Somehow I was introduced to World Cup soccer cards which contained a picture and information for each country such as number of participations in a World Cup, number of games played in a World Cup, number of goals scored, number of goal received and total points. I did not realize that the numbers were all cumulative since the first World Cup in 1930 and assumed they were all from the last World Cup in 1978. Kamran unsuccessfully tried to reason with me that it was impossible for a country to gain more than 14 points in a World Cup as at most they would play seven games with two points for every win. A player would pick one of the categories on the card and the higher number would win the round (except if goals received were selected where the lower numbers were desirable). The game would continue until one player completely ran out of cards. Using the cards, I had learned that Brazil and West Germany were two of the best cards to have while Tunisia was a joker in the pack as a result of its record low goals against (2) which was due to them only having played three games in the World Cup.

Stats aside, I didn’t have any favorite soccer team although I did like Iran’s as it had a group picture of a team consisting of players who were still active. The US card featured a bearded blond player running side by side of a Chinese player as the ball seemed to be passing over their heads. Brazil’s card pictured a black player in an all-white uniform bringing the ball up field. I would later be told that the picture, while relatively recent, in fact had nothing to do with Brazil in the World Cup as it depicted Pele playing the second half for Santos against the New York Cosmos in his retirement match.