The following day, Juan got a day off so we had lunch and then we finally went to the basement to see the VAL foosball table. I must tell you that Juan had offered me two options: to stay in a hotel or to stay at his place with his family and a foosball table. It was obvious that I rather stay with them and a foosball table than in a hotel room alone.
So when we went down to the basement and took the first look at the foosball table, I was shocked. We had talked about it but talking about it and seeing it are two different things. Firstly, I knew that the figures have two legs (opposite of the standard 1),
Secondly, the figure orders on the rods are different: 1-3-4-3 – 3-4-3-1 (opposite of the standard 1-2-3-5 – 5-3-2-1)…
I was thinking about these differences a lot at home and thought that I could adjust them and I would be able to play on this table… but thirdly, when I got to see the surface which was not straight but curved toward the middle of the playing area, I knew right away that I would not be able to play my technical game on it. I was just standing there for more than a minute and analyzing the details with wide open eyes. ‘I came here to a tournament’- I was wondering. Juan saw my frustration and didn’t urge me to play. He let me got over the shock and waited until I said „Okay, let’s try it out, let’s play.” My first ball touches were terrible but the more we played, the more I enjoyed and the better I became …however, I knew it had been far from the competition level on that table in this short term of time.
…to be continued…
Petra Koncz 