How to Record Soccer Games Like a Pro

As parents, we want to capture nearly every moment on video and we know just how important getting high-quality footage can be. Whether for ourselves, or our future college recruit, recording soccer games can have many benefits — even more so when we don’t miss a single key play. Read on for tips to create the best footage using whatever various levels of technology you have on hand.

The Best Way to Record Soccer Games

Whether you use your phone, a video recorder, or a sports camera, the following recommendations will help you capture inspiring game footage. Reliving highlights and sharing moments with friends and family is always better when the video is clear and filmed from the right angles. With just a few simple pieces of equipment and a little preparation, you can comfortably get the best shot of the field while not missing a moment of the game.

Bring a Tripod

Life is busy, when you can make it to your child’s game, there’s nothing worse than fumbling around with your phone and other equipment. On the flip side, there’s nothing better than recording hands-free while watching them play from the sideline. Set up a tripod for your phone or camera facing toward mid-field. If you’re using Trace, our MultiCam software effortlessly syncs your phone video with TraceCam footage, so you can focus on multiple angles at once.

Find the Right Angle

To get the majority of the action in the frame and more chances for highlights, set up a wide-angle shot pointed toward the center circle. If you can, position the tripod at the halfway line and find an unobstructed view of the field. Other locations on the field to consider include the corner arc, touchline, and goal line (pictured below).

Add Extra Angles

To get the best angles of your favorite player, we recommend setting up your phone at specific points on the sidelines (see the image above). If your player has aspirations to play soccer in college, you’ll want highlights featuring more angles and vantage points to impress college coaches and scouts. Trace’s MultiCam stitches your best close-up shots with TraceCam footage to create ESPN-level highlights.

Get a Higher View Point

Through rigorous testing and after filming thousand of games, we found the ideal height to record soccer games is roughly 16 feet in the air. This gives you the best view of the entire field and keeps your player in the frame at all times. When rewatching the game, you’ll want context, and with a higher vantage point, you can see movement around the ball and get opportunities for better post-game analysis. Some other benefits of elevating your camera include:

• Elevated cameras eliminate the possibility of players blocking the action on the field or spectators walking in front of the camera.
• An elevated position enables coaches to give better feedback to their players after the game has ended.
• College coaches want to see wide shots with approximately ¼ or ⅓ of the field at any given time.
• With an elevated camera, players get a larger vantage of the entire field so they can analyze their performance and placement.

“The primary purpose of using a tripod to film at an elevated angle is to keep as many players in frame as possible. Many make the mistake of concentrating too much on a small area of the field which provides a very limited context or view of the game.  A transitional game like soccer requires as much of a complete picture of the field as possible since that is where the action will be.”

TIM BENNETT, FORMER D1 SOCCER COACH

Film Referee Signals & the Scoreboard

The calls on the field are just as important to review as critical plays and mistakes. You can provide context around your soccer game footage when you film cards and other referee signals. Additionally, periodically capturing the score shows how the game is progressing and can add intensity to a highlight reel.

Manage Storage Space

Using your phone to record or take pictures seems like an obvious solution to capturing memories on the field, but this requires a decent amount of storage. When filming in 1080p on your phone, you’ll want at least 1.5GB of free storage on your phone for every hour of recording. With soccer games being 60 minutes at the least, you could easily reach up to 2GB per game. To increase memory storage on your phone you can:

• Purchase an SD card reader
• Get a flash drive that can plug into your phone or camera

Back up your footage and photos with cloud storage

Save on Battery Power

Recording an entire game can take up a lot of space on your phone, and leaving your camera on for long periods quickly drains your battery. Add in factors like background data usage and weather conditions; you could find yourself out of power within the first half. The last thing you want is to have your phone or camera die in the middle of the game and miss out on filming the final moments. Some helpful tips to save battery life while recording soccer games are:

• Don’t use your phone until you’re ready to start recording
• Close all your other apps and limit push notifications
• Put your phone in battery saving mode
• Limit or shut off data usage if you can
• Lower the screen brightness
• Bring an external battery

If you’re still worried about not being able to record the whole game, you can supplement your gear with a sports video camera. When filming with Trace, we capture up to three 90-minute games so if your phone dies mid-game, no footage is lost!

Save Time on Editing with Video Software

Anyone who has ever recorded video on their phone knows that editing footage can be a real pain, let alone an entire soccer game. You typically have to download a separate app, transfer the files over, and then hope that the quality is good enough to use. This process is clunky, time-consuming, and often results in low-quality video edits that are unusable for sharing. Using AI soccer software with automatic editing capabilities can save you countless hours of reviewing footage.

Soccer Video Checklist

• Use a tripod for stable video
• Record from a high angle
• Focus on midfield
• Pause at halftime and charge up
• Capture shots of the scoreboard
• Film referee signals and calls
• Place extra cameras near the corner arc

Get the Optimal Equipment for Recording Soccer Games

Can you shoot great sports video from the sidelines? Yes. And you’re probably already using your phone to record soccer games. However, using automated recording software in tandem with a phone makes sure you’re getting the best view of the field — and you’ll never miss the game when you’re watching from the sidelines. Contact Trace today for more info on how to elevate your soccer game footage.