{"id":1851,"date":"2026-06-25T12:12:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T12:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/?p=1851"},"modified":"2026-06-25T12:13:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T12:13:42","slug":"nyt-connections-soccer-edition-what-it-is-how-to-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/nyt-connections-soccer-edition-what-it-is-how-to-play\/","title":{"rendered":"NYT Connections Soccer Edition: What It Is & How to Play"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

World Cup summer (well, for those in the Northern Hemisphere) has a way of turning everyone into a football tactician. With the 2026 tournament spread across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the group-stage arguments are back, and so is the urge to test how much football you actually know. The Athletic runs a daily puzzle built for exactly that itch: Connections Soccer Edition.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you already play the regular NYT Connections, the soccer edition will feel familiar. It keeps the same grid and the same four-groups challenge, then fills every square with football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What NYT Connections Soccer Edition is<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Connections Soccer Edition is the football-focused spin on the New York Times Connections puzzle, published through The Athletic, the Times-owned sports newsroom. Every puzzle hands you 16 terms pulled from the soccer world and asks you to sort them into four hidden groups of four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The categories range wide. One group might gather Ballon d’Or winners, another a set of classic formations, another a batch of words that only mean something once you add the word kick. Several terms look like they belong in more than one group, and the puzzle leans on that overlap to catch you out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to play Connections Soccer Edition<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The rules carry straight over from the original Connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You get a grid of 16 tiles. Pick four you think share a theme, then submit the group. A correct guess locks in that set with a color, running from yellow for the gentlest category up to purple for the one built to fool you. Guess wrong and you burn one of your limited tries, so a careless pick has a cost. Sort all four groups before you run out and you have solved the day’s puzzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new puzzle drops every day, which makes it an easy habit to fold into your morning, somewhere between the headlines and the team news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few tactics for cracking it<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Start with the group you feel surest about, but hold off submitting it first. Pull those four aside in your head, then scan the leftovers for the tile that could fit two themes. That overlap tile is usually the trap, and spotting it early saves you a guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read every term football-first. A word like Arsenal might be the club, or it might be hiding inside a group about something else. Setters love a red herring built on a famous name, so when two readings of a tile compete, the less obvious one often wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leave the purple group for last. It tends to lean on wordplay rather than pure football knowledge, which makes it easier to crack by elimination once the other twelve tiles are gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where to play, and how to get more<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Connections Soccer Edition lives on The Athletic, with a fresh puzzle each day. One puzzle a day is the whole appeal for most people, the single-serving ritual that Connections does so well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For football fans who want more than one round, free soccer Connections games online follow the same group-of-four idea. One worth bookmarking is this free football edition<\/a> from the team at LeConnections, handy for when you have cleared the day’s official puzzle and still want another go. It scratches the same itch without making you wait for tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the World Cup running through to the July final, expect the puzzles to lean into tournament squads and trivia while the football is fresh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\n
\n

What is NYT Connections Soccer Edition?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n\n

Connections Soccer Edition is a daily football puzzle from The Athletic, the sports newsroom owned by the New York Times. It uses the same format as the regular NYT Connections, giving you 16 soccer-related terms to sort into four hidden groups of four.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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How do you play Connections Soccer Edition?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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You are shown a grid of 16 football terms. Select four that you think share a category and submit them. Correct groups lock in with a color from yellow to purple, and wrong guesses use up your limited tries. Solve all four groups before you run out of guesses to finish the puzzle.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Is Connections Soccer Edition the same as regular Connections?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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The rules are identical. The difference is the subject matter. Every tile in the soccer edition comes from football, covering players, clubs, formations, competitions, and soccer wordplay, where the standard Connections draws from any topic.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Where can I play Connections Soccer Edition?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n\n

It is published on The Athletic, where a new puzzle goes live daily. Football fans who want extra rounds can also find free soccer Connections games online that run on the same group-of-four format. You can also play this version produced by the LeConnections team, called Football Connections<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Is Connections Soccer Edition free?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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It is published on The Athletic and playable on its site. Access terms for The Athletic can change over time, so check there for the current details. If you want a guaranteed-free option, the soccer Connections games elsewhere online cost nothing to play.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Why is soccer Connections popular right now?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n\n

The 2026 World Cup, hosted across the United States, Canada, and Mexico from June to July, has football front of mind for millions of casual fans. A daily soccer puzzle is an easy way to ride that interest and test your knowledge between matches.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World Cup summer (well, for those in the Northern Hemisphere) has a way of turning everyone into a football tactician….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":1852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1853,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1851\/revisions\/1853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewordfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}