Golden Goal

• Designer: Corne von Moorsel
• Publisher: Allplay
• Players: 2
• Age: 8+
• Time: 15 mins
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3QnUevz
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

After a hard-fought battle, the game is tied, and it’s down to overtime. The first team to score a goal wins immediately!  Unfold an entire soccer pitch from this tiny box as you line up your squad to face down your rival club. Use clever positioning to set up that perfect shot into your opponents goal, but be sure to protect your own goal as well!

The cloth board is unfolded on the table. The field itself is a 10×6 grid, with a little 2×2 penalty box.  Each player takes a team of 5 players, and players are placed one at a time onto the board.  The goalkeeper is limited to the two spaces directly in front of the goal.  Two or three of your players must start in your defensive half (with one within the center circle)  and the rest can be placed in the offensive half.  Both players roll the die to decide the kickoff, with the higher rolling team winning the kickoff, and getting a roll value equal to the difference of the two rolls – moving the ball a number of spaces equal to the difference.  

The loser of the kickoff then gets the first turn, rolling the die.  One of the field players is chosen to be active and spends one pip per orthogonal space moved.  When/if the player reaches the space with the ball, movement stops and the player uses any remaining pips to kick the ball, though the first space is always free.  Unlike a player, the ball can move orthogonally or diagonally. 

If the ball is kicked into a space with a teammate, that player then kicks the ball themselves (again getting a free space for the first space of their kick).   Once per kick, the direction of the ball can change once by 45 degrees.  Otherwise, all movement must go in a straight line.

A team scores a goal if they can move the ball into the net from one of the two spaces directly in front of the net.  The Golden Goal is scored and the game ends.

If you want to play a longer game (or you remember your love of Street Soccer), you can play a total of 25 turns per team and see who scores the most goals at the end of that time… And if you’re tied after 25 turns each?  Then play until someone scores a Golden Goal!

My thoughts on the game

The game is called Golden Goal because this game is supposed to replicate the sudden death extra time portion of a game.  The first team to score wins the game, thus the term Golden Goal.  Interestingly, this system isn’t used widely anymore… if you’re watching the World Cup this month, you’ll have realized that if a game goes into extra time, the teams play the full 30 minutes of extra time regardless of how many goals are scored.

Golden Goal is admittedly a simplification of the beautiful game, but one that works quite well.  Trust me, I’ve played nearly every soccer boardgame that I’ve been able to find, and the ones that try to fully represent the movement of all 22 players and the ball on the field are as dry as overdone Thanksgiving Turkey.

In this little gem, the number of players is reduced and this results in a free-flowing game that still requires a decent amount of strategy.   For me, the key is positioning your players in the right place.  Do you try to push your players forward to set up more offense?  Or do you stack your players in the defensive backfield and then try to spring a counterattack?

In real soccer, you want your players to be in “passing triangles” so that they can pass the ball between them.  Here, the similar formation has benefits as you get a free space of ball movement with each pass.  This can really help get the ball to the other side of the field.  If nothing else, if the ball is far away from your goal, your opponent is going to have a much harder time scoring – even with the bonus space for each pass.

Sure, some of the game is going to depend on who rolls higher numbers on the die – but good tactics and player placement can really overcome some of that.  In the end, Golden Goal is a delightful back and forth for ten to fifteen minutes – perfect for halftime of a World Cup match!  And, if it isn’t enough for you, it’s easy enough to play a full game fo Street Soccer by playing the 25 turns per game.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it! Dale Y
• I like it.
• Neutral.
• Not for me…

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3QnUevz