Topic: Foosball in Saigon

[JoeyDMaio]

I'm in Ho Chi Minh City for some days to do some job around and of course one of the first thing I've done is to look for some foos tables !

I found 6 tables, all of the same type, and the least I can say is they are... quite stale 


http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/824/24092011249.jpg/

Men are shaking, handles are moving on the rod, rods are bent, balls are rocks, etc etc...

What amazes me is the most part of the guys (even girls) who came up in front of me have the basics of the game, they can do sort of pulls and have good defensive placements, I'm wondering where and how they've been able to learn that on tables where you can simply not control the ball ! Well I'm able to do some passes and shoot some shots but god it's not easy !
What I've been able to decode is everyone played a lot at school when they were young, but foos is really considered a kids game here and so when they grow up they don't play anymore, they play pool (lot of pool rooms everywhere around here)
That's sad, with a good tables providers I'm pretty sure it could get strong here, as most people seem to have fun playing the game !

So if anyone knows a place where I could find a table in a good shape, please let me know ! 

[Buckshot]

Joey, That Million Dollar logo tell me that you've been around so you probably remember way back, long ago, in the before time. Back then almost every table you ran into was like the tables you describe in Saigon. Three different kinds of men, some of then attached with bent nails, loose handles, sticky rods, the table moves. A lot of arcade and bar owners just didn't care so they let the tables got to hell. Only the locals know how to play these tables because they know where the potholes are. Mark Twain wrote an article about a pool table he encountered in an old west town that had so many flaws a run of 3 shots in a row was almost a miracle. I always think about that story when I encounter a really rugged table.
     I was in Saigon in 1969-1970 dodging bullets instead of pullshots. I didn't see ANY foosball tables. Imagine that.

[JoeyDMaio]

Buck, I use this logo mainly because of the memories I have of TS when I was a child, my dad flew overseas to go play some worlds on TS in the late 70's, early 80's... So I may have participate in one of these famous tournaments in Chicago as a member of my dad's balls population 

As I grew we would always have a TS table @home, followed by the german Löwen tables who were clone of these, which themselves have been cloned by Lehmacher and up to last year the p4p tournaments used tables with the same men as the TS did back in the day !
Now that P4P runs their tourneys with another table manufacturer (Ullrich) these famous men have disappeared from the scene 

Anyway yeah I can imagine in the era you mention people could have been worried about something else than placing tables in pubs 

[FOOZUL]

I own this Leonhart Pro and I think they are TS on steroids...

http://web.original-leonhart.com/en/products/leopro-tables/leoprofessional

Same model but without the coin mechanism...and now they are the
official ITSF table...It's such joy to play on these. German Made high
quality table, stable and fun. Original TS players would really appreciate
this table.

It's also great to see what other countries use as foosball tables and the way
they play... Owning a German, French,and American, tables I'm also fascinated with
Spanish tables;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubVLIwLGHaE

[JoeyDMaio]

Well I just played the WCS on leonhart last month and I can tell although it looks similar the feeling is not the same, you have to play it in a much more "relaxed" way to be succesfull, as the players are made of a softer material, and everything feels "lighter" than on the lehmacher p4p

But yeah with the demise of Lehmacher, it may be the closest table to TS we have right now, after the P4P-Ullrich model

[FOOZUL]

I wouldn't mind having a Ullrich P4P, but those guys @ www.kneipensportler.de don't like to reply to my requests...
I still love my LEO table, I put Ullrich P4P and Lehmacher P4P Figures on it once in while for fun, I also switch rods to Contus L4...

[JoeyDMaio]

Wow here we are, almost ten years later, sitting at the "heart of darkness", a local brewery in Saigon, checking the web to see if any decent foos  table has pop up somewhere in this city, and the first thing I find is my own post LOL !!!

So after quite a bunch of visits here I kinda gave up on the idea to play here, but in case someone would be in the same position:
I know there is some french restaurant with a Bonzini but I don't remember the name right now, it can be found in Facebookquite easily I guess
There is also a glass-topped kinda Garlando lookalike in the Catwalk, a bar within the new world hotel, but it's quite unplayable and the girls will distract you a bit too much anyway 

That's about it

There is a foosball club in Hanoi though who seem to play on fireball/tornado

I would love to open my own bar and import some P4P tables, VN people are pretry easy to get excited on any game so it could be fun. It seems they have almost zero competitive mindset (not necessarily Something negative) so running tournaments here is a nogo.

Neyt piat before 2030?

Edit: wow actually found something here, of course it happens the day after I leave 

https://m.facebook.com/foosballvietnam/posts/2152984764741651

[JoeyDMaio]

Finally found something !!

Board game station in Co Bac street

A fireball table free to play, good condition and proper lighting (fooslight lookalike)

Locals are playing there on the afternoons on the weekends

It gets so hot when you play, perfect to sweat all the beer from the saigon nights you need to hahaha

[foosballvietnam]

Pro play foosball: #ITSF500 Polish #Leonhart Championships #Foosball_DYP_FINAL_1 Leszczyński Sajnóg VS Bieniaszewski Ziółkowski
Polish #leonhart  Championships 27-30.06.2024 @Płock ITSF 500 Tournament
Source:    / @ziouo 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyGyA8v-olo