grid, so the puzzle can go round the changing room while the answers stay in your pocket. The playable board, the PDF and the solution all come from one generated puzzle, so they can never disagree. Every sheet prints clean in black and white, for the long coach trip to an away game, for a training session rained off, and for the summer when the tournament is on television every night.
