I beat several single-player game modes.
With the exception of the goaltender, this falls victim to the common problem with team sport games on the 2600 -- all the players move in lockstep. Instead of the standard 10 plus the goalie on each side, this is limited to 3 players plus the goalie on each side. The goalie for both teams is controlled by the computer. For single player, it plays more like indoor soccer since the ball just bounces off of the side and end lines. Two-player allows for out of bounds, which also brings in the corner kick. For single player, the only opitons are speed of the players, computer difficulty, and size of the goal. Putting it on the smallest goal size really makes it like indoor soccer as it's about 3x as wide as the goalie.
There are several major drawbacks to the game. Other than the goalie, the players can only control the ball for about a half second and then automatically kicks it in whatever direction he is moving. Since the three players are in a tight triangle at all times, you can't set up any type of attack strategy. You just end up trying to kick it before the computer player does. Also, because they are at a fixed distance from each other, if you get close to the sideline or end line, it becomes impossible for the player that is farthest away from that sideline to get to the ball since the player out of bounds runs into the edge of the screen, meaning that your entire team can't continue moving that way. For an extremely cheap win, if you're ahead and your goalie gains control of the ball, you can just sit there and let the clock run out for an easy win since the goalie holds the ball until you actually kick it.
The higher player speed does cause some spacing between the two teams. It also increases the scoring quite a bit. So, as with Boxing, it's much more fun on the highest speed.
