The Table Top Sports Games of Chris Saguisag
As I start to make time for playing sports games again, I feel that it’s time to go back to some games that I’ve ignored for some time, specifically APBA Golf and APBA Soccer.
I remember trying APBA Soccer out something like 8 years ago, and while I was able to get through a complete game, I found that I liked the quicker play of other soccer games like Soccer Blast and later Dice United.
Same thing happened with golf, to a lesser degree. I was a bit intimidated by APBA Golf, especially after playing a similar game, ASG golf, which led me to History Maker Golf, another quicker game than the others.
Fast forward to now, with more than a few dozen soccer games and a couple of golf games rolled, and I finally feel ‘ready’ to tackle what I consider the ‘big boys’ of the respective games.
That’s not to take away from anything that I’ve played, the PLAAY games are still my favorites, for example, but I just feel ‘ready’ to take on something a bit more complex.
I also feel that I have a richer appreciation for soccer now than I did 8 years ago, having watched 4 more World Cup tournaments (men’s and women’s), Olympic soccer, and of course living and dying through Tottenham Hotspur in the EPL.
As for golf, I’m still as interested in it as I was before, which was not total indifference, but rather an appreciation for it as one of my Dad’s favorite pastimes long before he passed on. I still don’t watch it on TV as much as I did when Mom and Dad were both more interested.
For golf, I’ll probably still play History Maker more than APBA or ASG, simply because of the larger number of players and courses I have for HMG compared to the others. I don’t intend to start a full season of golf, either.
Soccer, on the other hand, has me thinking that I can start Yet Another Season Replay™, so with APBA Soccer I’m going to replay Tottenham’s 2015-16 campaign, a season I don’t own in any other soccer game that I play. This was the year Harry Kane first scored with the top team, and saw Spurs finish third behind Leicester City and Arsenal in the final standings.
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We’ll see if I can change history in my replay.
Stay tuned!
Less than a week away from the World Cup tournament starting, and I finally got around to playing my semifinal matches.
Final score from Al Bayt Stadium:
Alas, England couldn’t get anything going, and two quick second half goals allow the Netherlands to advance to the Finals.
—–
Final score from Lusail Iconic Stadium:
A hard fought match between the two squads as an injury time goal sends Portugal into the Finals.
Hat trick for Cristiano Ronaldo.
—–
Finals matchup:
Stay tuned!
Using the Universal Instant Results Table for Soccer Blast, I came up the Round of 16, Quarter and Semi Finals, the latter of which I’ll try to play before the real World Cup begins.
Group winner in bold, runner up in bold italic.
Group A: Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal, Netherlands
Group B: England, Iran, United States, Wales
Group C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland
Group D: France, Australia, Denmark, Tunisia
Group E: Spain, Costa Rica, Germany, Japan
Group F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia
Group G: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon
Group H: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay, South Korea
ROUND OF 16:
Winner in bold.
Netherlands vs. United States
Argentina vs. Denmark
France vs. Poland
England vs. Senegal
Germany vs. Belgium
Brazil vs. Portugal
Morocco vs. Japan
South Korea vs. Switzerland
Quarter Finals:
Winner in bold.
Netherlands vs. Argentina
Poland vs. England
Belgium vs. Portugal
Morocco vs. Switzerland
Semi Finals:
Netherlands vs. England
Portugal vs. Switzerland
Stay tuned!
I picked up a new copy of Soccer Blast, and the first match I played was the final game of the fictional 2020 Premier League season as shown in the finale of Ted Lasso Season 1.
Final from Nelson Road Stadium:
RIC 1 – 1 MCI
46′ – RIC – Rojas (PK)
88′ – MCI – Tartt
AFC Richmond ties Manchester City, which allows the Greyhounds to stay in the Premier League instead of relegation to the Champions League!
Better result that the other fictional result, sure, and I wonder what Season 2 would have been like with this ending?
I just played a game for the first time in a while.
I made some mistakes, I think, no, I’m sure, so what was supposed to be the first game of the 2017-18 Tottenham Hotspur season replay will just be a “get reacquainted with the game” matchup.
Spurs won 1-0 over Newcastle United.
Replay of the replayed match will occur later.
Stay tuned!
I have a bad habit of picking up games and/or season sets for games and never playing with them.
That said, PLAAY Games has announced the upcoming release of the English Pro League 1985-86 season set. I don’t think I have any soccer sets from the 1980s.
I probably will not know a single player in that set. At least with the 1977 North American Soccer League set I knew… one guy, and that was Pelé.
And it’s been a while since I actually sat down and played a game of Soccer Blast.
All this means is that I’ll probably end up ordering the set and sitting on it indefinitely.
Ah well.
Stay tuned!
