While watching the World Cup of Soccer (football) in December I was reminded how much soccer is like pinball. During a few of the games the commentators even used the word pinball as a description for what was happening near the net. Indeed, as players struggled to hit the ball into or away from the net, it was a wild flip and hit the ball wherever it may go—into the face of another player, into the leg or another player, or into the net or against the net posts. No one knew where the ball was going to go but they struck at it with a frenzy.

And so it is with pinball: while often the ball comes down the side guides to the flipper allowing a clean and controlled flip in the direction that the ball is desired to go. But frequently the ball is coming at the flipper from all sorts of directions and if it is multiball then it can be several balls coming at the flippers at once. Add to this the occasional third flipper on the side and you have a multiball scenario where balls are flying all over the place and are difficult to control.

And so it is with soccer: a game much like pinball where a head thrust may send the ball into the net or in a wildly different direction. And so we flip with great abandon as the balls fly at the flippers in our personal World Cup of pinball on a classic machine of your choice.