i started the international cup the other day, and set it up to look exactly like the world cup, with teams in their proper groups and all (england, argentina, sweden, nigeria in group F, france in group A, etc.)

the neat thing is that the second place team in group F, after finishing the group stage, does actually play the top team from group A, just as it is to happen at the wc. i wasn't sure that it would happen, but it did (thought maybe they'd just have group F qualifyers play group E.) i even played the teams in the right order (england v sweden; argentina; nigeria)

however, what did NOT impress is that france actually finished behind uruguay! portugal finished butt-naked last in their group with usa and poland moving on, and argentina coming in third behind england (me) and nigeria, to not make it to the knock-out phase. :confused: wtf? what happened to the authenticity? i was crapping myself thinking i needed to get a point off sweden in the first match if i wanted to qualify. i eventually took all three, only to beat argentina 2-0 the following match.

is it something to do with the level i'm playing? three stars? do teams behave more like themselves at 4/5 stars?

anyway, just wanted to share.

yes, definitly! play 5 stars, then it is way more realistic and harder. also the CPU game results are authentic then!

Does that really make a difference?

Cause I'm sick of playing Denmark in the final.

I usually find that the crapier teams progress further because of their 5 man defences and defending tactics :|

well in my last international cup on 5 stars only the good teams progressed to the playoffs except for one team, Equador...but maybe they are a good team too?

Originally posted by Tim
Does that really make a difference?

Cause I'm sick of playing Denmark in the final.

well, maybe Seabass did like the '92 european championship final ;)

I've had good teams advance in the international cup on level 3 before. There are just upsets sometimes. For example if Portugal doesn't play up to their ability in the real World Cup they could finish 3rd behind USA and Poland in that group. I am not saying this just because I am from the US, I am just saying something that could happen. A not so good team can be better than a great team for 1 game. And that's all it takes, 1 game.

Becanes

I played the international Cup on 4 stars and the results seemed very realistic. I played argentina in the quarters, spain in the semis and beat france in extra time in the final;)

Originally posted by MisterX_K
yes, definitly! play 5 stars, then it is way more realistic and harder. also the CPU game results are authentic then!

well, i play at 5 stars in training, as a sort of warm-up before venturing off into the cup matches (you don't want to pull a muscle in the big match, right?) but, what turns me off, and maybe i've just got a defective game, but at 5 stars it seems my players are running on ice. it takes two/three steps before they start moving in the direction i press, and everyone seems to have the most horrible first touch even players like veron, zidane, beckham, it's quite pathetic actually. a simple pass will deflect off their boot straight to a defender who takes off down the pitch unmarked.

also, the com players just seem too aggressive at 5. they don't seem to be defending so much as nearly 'mugging' my players. i suppose i just need to get better, and perhaps the english patch will help things with tactics and that to keep defenders off, but currently, i don't like the 'ice' problem present at level 5. i've got enough trouble with players just standing around ;)