Corner Kick

Last week we enjoyed a game of Corner Kick as an unusual change from blood an mayhem.

For those of you unaware Corner Kick is a clever rule set allowing the world’s most popular game to be played with miniature figures.  The game is of course football, or soccer to you Americans.  Unlike some other systems (Suboteo) Corner Kick endeavours to replicate the game and the players ability rather than challenging the dexterity of the player by having him physically flick the ball.  Corner Kick gives each player stats (control, shooting, header, awareness, etc.) and these stats are used to determine his success upon the pitch.
It had been some time since any of us played and the first quarter of the first half took a good deal of time as we worked our way around the rules, they are however very easy to pick up and the rest of the half went splendidly quick.  The clubs playing were Arsenal and Chelsea for a cross London rivalry, with Andrew managing his chosen club Chelsea and Chris (who in some confusion was dressed as an official instead of player) managed Arsenal.   There were some complaints  at the matching because the stats being used were from very early this year when Arsenal was still trying to find its legs and Arsenals stats were not as strong as Chelsea’s.  Chelsea DID seem to have the advantage  through the beginning of the game Chelsea and dominated the ball with  four shots on goal, and yet none of them found the net.

There was some disappointing play by Arsenal, when Gibbs managed to diffuse some of Chelsea’s advantages by fouling Mata.  Gibbs received a red card for the foul but the injury to Mata did remove him from the rest of the game and forced Chelsea to use on of their replacements early in the match.

After this incident Arsenal’s game came to life even though they were down a player.  After Bosingwas was booked with a yellow card for having fouled Arteta, and indirect kick was awarded to Arsenal.  Arteta kicked to Van Persie (who was still on this outdated  roster) who successfully shot the only goal of the evening, though there was another very good effort by Arsenal in the stoppage time.

Due to the incredibly slow action of the first portion of the game it was decided to only play the one half so the game went to Arsenal 1-0.
Some time was discussing our league to continue this enjoyable game.  The plan is to build fictional teams which will free us form constantly updating based on real world changes.  Each player needs at least 14 figures (11 for a team and 3 for replacements) though more is useful to represent the full roster.  We have contacted the manufacturer of the miniatures I have and are planning a club purchase at a reduced price.

All an all a fun game and congratulations to Chris.