in space ,have one of those spinning space stations ,as in so much sci fi and a soccer pitch inside,with only one line for a goal/ Or a door for a goal. anyway,the players have to go AROUND the pitch to score a goal.the teams arent on a -side- [a direction]of the pitch,but anticlockwise and clockwise,the winning team being those who got the soccerball around most in their direction. the game would be different as well because as soon as the 'ball is through te goal,it is in a place the equivalent of the other end of the pitch-- technobadger, Feb 26 2001 thats up to the players-- technobadger, Feb 26 2001 Arranging the spectators might be awkward. Those furthest from the pitch, ie closest to the axis would have to be strapped in. Throwing bog-rolls onto the pitch would be interesting though if you were sitting on the axis - they would presumably hang in mid air .-- Gordon Comstock, Feb 26 2001 Maybe this would be a source of added interest, maybe it would be a fatal flaw, but the ball would not seem to behave like balls in earth-based soccer. As soon as it is propelled into the air, it is no longer subject to the artificial "gravity" of the spinning cylinder. Also, the fact that the air at "ground" level is traveling at one speed, and is slower at the center of the cylinder would amount to a "wind" that would constantly favor one team over the other. This "wind" would seem to blow against the direction of rotation of the cylinder, and would be zero at "ground" level and get progressively stiffer with "elevation."-- beauxeault, Feb 26 2001 they could kick it to the other side of the cylinder,the trajectories would be different anyway-- technobadger, Feb 26 2001 If you put goals at the top and the bottom of the cylinder, then there wouldn't be a rotational bias. 'Course, then it's just ordinary soccer with weird physics.-- bookworm, Feb 26 2001 That WOULD be fun!-- beauxeault, Feb 26 2001 Or you could play on ordinary flat ground, with an annular ring for a playfield and a single radial line for the goal. Spectators could sit inside the ring, which would be out of bounds.
It's an open question whether someone kicking the ball *over* the central area is legitimate.-- egnor, Feb 26 2001 Hey egnor... that would be both cool and easily do-able. Halbakery is no place for a suggestion like that! (kidding) ...I would like to see something like that played. It would seem to even things out a bit, because once a team scores a goal, the other team is immediately in position to score. Of course, that works both ways, so it probably wouldn't even things out, it would just make for very high scoring games.-- PotatoStew, Feb 26 2001 Well, here's how you solve the abutting goals problem, and better yet, it makes this a more Half-Bakery-friendly idea. Use a simple tracking system to chart the course of the ball, and allow scoring by one team or another based on the number of revolutions made (and their direction). So if you had a great team vs. a poor one, the great team would eternally be running in the same direction, and they would score every time they completed a loop. A laser line projector (w/ 2 different colors) could be used to keep the players aware of whose goal they were at. Alternatively, played on the "donut" field, the goals could lie at the 0 and 180 degree positions, allowing two paths to the goal... add another ball for complete chaos and a goalie's nightmare.-- thedick, May 02 2003 random, halfbakery