I decided to move on to a new sport with my next project. For the first time I played soccer, one of my favorites. I looked at several different soccer games and decided my first effort would be with Soccer Blast. This was my first foray with one of the highly popular PLAAY game sets. It looked promising, and it turned out to be as good as advertised.
Soccer Blast offers a number of official seasons for purchase, and as well as number of free seasons created by users. I downloaded a free version of the 2001 Major League Soccer season and I did a season replay with that year’s MLS Cup champions, the San Jose Earthquakes.
A long, long time ago, I worked with the 2000 San Jose Earthquakes. That particular team was unfortunately one of the worst in the early history of MLS, recording a league-low 29 points after a 7-17-8 record. I moved on after that season to something else and unfortunately missed what was to come.
The 2001 Earthquakes got new ownership, a new coach and some very talented new players, most notably Landon Donovan, Dwayne DeRosario and Manny Lagos. It wasn’t exactly worst-to-first, as San Jose finished second in the Western Division and only had the fifth-best point total out of 12 teams. But, the Earthquakes won it all in the postseason, defeating the rival LA Galaxy in the MLS Cup final after earlier dispatching the Columbus Crew and Miami Fusion.
So this was my own personal what-if season, getting to “watch” the Earthquakes on the tabletop after missing my chance to see it happen in real life. I enjoyed playing with some of my favorite holdovers from the 2000 season, such as Joe Cannon, Jimmy Conrad, Wade Barrett and Richard Mulrooney.
In real life, the Earthquakes posted 13 wins, seven losses and six draws for a total of 45 points, which gave them a #5 seed in the MLS playoffs. In my replay, they did even better, recording 16 wins, five losses, and five ties, good for 53 points and what would have been the #2 seed in the playoffs.
I played for the most part with as-used lineups and substitutions, as long as their cards were part of the set. This project ran in October and November 2023.
| Soccer Blast (W-L-T) | Actual (W-L-T) | |
| April 7: at LA Galaxy | L 1-2 (0-1-0) | W 3-2 (1-0-0) |
| April 14: vs. Dallas Burn | W 1-0 (1-1-0) | L 0-1 (1-1-0) |
| April 21: at Miami Fusion | L 0-1 (1-2-0) | L 1-2 (1-2-0) |
| April 28: at Kansas City Wizards | T 3-3 (1-2-1) | T 0-0 (1-2-1) |
| April Recap | ||
| May 5: vs. New England Revolution | W 6-1 (2-2-1) | W 3-2 (2-2-1) |
| May 12: at D.C. United | T 1-1 (2-2-2) | W 3-2 (3-2-1) |
| May 19: vs. MetroStars | L 1-4 (2-3-2) | W 2-0 (4-2-1) |
| May 23: at Dallas Burn | W 2-1 (3-3-2) | W 2-0 (5-2-1) |
| May 26: at Chicago Fire | W 2-1 (4-3-2) | T 1-1 (5-2-2) |
| May 30: vs. Colorado Rapids | W 2-1 (5-3-2) | T 1-1 (5-2-3) |
| May Recap | ||
| June 2: at Colorado Rapids | W 2-0 (6-3-2) | W 2-1 (6-2-3) |
| June 9: vs. LA Galaxy | W 3-1 (7-3-2) | W 3-1 (7-2-3) |
| June 16: at MetroStars | W 1-0 (8-3-2) | T 0-0 (7-2-4) |
| June 23: vs. Kansas City Wizards | W 3-0 (9-3-2) | W 2-0 (8-2-4) |
| June Recap | ||
| July 4: vs. Miami Fusion | T 1-1 (9-3-3) | T 1-1 (8-2-5) |
| July 7: at Colorado Rapids | L 1-5 (9-4-3) | L 1-3 (8-3-5) |
| July 14: vs. Tampa Bay Mutiny | W 4-1 (10-4-3) | W 2-1 (9-3-5) |
| July 18: vs. D.C. United | W 4-2 (11-4-3) | W 4-0 (10-3-5) |
| July 21: at Columbus Crew | T 0-0 (11-4-4) | L 1-2 (10-4-5) |
| July Recap | ||
| August 4: at Tampa Bay Mutiny | W 2-0 (12-4-4) | L 0-2 (10-5-5) |
| August 8: at New England Revolution | W 1-0 (13-4-4) | W 5-1 (11-5-5) |
| August 11: vs. Columbus Crew | W 2-1 (14-4-4) | T 2-2 (11-5-6) |
| August 18: vs. Chicago Fire | T 1-1 (14-4-5) | L 0-1 (11-6-6) |
| August 25: vs. Colorado Rapids | W 2-0 (15-4-5) | W 5-2 (12-6-6) |
| August Recap | ||
| September 1: vs. Kansas City Wizards | L 2-4 (15-5-5) | W 3-0 (13-6-6) |
| September 8: at Kansas City Wizards | W 4-1 (16-5-5) | L 0-1 (13-7-6) |
| September Recap |
ROGER SPORTS & GAMES 