Through Ball

About Through Ball

In football, a through ball is the pass played into space for a team-mate to run onto. Through Ball is an arcade football game built on that one pass. You never pass to a player: you aim at open grass, and the ball belongs to whoever gets there first. A pass is not a choice of receiver; it is a prediction about where the space will be a second from now.

The match runs at full speed and your carrier drives at the goal by himself until a defender catches him. Touch the screen and time drops to a fifth of its speed for three seconds of your own clock. Every player trails a line showing where he is running, and the marker under your aim says whether your man gets there first, it is a coin flip, or theirs does. Let go and the race is run.

Aim at the goal and the world freezes for four seconds while a power meter swings. Drag up or down to bend the shot round the keeper, and a shot struck at the top of the swing that goes in burns as a fireball. Get fouled in their box and you take the penalty; foul in yours and you choose which way your keeper dives.

Eleven a side, five real formations, and ten named clubs from Brackenford Town to Kingsfall Wanderers. Pick one and play a two-minute match against them, or pick two and watch them play each other.

Free in your browser on a phone or a desktop, with nothing to install and no account needed to play.

How to play

1. Pick one of the ten clubs and a formation on the team sheet, then press Kick off.
2. Touch or click anywhere to slow time. Drag to aim (the direction is the line, the distance is the power) and let go to play the ball to that patch of grass. Let go inside the ring to cancel.
3. Read the marker before you let go: a filled dot is clear, a dashed ring is contested, a cross is lost. While a ball is in the air, the same drag queues the next touch, and the receiver plays it first time.
4. Aim at the goal and the world freezes: drag up or down to bend the shot and let go as the meter swings. The top tenth of the swing is a fireball.
5. A goal pays 100, plus up to 150 for a ball that carried the move straight at goal and up to 150 for reading it fast, all times the finish. A goal against costs 100. Full time comes after two minutes of pitch time.

Controls

On a computer

Click anywhere to slow time, drag to aim and release to play; release inside the ring to cancel. Esc pauses.

On a phone

Touch anywhere to slow time, drag to aim and lift to play; lift inside the ring to cancel. Best held in landscape.

Leaderboard

Sign in with a free zapjam account and your best match against each of the ten clubs goes on the all-time board, added up under your handle, with your own rank and the players either side of you. Then challenge a friend to beat it. Playing never needs an account.