How to live stream a soccer match

Soccer is the hardest common sport to stream for one reason: it doesn't stop. There are no timeouts to lean on, the field is huge and the clock may count up or down depending on who's playing. Get the camera height and the clock right, though, and a small crew can produce a stream that's easy to follow. This guide covers camera placement, the match clock, what the scorebug and stats should track, how to handle sponsors in a sport with one real break, and a match-day checklist.

Permission and the field connection

Confirm streaming rights with your athletic director or club before you go live. School matches can fall under conference or state association agreements, and postseason matches in many states can stream only to the NFHS Network. Our streaming rights guide covers what to check.

Many soccer fields share a stadium with football, so you may have a press box and a wired line. Practice fields and club complexes usually have neither. Run a speed test from your camera spot at match time and plan power for the full match, plus any overtime.

Where to put the camera

Height is everything in soccer. The field is wide, and from ground level players overlap, the far touchline disappears and you can't see space opening up. Go as high as you safely can, centered on the halfway line.

• Press box or top of the stands at midfield is the best spot. From there you can follow play from box to box with a smooth pan.
• No stands? A platform, a scaffold or the bed of a parked vehicle at midfield gives you a few feet that make a big difference. Check with the school or field owner first, and never put a camera somewhere a ball or player can reach it.
• Keep it wide. The most common mistake is zooming in on the ball. Viewers want to see the pass before it happens. Frame roughly a third to half of the field, with the ball near the center and space in front of it.
• Pan smoothly. A fluid-head tripod matters more than resolution. A second camera high behind one goal is a bonus for goals and penalty kicks.

For day matches, watch the sun's position at kickoff and at the end, and lock exposure if the light is steady. Wind is a bigger problem than in most sports. It shakes tall tripods and roars through microphones, so weigh the tripod down and use a foam or furry windscreen on every mic.

Two ways to set it up

Laptop and OBS: a camera into a capture card, OBS on a laptop and the scoreboard as a browser source. See our OBS and YouTube guide.

Two iPhones: the ScoreCastr iPhone app is in public beta on TestFlight and free during the beta. One phone films and streams with the scoreboard built into the video, pairing by QR code with no account. Scoring in the app starts with football, with more sports coming, so for soccer the scorekeeper runs the ScoreCastr dashboard in a phone browser at scorecastr.co. Expect about 5.4 GB of data for 2 hours at 1080p30. A phone's zoom (0.5x to 3x) can't match a camcorder on a big field, so get the phone as high as you can. See the two-phone stream.

Get the clock right

Soccer clocks work differently depending on the rules:

• Many US high school matches use a clock that counts down, run by an official timekeeper who stops it in certain situations. The stadium scoreboard is the official time.
• Club and international-rules matches usually count up, and the referee keeps the official time on the field and adds stoppage time at the end of each half. There's often no visible clock at all.

The soccer scorebug in ScoreCastr lets halves count up or down, so match your league. Half lengths vary by level and league, so check them before the match. For count-up matches, use the stoppage time display when the fourth official or the referee signals added time. If the stadium clock stops for goals or injuries, your scorekeeper needs to stop the scorebug clock too, and correct it against the stadium clock whenever play stops.

What else the scorebug shows

Beyond the score and clock, the soccer scorebug tracks cards, substitutions and a penalty shootout that continues to sudden death if needed.

• Show cards quickly. A yellow or red card changes the match, and late joiners need to know a team is down a player.
• Show subs at the next stoppage, not the moment the player jogs on, so you don't cover live play.
• Use the goal moment (Starter and up). One tap takes over the scorebug when a goal goes in.
• Prepare for the shootout. If a tie goes to penalty kicks, switch the scorebug to the shootout. Practice it once before the playoffs, not during them.

There's a ready-made soccer profile for the Stream Deck MK.2 and XL. Scorebugs are free. Halftime stats with comparison bars, lineups, player stats, a scrolling ticker and a sponsor spot on the scorebug start on the Starter plan.

Stats worth keeping

StatsCastr tracks goals, shots, shots on goal, saves, fouls, cards, corners, offsides and possession for soccer. A single volunteer can handle most of it, because shots and set pieces are spread out.

• Priorities: goals, shots, shots on goal and saves. They tell the story of the match and give the announcer a halftime talking point.
• Next: corners, fouls and cards.
• Possession and offsides take the most attention. Add them when your keeper is comfortable.

Log the play, credit the player and fix mistakes with undo or edit. Families can follow the live box score with no sign-in. On ScoreCastr Pro you can link the game so halftime stats and player stats fill the broadcast graphics; see putting live stats on your stream.

Sponsors in a sport that never stops

Never cut to a commercial while the ball is in play. Even an injury stoppage can end in seconds. That leaves a few windows:

With CommercialCue, the operator taps the break length at halftime and it plays the spots from Google Drive and returns to the live scene on its own. Return to Live is always there if the teams come out early, and every break is logged for sponsor reports. Our sponsor commercials guide has more.

Crew and match-day checklist

Three people cover a match: a camera operator, a scorekeeper on the clock and cards, and a producer who runs the stream and announces. Add a stats keeper and a dedicated announcer for a full broadcast.

• 90 minutes before kickoff: set up high at midfield, weigh down the tripod and run power.
• 60 minutes: frame a wide shot, lock focus and exposure, and fit windscreens on the mics.
• 45 minutes: speed test, open the dashboard and stats game, and confirm half length, clock direction and overtime rules with the officials.
• 30 minutes: private test stream on a phone on cellular. Get starting lineups and numbers.
• 15 minutes: go live on Pregame and run the first sponsor break.
• Kickoff: switch to Live. The scorekeeper starts the clock on the whistle.
• Halftime: run the long break, show halftime stats, check the clock and stream health.
• Final whistle: show the final, thank sponsors, end the stream and export the box score.