"Soccer" by Jan van Haasteren: Little Guys Everywhere

One Tiny Section of "Soccer," CEACO, 550 pieces, 16 X 24 inches (The Penalty Shot from Hell)

"Soccer" is my first experience with one of Jan van Haasteren's many puzzles. It's not that I've just become aware of the man's work, but (frankly) they are so "busy," with all those little cartoon characters running around everywhere that they just don't appeal to me that much. It took me, in fact, a long time to figure out a plan of attack on even this smaller one, but once I got into the hang of it (the secret seems to be to just take what the puzzle gives you at the moment and worry about assembling it into one coherent piece later), I enjoyed it. I can't imagine though what a 1000-piece puzzle of his would be like, and probably won't go there even though I already have three of them on my puzzle shelf.

After finishing the puzzle-frame and taking a couple of the more obvious spots on, it was time to use the various signs dispersed throughout the crowd as a way to keep making progress. Finally, some of the sign-sections started to hook into the frame, and I just placed the others in their approximate final settings.

 After I got all the signage in place, I decided to pull all the green pieces out and use the remaining ones to finish the upper half of the puzzle. Despite the sections of the crowd being as segregated by type as they are, that was not as easy for me as I expected it would be.

Then it was time to finish up the pitch itself and all the "players" running around on it, including the track that runs around the perimeter of the pitch. This would prove to be the toughest part of the puzzle for some reason. The funny thing is that, in addition to the soccer teams on the pitch, there are also a basketball team, a football team, a baseball team, a tennis match, track and field athletes, and who knows what else?

And finally it was done...but let's look at some of the detail.

The football and basketball teams

The Indians in the Stands (Politically Correct?)

A Group of Navy personnel from Some Country's Navy

Even the Zoo Animals Had a Section in the Stands (to the dismay of nearby fans?)

There is even a TV Crew in the Sky (and in the way of some fans)

Even a criminal on the pitch choking out one of his opponents (I don't like this image)

Another politically incorrect section in the stands - the Mexican Section?

This one kind of surprised me. It's funny, no doubt about that, but Mr. Van Haasteren seems to have no fear about straying into some areas of humor (ethnic costuming, and the like) that surprised me. The puzzle is only five years old, so I'm surprised that the PC Police haven't caused him a problem yet - but I hope that they never do because this is not mean-spirited humor at all - not even close, in my opinion.

I have three more Jan van Haasteren puzzles of 550 pieces and three 1000-piece ones on my To-Do shelf, and I'm sure that I'll get to some of them later on. But as much fun as this one turned out to be, they are still a little too busy to be a relaxing experience for me - and that means I'm not in a big hurry to do the next one.