Game Features
- Hexagonal soccer field
- Attack, Shooting, and Defense ratings
- Passing, Dribbling, and Shooting action tables
- Team rating system
- Tournament and advanced rules
- Published rulebook and national advertising
The Original Game
Think like a coach. Play like a strategist.
Take control of the pitch, move your players, challenge your opponent, and turn tactical decisions into a competitive tabletop match.
Created in 1983, Strategy Cup Soccer brings the movement, positioning, pressure, and decision-making of soccer to the game board.
The Story
Strategy Cup Soccer was created in 1983 by Nicholas C. Arellano while recovering from a torn Achilles tendon. Built around a hexagonal playing field, the game challenged players to think like soccer coaches by balancing passing, dribbling, shooting, defending, and player positioning.
The game was developed in the tradition of Avalon Hill–style strategy games, which helped define adult board gaming from the 1960s through the hobby’s rapid growth in the 1970s. Like those games, Strategy Cup Soccer used a hexagonal grid, individual player counters with distinct skill ratings, and charts that translated movement, decisions, and match situations into gameplay results.
The game was later promoted during the 1986 FIFA World Cup, advertised nationally in Soccer America magazine, and published with its International Rulebook edition in 1989.
Timeline
- 1983Strategy Cup Soccer is created while Nicholas C. Arellano recovers from a torn Achilles tendon.
- 1986The game is promoted during the FIFA World Cup and advertised in Soccer America magazine.
- 1989The International Rulebook edition is published.
- 2007Real San Jose is founded and SoccerMagic.com LLC is registered.
- TodayStrategy Cup Soccer is currently under review for updated rules and design, with possible development as an online game or a hybrid combining online and tabletop play.
Where SoccerMagic Began
The Story Behind Strategy Cup Soccer
Strategy Cup Soccer began with an injury that forced a year away from playing—but not away from thinking about the game.
The game was developed under St. Nicholas Enterprises, the original business that would eventually evolve into SoccerMagic.com.
What started as a way to bring soccer’s movement, decisions, and tactical battles onto a tabletop became the first major SoccerMagic project and the foundation for much of what followed.
It established the idea that still drives SoccerMagic today: when the game presents a problem, build a new way to understand, teach, or experience it.