If you’ve ever wanted the chance to live the life of a professional footballer, then the free flash game Jumpers for Goalposts, available from the Mousebreaker.com website gives you the opportunity to do so. From a humble, backyard beginning plying your trade on muddy football fields to the dizzying heights of football stardom, Jumpers For Goalposts lets you play out your footballing dreams.
You begin as an amateur football player and have ten years to make it to the top of your profession. On the way, you will have to master training in three separate shooting disciplines to succeed: volleys, snapshots and penalties.
In addition to mastering football skills, you will also have to raise your media profile in order to be noticed by the bigger clubs, while also getting and keeping a girlfriend happy and amassing as much money as possible through your ten year career.
Playing a match involves you putting your skills in the three footballing disciplines detailed below to use and scoring as many goals as possible in each match. If you win, you'll receive extra cash by way of a win bonus. The aim is to be in the top two teams at the end of the eleven-match season in order to gain promotion to the next league. If, however, you finish in the bottom two teams then your team will drop into a lower division.
To play Jumpers For Goalposts, you will only need to use the mouse, and player movements are limited to Left and Right, and Kick. Simply move the mouse left or right to move your player, and use the left-mouse button to kick the ball.
In Jumpers For Goalposts, you will have to master the three elements of scoring. Depending on the element given, you will need to time your shot accurately in order to score a goal. The three elements are:
Volley: The ball will appear from the left of the game window and will bounce across the screen at varying height and speed. To volley the ball, time your shot and press the left-mouse button. Clicking too early or too late will volley the ball wide of the goal or miss the ball altogether.
Penalty: An indicator on the screen moves rapidly from left-to-right, which will determine the direction of your shot. Clicking the left-mouse will set the direction and your player will take the kick. Depending on your direction and timing, you will either score, miss the goal or have the goalkeeper make a save.
Snap-shot: The hardest to master, this element sees the football appear from the bottom of the game window and follow the arrow on-screen. Timing is again important, to shoot the ball towards goal using the left-mouse button. Like volleys, clicking too early or too late will shoot the ball wide or cause the player to miss altogether.
In all three skills, there is always the chance that the goalkeeper will save your shot, while in the Volley and Snap-shot skills there is a chance a wayward shot can be deflected into the goal by one of the static defenders.