I'd like some thoughts from others on the different sizes of goals on foosball tables.
When I first learned foosball back in the mid 70's on campus and in bars, the size of the goal was about seven inches like on a Tournament Soccer and similar tables. The first time I played on a Tornado or a Dynamo in about 1974-5, I found the obviously larger goal much more difficult to defend ... someone could set the ball up for a pull shot and still have room for a short push shot. Very frustrating for the defender! It seemed too easy for the forward with a larger goal! Imagine if someone decided to make the hoop/rims on a basketball court another 20% larger ... nothin' but net would be much more common. The Dynamo and Tornado tables were so well built compared to many other tables at that time. With the superb ball control on these two vendor's tables, why did the goal have to be so much wider? It just didn't seem right to me. I learned on smaller goal sizes and expected things to stay that way, dam it!
I felt a smaller goal size on other manufacturers tables generally encouraged the forward to shoot a wider variety of fancier shots (at least in non-tournament conditions like typical bar/gameroom foosball). Mixing up shots kept the defense guessing. The game was much more interesting when a variety of shots was used. You had to mix things up more on a table with a smaller goal or the defense would catch on quicker. When I played friends (that had less foosball experience than myself) on a Dynamo or Tornado, they just did pull shots and beat me ... that pissed me off. There was no incentive for them to learn reverse shots (push then pull, pull then push, fake, etc...) A short or long pull shot was all they needed to score on a huge (8 inches?) goal. I had already seen enough fast pull shots on a 7" goal table that were difficult enough to race. Now on an 8" table, it was even more difficult to defend. Why did I bother to learn ever learn a variety of other shots? I should have just focused on the pull shot to win.
I don't know how I'd feel if I had first learned foosball on a Tornado table to begin with. Perhaps I would hate smaller goals. (I've been away from foosball for many years and I want to learn the snake shot sometime.) I like Tornado tables because they are well built and so much good thought was put into their design.
My speculation is that bar owners and game room owners wanted foosball games to get over faster so they could get more money each day. Bigger goals meant it was easier to score, more slop goals, faster games, more games played per hour ... more quarters, more profit! I think most new players just felt better (whether they knew it or not) with a bigger goal because they could score a little easier. By having larger goal sizes, Dynamo and Tornado simply catered to the demands of the business owners and most players stayed silent. Now the vendor (Tornado) can't change the size of the goals because, in general, players have built/practiced their shots on a particular sized goal. Imagine the complaints from users and bar owners if Tornado made the goal size one or two inches smaller. It is not going to happen.
I guess I'd like to find the answer as to why a certain goal size was settled on for a manufacturer's table. What is going on in the head of the table designer? What is going on in the head of a player (offense or defense). Why not a 10" sized goal? Or a 5" goal? Should the goal size be somewhat proportional to a real soccer field dimensions? Or should the goal width follow some formula based on the diameter of a ball and the size of the men's feet? If the size of a goal was just determined/swayed by business owners trying to increase their profit, players with a real interest in the game itself are probably missing out on something. Is there an ideal goal size???
What do you think about this?