The crossover is a step-over where your foot crosses the front of the ball toward the middle of your body and plants on the far side, so your legs cross for a moment and your weight sells that direction. You then push off that foot and take the ball back the other way with the inside of your other foot. "Crossover" is not a standard soccer coaching term (it comes from basketball); coaches teach the same footwork as an inside step-over or turning step-over. It differs from the Reverse Scissors, which takes the ball away with the outside of the crossing foot, and from La Croqueta, where the ball itself is passed between your feet.
Set up
Dribble at the defender with small touches, the ball close but not under your feet, and your head up so you can see the defender and the space.
Eyes up, ball close.
Come in at a controlled pace, slower than your top speed, and start the move about two metres before the defender, not when you are on top of them.
Slow in, so you can go fast out.
Cross
Shape as if you are about to touch or pass the ball across your body with the inside of your foot. That fake starts the move.
Without touching the ball, sweep that foot across the front of it toward the middle of your body and plant it on the far side. With the right foot, the foot travels in front of the ball from your right to your left, and your legs cross for a moment.
Foot low and close to the ball.
As the crossing foot lands, turn your head and shoulders toward the fake, but keep your hips close to over your feet so you can still come back.
Shoulders sell it, hips stay ready.
Press down into the crossing foot with a bent knee, knee in line with your toes, then pivot and push off it back the other way.
Take the ball away with the inside of your other foot, the one that did not cross. Using the outside of the crossing foot instead turns this into a Reverse Scissors.
Fake across, go back the other way.
Accelerate within the next couple of metres, chest upright or leaning toward your new direction, and drive into the space before the defender recovers.
Explode out.
Feel it
Your foot skims across the front of the ball, your legs cross, and for a split second your weight is on the crossing foot as if you are gone that way. Your head and shoulders sell it, but your hips stay close enough to bounce straight back off that foot. Then the other foot takes the ball and you speed up: slow in, fast out.
Fix-its
- The fake is all feet Start with a real inside-foot shape and turn your head and shoulders toward the fake as the foot crosses. The step-over works as a whole-body action.
- You throw your whole body across and can't come back Sell it with your shoulders and head, not by moving your hips far over. Plant the crossing foot close to the ball so you can push straight back off it.
- The plant knee is straight or caves inward Land on a bent knee with the knee over your toes and the foot under you, not reaching wide. Slow it down until the plant feels solid.
- You clip the ball with the crossing foot Keep a little room around the ball and sweep around its front, low and close but without contact. Rehearse on a still ball first.
- No change of pace, or you're too close Start the move about two metres out and speed up straight after the touch. A move done slowly, or on top of the defender, leaves no gap.
Drill
- Still ball: walk through the cross, plant, pivot and inside-of-the-other-foot touch, then speed it up. Do both feet. Warm up first, because the crossed plant loads one knee hard.
- Two cones: dribble at a slow, steady pace, do the crossover at a cone about 8 m away and speed up past a second cone about 10 m away that stands in for the defender. Repeat at different speeds.
- Turning version: in a 20x20 yd area, dribble to a centre cone, cross over, plant and pivot, and take the ball back toward your line with the inside of the other foot. About 15 minutes, switching feet.
- Add a passive defender, then a live one. Go when they shift toward your fake; a goal scored after a crossover counts double.
Sources
- Premier Users' Club (Cesar Cambisaca, Levittown SC) — Turning: Step Over U9–U10 session plan
- We Make Footballers (WMF Coaching Team) — How to master a Step Over (2022)
- Sikana — Soccer skills: the step over
- easy2coach — Stepover (soccer exercise)
- Jackson, Barton, Ashford & Abernethy — Stepovers and Signal Detection, Frontiers in Psychology (2018)
- Brault, Bideau, Kulpa & Craig — Detecting Deception in Movement: The Case of the Side-Step in Rugby, PLOS ONE (2012)
- Donelon, Dos'Santos, Pitchers, Brown & Jones — Biomechanical determinants of knee joint loads during cutting: systematic review and technical framework, Sports Medicine - Open (2020)
Last checked 2026-10-26.