World Cup Action

The 2010 World Cup is in full swing, and I'm loving every minute of it. I like international soccer a lot more than US Major League Soccer, and this year's World Cup seems to be full of drama. It's also nice because both boys are really into soccer this year. We spent much of the spring playing FIFA 2010 World Cup for the Wii.

A few weeks ago, I ran across a description of The World Cup Card Game from a British Company, Games for the World, at BoardGameGeek. The game's designer, Shaun Derrick, created a World Cup boardgame in 2006, that allows gamers to recreate the 2006 World Cup. (Gamers can also buy expansion packs that can be used for virtually every World Cup from the 20th century.) This year he adapted the game to a simpler card version for the 2010 World Cup. The game won the Best Cardgame award at the 2010 UK Games Expo.

The game isn't available (directly) in the States, but I was able to order it from the publisher using Paypal. I ordered the game on June 12, 2010 and the Royal Mail was able to get it to me on the 21st. The game cost $13.35 (including shipping, after conversion from pound sterling).

Patrick and I were able to give it a try today. The US won the Cup, defeating Germany in the final. (Italy and Spain took third and fourth.) The scores were completely realistic -- with most games finishing 0-0 or 1-0, with the occaissional 2-1 or 3-2 game. The biggest blowout was Ghana defeating Australia 4-0 in group play.

I'll write a more thorough review once I've had the opportunity to play it a few more times, but our initial impression was very positive. The game consists of 64 cards -- one for each World Cup team, plus 32 action cards. The photo (taken by Nic Chilton) gives some idea of what the cards look like.