Great gameplay
Dude...this stuff is rockin' my world. lol...
Anyways...I had to move to professional...because all my matches on semi-pro were winding up 4 and 5-0. Your gameplay patch has certainly led to some enthralling stuff. Teams that should be cruising...like Senegal and Japan continue rolling along...but by 1-0, 2-1 scores. But there have been other surprises...like Azerbaijan getting a point off England with Rooney having to come on and score in the 81st minute on the road for a 1-1 draw. Or...there was the 3-0 hammering the Finns put on the Dutch. I am also playing a World Cup with Brazil and France. Brazil is on the brink of elimination after losing to Croatia 1-0 and drawing with Australia 1-1. They need a 3-0 win over Japan and an Australia loss to Croatia to move on.
Meanwhile...there's the French. In their first game, they blew a 2-0 lead to Switzerland...but in the second minute of stoppage time, Zidane touched a through ball to Henry at midfield. Henry burst through the defense and won the 1v1 with Zuberbuhler for the 3-2 on the last kick! Then there was South Korea and I have never seen a game like this in the 5 years I've been playing these games. Trezeguet and Henry scored early...but Korea hit a cross bar and a post late in the first half...so second half was game on...right? Wrong!
Seven goals later the final was 9-0. Henry scored the hat trick, Trezeguet and Zidane had two apiece, Viera scored a scorcher from about 30 yards out and substitute Cisse finished the scoring with a sensational shot as he was being American Football tackled by the goalie at the top of the six yard box. Even in my days of FIFA '01 and the bicycle kick, I have never scored that many goals. But the thing is...nothing was cheap...most goals came off scrambles, corners, freekicks...really cool looking stuff.
I must say that shots are still a little unbalanced...in the Finland-Holland game, the Finnish goalie made 13 saves...Finland ended up with four shots.
But the defensive tuning is evident...keepers no longer are super-human for the most part...and 1v1's happen only a few times a game as opposed to every other trip down the field. Great effort...look forward to more.
By the way...I don't know if this is a peculiarity with this game play or not...but I've been wiped out by the keeper on a couple of occasions and there has been nothing called. Can goalies foul/get carded in this game?
Cheers,
mutiger