What is Paper Soccer with wide goals?
In the standard game here each goal is 2 squares wide, in the middle of a short side of the pitch. In this variant each goal is 4 squares wide, chosen as the goal width in the table setup. The field, the kick-off and every rule of play stay the same, and the option works on every field size.
The goal is the row of points one step behind the goal line, between the posts. With 2-square goals that is a single point behind the centre of the mouth, which the ball reaches from three points on the goal line. With 4-square goals the goal has three points, and the ball can be kicked in from any of the five points across the mouth, straight or diagonally. The wall along the goal line is one square shorter on each side, so there is less wall to bounce off near the goal and much more to defend. Attacks need fewer bounces to score, and a defence has to keep the ball away from the whole mouth.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Paper Soccer | Paper Soccer with wide goals |
|---|---|---|
| Goal width | Standard Paper Soccer2 squares, with a single goal point behind the centre of the mouth. | Paper Soccer with wide goals4 squares, with three goal points behind the mouth, chosen in the table setup. |
| Where you can score from | Standard Paper SoccerThe three points across the mouth: the centre and the two posts. | Paper Soccer with wide goalsThe five points across the mouth: the three inside it and the two posts. |
| Walls on the goal line | Standard Paper SoccerThe goal line is a wall except for the 2 squares of the mouth. | Paper Soccer with wide goalsThe goal line is a wall except for the 4 squares of the mouth, so there are fewer wall points near the goal to bounce off. |
| Moves and bounces | Standard Paper SoccerDraw a line from the ball to one of its 8 neighbouring points, never along a wall or a line already drawn. Landing on a point that a line or a wall already touches is a bounce: you move again. | Paper Soccer with wide goalsThe same. The posts are wall points, so landing on a post is a bounce. |
| End of the game | Standard Paper SoccerThe ball in the goal you attack wins, the ball in your own goal loses. A player who has to move and has no line left to draw loses. | Paper Soccer with wide goalsThe same, with any of the three goal points counting as a goal. |
History
Paper Soccer is a pencil-and-paper game drawn on squared paper, known in Poland as piłkarzyki, and its goals are usually small. The usual goals are 2 × 1 squares in the middle of the short sides, the size used in the standard game here.
Wider goals appear in the larger versions of the game. A Polish version played on an area such as 16 × 20 squares has goals several squares long, and a computer version from 2005 uses goals 3 squares long. On a pitch an even number of squares wide, a 3-square goal cannot sit in the middle of the side, so the game here uses 4 squares, the next width that keeps the goal centred on the kick-off spot.