CLICK HERE TO START YOUR $1 7 DAY TRIAL NOW!

Our new course, Ultimate Team Secrets, has helped a ton of gamer finally experience success and confidence with the tricky  Ultimate Team Add-on. We want you to build a winning squad that’s SO GOOD your friends will be jealous!

So here’s what I’m going to do…..

If you purchase Ultimate Team Secrets now, I’m going to give you a $1 (0.69 £) 7 Day trial to try out the course at virtually NO risk to you. If you are unhappy at all with the course, simply send us an e-mail and we will cancel your membership. No questions asked.

After the $1 7 day trial, you will be billed $19.95 per month unless you cancel your membership.

Once you purchase your FREE $1 trial, you will instantly learn how to:

• Make loads of coins easily in less than 1 day
• Show off your new and improved squad to your friends/mates
• Win online tournaments and add to your trophy collection
• Gain confidence in Ultimate Team and enjoy the game much better
• Unlock the secrets to buying the best players without guessing

CLICK HERE TO START YOUR $1 7 DAY TRIAL AT NO RISK!

Need help with scoring free kicks in FIFA 10? GuiltyGamer and others recorded some amazing FIFA 10 free kick tutorials that walk you through the 3 different types of free kicks:

• Free kicks within short range
• Free kicks within medium range
• and long distance free kicks

Watch the video tutorials in order to receive the maximum tips and benefits. Best of all, you can practice these free kicks in the FIFA 10 arena without the need of glitches or other bugs.

FIFA 10 Free Kick Tutorial for Xbox 360 and PS3 with Buttons Included

FIFA 10 Free Kick Tutorial for Short Range Shots

FIFA 10 Free Kick Tutorial for Medium Range Shots

FIFA 10 Free Kick Tutorial for Long Range Shots

How to Score Free Kicks Just Outside the Box (Submitted by Warren)

This works for a free kick fairly close to the box. Within 10 feet of it.

1) Face your player to the end of the wall nearest the goalkeeper.

2) Find the angle between the ball and the goalpost nearest you on your joystick. You may have moved your view, so go back to step 1 if you have to.

3) Once lined up fully, TAP the Shoot button very quickly, but firmly, as well as pushing the joystick to the angle that you have prepared earlier in step 2.

You should have a goal…

Who are the Best FIFA 10 Free Kick Takers?

Here’s a short list of recommended Free kick takers to use:

• Frank Ribery (Bayern Munich)
• Frank Lampard (Chelsea)
• Dani Alves (Barcelona)
• Mario Balotelli (Inter Milan)
• Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
• Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
• David Beckham (AC Milan)

Who do you think is the best free kick taker in FIFA 10? List your opinion in the comments!

Just 1 week ago, I released my free Ultimate Team guide called Insider Secrets to FIFA 10 Ultimate for Xbox 360 and PS3.

Over 2,400 people have read that guide since then!

The response is pretty cool, which is why I’m excited to put the finishing touches on the complete video training tutorials.

I Need Your Help

I’ve already finished recording most of the ebook guide into videos, plus got a few cool bonuses lined up. What else am I Missing?

Please share with me:

• Did You Like the Free Guide? Did it suck?
• What is your biggest FUT problem?
• What bugs you the most about Ultimate Team?
• What do you struggle with?
• Etc

The entire course and BRAND NEW website should be ready by next week. My designer is awesome, but always takes a while to get projects completed.

The key to FUT is building an awesome squad to compete with in games and tourneys. Most gamers ask me “How do I build the best squad?”. The correct question should be…. “How to Build the Best Football/Soccer Organization in Ultimate Team?”

Too many people only play with 1 squad, which causes the following problems:

• Players play too many games and face lots of injuries
• Contract and Healing cards eat up the majority of coins when playing games
• Failure to play in profitable tournaments because you don’t meet the tourney requirements
• Frustration leads to deleting squads and starting all over again
• etc.

Build a 1^st Team and Bronze Team of Reserves

Build multiple squads in FUT to achieve greater success just like Manchester United and FC Barcelona do in real life. For instance, I manage 2 squads:

• Modupe FC: My First Team Senior Squad with the best talent
• Modupe FC B: My 2^nd team made up of mostly bronze players and a silver GK

This is huge! You win games (especially single player tournaments) with your 2^nd team instead of wasting contracts and risking injuries with your 1^st team squad. It’s easy to acquire bronze players. You buy a few bronze packs, and assemble a full squad for less than 2k coins.

When a player’s contract runs out, you either discard him or put him up for sale. Unless you’ve got a great bronze player, it makes little sense to waste contracts on him.

Save Your Coins for Players on the Open Market or Gold Packs

Your 2^nd team squad earns you the same amount of coins as the 1^st team squad without the injury risk. Purchase specific players or gold packs with the extra coins. I recommend saving up at least 10k before buying players in the marketplace as a rule of thumb. If you are short on coins, then learn some easy ways to make coins in FIFA 10 Ultimate team.

How to Choose the Best FIFA 10 Ultimate Team Formation

Your formation has a tremendous affect on how well you play and which players make up your squad. Generally speaking, you should place players in their preferred positions/formations. Now some of you already know that gamers are beating other gamers with a squad full of Gks to prove that chemistry and formations are flawed in FUT. That’s true, and EA is working on correcting those issues. In the meantime, build your squad the right way so when the update arrives, you gain a boost in chemistry immediately while other gamer must fix holes in their chemistry rating.

Below is a screenshot of the average FUT formation to help you estimate the market demand for each formation:

According to the screenshot above, we know the top 5 most common formations are:

1. 4-4-2: Wing play, 8 behind in defense, lots of passing angles
2. 4-1-2-1-2: midfield build up, attacking and defensive strategy, 7 behind in defense
3. 4-3-3: attacking formation, good for strong strikers
4. 4-2-2-2: Double CDMs, 6 behind in defense
5. 4-3-1-2: Attacking formation, CF up top, CM’s across

If you choose a popular formation, then you pay a premium on every card. Any formation with a backline of 5 or 3 players has less demand, therefore the price is lower.

Personally, I use the 4-4-2 because this formation suits my style of football/soccer. There is no perfect formation.

You have to TEST THIS YOURSELF.

Refer to the notes above for some general tips. Just experiment yourself and see what works best.

How to Prevent Injuries

Truth is there is no 100% way to prevent injuries in Ultimate Team. Any football/soccer fan knows that injuries are a part of the game, but there are a few ways to avoid them:

• Rotate your players every few games: The lower your players’ fitness is, the more likely he will get injured. This is because he runs and recovers slower on the pitch, making him a target for harsh tackles. I rotate my entire lineup (except GK) every 2-3 games to give my top players a rest. It only takes 1 game rest for your players’ fitness to return to 100%.
• Load up on Physio Staff: Don’t ignore the power of staff. For every staff member you have, you receive a multiplier effect. Purchase Physio staff members to receive a bonus multiplier when you apply a healing card. You get them in packs or straight from the trading marketplace. Each Physio staff has a percentage next to the healing factor I.E. Leg 15%. When you apply a leg healing card, you receive an extra 15% of healing power towards your player. This heals your player much faster while spending less coins in the process. Just add every Physio member to your MY CLUB to receive the full benefits.
• Save stars for Online Games: Another huge mistake is playing your stars in offline matches. The CPU sucks and you don’t need Messi for a game against the computer. If your star gets hurt, then let it happen against a competitive online game. How embarassing is it to lose Messi for 5 games against West Ham United on Pro level in some random offline tourney?!?

How to Save Coins on Contracts

Another largely overlooked tactic is the importance of managers. Most people buy 1 manager then ignore the rest by either discarding or trading them.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Shiny manager cards are worth SO MUCH because they have a contract multiplier that adds additional contracts to your player when you apply a contract card.

Example.

I have about 11 shiny managers which add up to around 30% on all my contracts. Whenever I apply a contract card, I get an 3-4 extra contracts FOR EVERY CARD! I save SOOOO many coins.

1. Buy shiny manager cards with contract multipliers
2. Send them to your My Club
3. That’s it!

You can reap the extra contracts for as long as you keep the managers.

Example

I bought a 93 Sir Alex Ferguson 4-4-2 w/ 3% contract boost for 250 coins!

If you spend too many coins on contracts, then buy more shiny managers (bronze, silver, and gold alike), and make your contract cards worth more instantly!

How to Boost Team Chemistry

EA Sports is working hard on improving chemistry, so do not expect any huge positives from a 100% rating. If you’re like me, then keep your chemistry high since you’re prepared when EA improves chemistry.

There are 3 ways to get 100% chemistry:

1. Same Nationality: For example, An all-English squad achieves 100% chemistry rating. Each player will be linked in green if they are in their preferred position.
2. Same League: For example, An All Barclays Premier League squad achieves 100% chemistry rating if they are in their preferred position.
3. Same Team: For example, an All FC Barcelona squad achieves 100% chemistry rating if they are in their preferred position.

I recommend these nations for 100% chemistry based on nationality:

• England
• Spain
• France
• Brazil
• Italty

These 5 nations provide TONS of talented players so you can achieve a 100% chemistry rating plus have a squad of good players. It makes no sense to build a same nationality squad if you sacrifice talent in the process.

I recommend these leagues for 100% chemistry based on league:

• Serie A
• Barclays Premier League
• La Liga BBVA
• Ligue 1

The UEFA Champions league consists mostly of teams from these top 4 leagues. Build an awesome FUT squad from these 4 leagues.

How to Get High Rated Players

Want to build a squad that consists of Messi, Kaka, Ronaldo, etc? Well, you have two options:

• Buy/Trade for them in the marketplace
• or Buy packs with the hopes of pulling them

Buying/Trading is the easiest and fastest way to get the best players. Here are a few trading tips that will save you coins and help you get great deals:

• Buy during NON-Peak Hours. The majority of FUT gamers live in the UK. You get the BEST deals when UK players are either away from their console or sleeping. These hours are 4AM to 4PM GMT or 10PM to 10AM EST.
• Hang around during 55 Mins to 59 Mins. When gamers want a quick sale, they post an attractive BIN price for only 1 hour. If you hang around 1 hour auctions, you will grab some AMAZING deals. Simply sort by Gold – Position – League, then scroll until the 1 hour mark.
• Hang around the last minute. Alternatively, you can grab some more deals by hanging around the last few seconds of the auction. BINs do not apply here. Bid higher than the current bid to win the auction.
• Search for specific players. Finally, Zero in on a specific player then scroll through ALL the auctions to find the lowest BIN price. You do this by sorting via Position, Level, Nation, League and Team.

I use these 4 tips to find amazing deals that will resell for higher profits later on.

For more FIFA 10 Ultimate team tips, grab your copy of FREE Insider Secrets to FUT 10 Now!

You’ve probably heard of generic “Buy low, Sell High” as trading advice. There are TONS of different ways to earn lots of coins without buying any cards at all! If there is one section you should pay attention to, this is it! For more tips and tricks on playing FUT, download the FIFA 10 Ultimate Team strategy guide.

1. Play in Single Player Tournaments. Profit Potential = 300 to 600 coins per game.

Enter tourneys against CPU to earn coins. Win every game at least 3-0, and earn around 500 to 600 coins. Most tourneys pay out around 500 to 1500 coins as a trophy bonus. Remember: use your 2^nd team to earn coins while preserving your best players’ contracts and protecting them from injury.

2. Play in Online Tournaments. Profit Potential = 200 to 800 coins per game.

Online tournaments pay more coins due to the DNF modifier and online modifier. If you win a game 3-0 online, you can get 700+ coins easily. If you quit a game, then your DNF modifier drops. You get fewer coins in future tourney wins.

3. Play in Single Player Match. Potential = 300 to 600 coins per game.

Again, same as tourneys w/o the tournament bonus factor.

4. Play in Online Match. Profit Potential = 200 to 800 coins per game.

Same as tourneys w/o the trophy bonus factor.

5. Bronze Pack Method. Potential = 600 to 750 coins on AVERAGE.

A very popular method where you purchase bronze packs then resell the contents for profit. This has been less effect recently ever since the trading market crashed. Each pack gives you 2-3 players (sell for 200 each), kits & balls (200 each), and contracts & managers (150 to 300 each). The main problem is you NEED TO SELL your inventory to make any money. Since bronze cards have the least value, you may experience days without selling anything.

6. Silver Pack Method. Profit Potential = 750 to 25k Coins per pack.

Same as the bronze pack but with silver cards. Carry a slightly higher value, plus adds the possibility to obtain a rare silver card in the process.

7. Gold Pack Method. Profit Potential = 500 coins to 1 million coins per pack.

The elite profit method for packs. Has the ability to generate anywhere from 500 coins to 1 million coins profit per pack. This is due to the luck factor if you pull a Ronaldo, Messi, or other HIGH rated player in a gold pack.

8. Buy, Boost, Bank. Profit Potential = 1k to 50k coins extra profit per card.

A fairly underground method used to generate more profit from an otherwise lower value card.

Example

We buy a Valencia RW 4-3-2-1 w/ 7 contracts on the open market for 3k. We could resell immediately for 4k and get a small profit. With Buy, Boost, Bank, we increase the value of the card by:

• Adding 33 contracts
• Adding Player Attributes increase to highlight the card
• Changing the formation to 4-3-3
• then Setting the auction for 9k BIN.

Do you see what we did? Now, a Valencia buyer can use this card RIGHT AWAY in his 4-3-3 formation without worrying about contracts or chemistry. The Player attributes also generates extra attention since the rating attributes cause the card to get highlighted in the listing.

9. The Professional Trader. Profit Potential = 5k to 200k per card.

This method works really well when you find out which players sell the best.

1. Sort auctions by Gold, Minimum Price = 4k coins
2. See what is selling well and create a list of 10 to 15 players
3. Search for these players at the lowest BIN price
4. Buy it then resell the card at a higher price
5. Rinse and Repeatedly

You will eventually get good at recognizing deals in the marketplace, and become an expert “trader.”

10. Buy during Non-Peak hours, Sell during Peak hours. Profit Potential = 2k to 100k coins per card.

Another good method is when you buy cards during a cooled off market during the night, then sell in a higher volume market during the afternoon-evening. Most people play FUT between 4pm and 4am in their time zone. You simply stay up late at night when others are sleeping to pick up bargains. Wait until tomorrow and sell during the afternoon at a higher price. This method is REALLY popular and is currently the largest thread in the UK FUT forums.

11. Pump and Dump. Profit Potential = 1k to 50k coins per card

This strategy takes careful monitoring of 1 specific player. You buy up as many of the player as possible, creating a short supply in the marketplace. This pumps up prices to your advantage. Once the demand is there, you unload your cards at a higher price as you meet the demand.

Example

We buy every Robinho for under 5k, then hold. Wait until the marketplace is absent of Robinho or has a low supply. Then you unload your Robinho’s 1 by 1, giving you FULL control over the market supply.

12. Contract Drug Dealer. Profit Potential = 250 to 1k coins per contract.

Everybody is addicted to contracts. Make easy coins by feeding this addiction with a few minutes of your time.

Example

Search for any gold contracts under 400 BIN. Buy them all then resell them immediately at 500+ BIN. They sell very easily and it’s some quick and easy coins.

13. Ebay Auctions. Time Savings = 1 hour to 1 week.

Did you know you can buy coins on eBay?!? Yep. You can get around 4k coins for every $1 dollar. That’s a pretty good bargain if you have more money than time.

Example

It takes you 15 minutes on average to complete 1 tournament game. You earn 600 coins. For every 1 hour, you generate 2400 coins plus 600 trophy bonus equalling 3k coins per hour. This is your average hourly earnings.

With eBay, you get 4k coins for every dollar. If your time is worth $10 USA dollars per hour, then you are valuing your time at 75 cents per hour if you play the tournaments. Play the tourneys for fun, not if coins is your #1 motivation. Using eBay, you can purchase 100k coins for $25 dollars, thus saving you over 30 hours of playing tournaments. Do you see how powerful this leverage is? Do a eBay search for Ultimate Team coins to leverage your time quickly.

14. Buy MSN or PSN Network Points. Profit Potential = Unlimited.

I started out with this method 1^st to get the ball rolling right away. You simply purchase points through Amazon.com then purchase packs and/or players.

Note: Because of an Xbox 360 glitch, Ea sports suspended the use of MSN points for packs temporarily. They are working hard on this issue and I expect MSN points to be back hopefully by the end of March. No guarantees here. Just my guess

15. FUT Coin Contests. Profit Potential = 5k to 20k coins.

A few generous gamers give away coins if you answer weird questions correctly like “What is my Birthday? Or How many times did I have sex last weekend?” If you have a few minutes to spare, why not try your luck and see what happens?

For more FIFA 10 Ultimate team tips, grab your copy of FREE Insider Secrets to FUT 10 Now!

Yay! FIFA 10 Ultimate team is here. I had to pleasure of downloading Ultimate Team for Xbox 360 and playing straight for hours. It is highly addictive just like last year’s edition. Without further ado, let’s check it out.

Win a Free iPod Touch! Enter the FIFA 10 Ultimate Team Contest for More Details.

Introduction to FIFA 10 Ultimate Team

FIFA 10 Ultimate Team enables players to manage one or multiple squads simultaneously, and compete against others in dynamically updated online tournaments. Featuring over 7,500 of the best soccer stars in the world, gamers can emulate the way real-world coaches and managers build the truly great soccer teams.

Choose how to manage your team by focusing on creating one formidable squad, or managing multiple squads to match dynamic requirements for tournaments and competitions. Buy, sell, trade and acquire the biggest stars to build your team. Be strategic and tactical in preparing your squads for the various in-game competitions. A redesigned chemistry system built around player relationships on the pitch means that managing teams and squads to their full potential is critical to success. (Source: Avault)

Buying FIFA 10 Ultimate Team

Unlike other FIFA 10 modes, I had to purchase Ultimate Team as a separate add-on. EA Sports cut the price of Ultimate Team in half to put it in the hands of more gamers.

Why Did EA Sports Cut the Price in Half?

It’s no accident that obtaining coins is MUCH different than FIFA 09 Ultimate Team. EA Sports made Ultimate team cheaper to hopefully get more gamers to download the add-on. They LOSE money on the front end, hoping to earn a ton of money on the backend as gamers purchase points using their credit cards. Brilliant EA! Maybe your streak of posting a profit loss for 12 consecutive quarters will end this year….Only kidding

Ultimate Team costs:

• 400 microsoft points (Approx $5 US Dollars)
• or $6 on the PSN Network.

I purchased 500 microsoft points using my credit card, and was given access to the FIFA 10 Ultimate Team Downloads. Ultimate team comes in 3 different language packs:

• Ultimate Team in English
• Ultimate Team in Spanish
• Ultimate Team in French

I downloaded the English pack which took about 10-15 minutes to download. The file was about 400+ MB in size. Perhaps my connection was low. Oh well…

FIFA 10 Ultimate Team First Impressions

The first thing you’ll notice is a much different interface. It’s much cleaner, and contains more content in the screen. FIFA Soccer blog does a good job of comparing and contrasting FUT 09 vs. FUT 10 in terms of looks:

The first change you will immediately notice is the new interface. Whilst the top level of the “tree system” is still in effect, you have a lot more control over things. For example, if you want to change out a player in your squad for a stored card (more on that later), you only need to press a few buttons and the player is replaced. Last year involved a lot of up/down scrolling, and in fairness with the amount of cards you hold and need to work through it will always be like this to a degree, but at least this year we get to scroll left/right instead. We also have a badge of honour which shows how long you have been playing Ultimate Team for, those of us who have been playing since day 1 on Fifa09 will be given a “founder” badge, whilst others will have to make do with the month and year they started. (Source: FIFA Soccer Blog)

My Collection Replaced with My Club

You can no longer store cards in your collection to earn coins. Instead, you place them in My Club, giving you access to any players in less than 3 clicks. Your players are stored and separated by Country, League, and Club. It makes sense to discard or trade extra cards, however you can store a ton of extra in My Clubs if you wish to build more than 1 squad.

Player Rating System is Very Different

Last year, it was very easy to apply training cards to boost a player’s rating. You could turn any player into 99 perfectly rated player, giving UT a very arcade feel. In ‘10, training cards only benefit the player for the next game, adding a ton of realism.

Real Time Auction Bidding + Snipe Proof

The auction system is vastly different. You can no longer snipe an auction within the last 15 seconds. Any bids in the last 15 seconds automatically give other gamers another 15 seconds to bid higher than you. There’s also secondary controller feedback in the form of vibrations to reinforce the crucial auction ending time.

Playing a Match in Ultimate Team

I headed over to the Play Match tab and there are 3 different game modes:

• Tournaments: Enter tournaments to win coins and trophies. Tournaments have entry requirements and rules before entering. You have to win a Single Player tournament first to unlock online tourneys. When you win a tournament, you receive a trophy for your My Club along with a huge coin bonus depending on the tourney and difficulty.
• Single Player Match: Play offline against a random club to practice your skills and perfect your formations/lineups. Single player match is the most boring mode in my opinion. I rarely play it.
• Online Match: Play online against other gamers and compete against them.

The tournaments mode is the most fun because it adds the extra drama of a knock out round match to the story. Single Player matches are a waste of contracts in my opinion. Online matches are ok, but you have to be careful because you can burn contracts while losing in the process. If you quit, you receive a negative coin modifier.

Managing Your Ultimate Team Squad

You can now create multiple squads and manage more players than ever. Perhaps you want to create a 1st team and reserve lineup? I created a reserve team to train so I can scout prime talent that isn’t on my 1st squad. Cool, huh?

When you select a player, you can:

• Apply a training or healing card
• Swap with other players in your My Club book
• Send the player to the trade pile
• Bench players for good
• or Discard for a small sum of coins

New Team Chemistry Ratings

Another brand spanking new addition is the improved Team chemistry system. In ‘09, you gained chemistry through sharing the same formation. Now several factors affect your team chemistry including:

• Preferred Player Position
• Preferred Player Formation
• Nationality
• Club Leagues
• and Linking

For Instance, let’s say Xavi prefers to play as a CM in a basic 4-4-2 formation. You want to surround Xavi with other 4-4-2 players and his country mates or other La liga players. When a player shares the same nationality or league as another, you create a green link between the players. This will boost your team chemistry rating greatly.

Hiring a Manager

Your manager adds Contract and Team talks ratings to your squad too. Hiring a manager that uses the same formation as your squad will boost your team chemistry as well.

Applying Items

Any items you receive via packs or trading can be used to boost moral, fitness, or various skills for the next game. You can add all these things within 2 clicks. Much improved.

Can You Use Your Virtual Pro?

No. Ultimate team is a completely separate gaming mode. It would be very cool if FIFA 11 allowed you to integrate your VP, but it sounds really difficult to program. Your virtual pro must turn into a trading card. So what if you ran out of coins or contracts? Would your VP be deleted? There are too many bag things that can happen when you mix them together.

Purchasing Items at the Ultimate Team Store

One of the best ways to obtain new cards is to purchase packs. Packs contain players, coaches, training bonuses, home and away jerseys, home grounds. Each pack contains 12 cards and there are 6 different pack levels:

• Bronze Packs: 500 coins
• Premium Bronze Packs: 750 coins
• Silver Packs: 2,500 coins
• Premium Silver Packs: 3,750 coins
• Gold Packs: 5,000 coins
• Premium Gold Packs: 7,500 coins

There are two ways to purchase packs: Use coins, or buy microsoft points or psn network points. Once you select a pack, you have your choice of 10 different packs to open. This new feature adds a bit of mystery to the process of buying packs. There’s a rumor going around the FIFA community about buying the 8th pack. Sounds like a bunch of BS to me. In my experience, getting a rare player is mostly luck with buying packs.

Which Packs Give You the Best Players?

If you want to add stars to your club, focus your attention on Gold and Premium Packs. They cost 5,000 & 7,500 coins respectively. However, the chances are obtaining a world class player are slim. I purchased over 20 Gold packs in 24 hours, and the best player I received was only a Guti CAM.

Ultimate Team Trading

Another great way to score some awesome cards is through the trading network. You can search for specific cards, trade your own cards for coins or other players, and add items to your watchlist. If you snipe the auctions ending within a few minutes, you can score some amazing cards for a very low cost.

My Club Feature

My club is basically where you store all the Ultimate Team items you have collected. Navigating your club is tedious and a pain in the butt. What are the chances of competing your full My Club? Assuming you have a life outside of Xbox 360 and Ps3? Zero.

MY FUT

Here, you can:

• View player stats for your clubs
• Watch FIFA 10 Ultimate Team Tutorials to help you improve
• View EA Sports credits
• or Delete Your Ultimate Team (yikes!)

Ultimate Team tutorials are fun to watch and helpful. Player stats feature shows who is contributing to your squad and who is burning coins without doing a damn thing.

3 Easy Ways to Get Coins in Ultimate Team

Some people think it’s harder to obtain coins in Ultimate Team 10. Yes, it’s no longer possible to sell 99 rated cards at 50k coins, but you still have plenty of opportunities to earn coins. The top 3 ways are:

• Pay for coins: If you have the cash, then come out of pocket to get your coins. However, I recommend buying xbox live points or psn network points through Amazon. You will get more points for every dollar, plus you avoid any emotional Xbox Live purchases at 2am in the morning.
• Win Tournaments: Tourneys have the highest coin payout out of all matches
• Become a Salesmen: Find deals in the marketplace and exploit them. Search for a specific player whose selling WAY below market value. Buy him, then resell at a higher price for profit. It’s like running your own Ultimate Team business. With all the extra coins, you can buy your dream team, more packs, or just enjoying the rich FIFA 10 lifestyle.

Selling items will yield you the most coins for the smallest time investment. We all know how boring it is to play in those easy tournaments against the CPU. But you can still earn A TON of coins this way if you have the patience.

Greedy gamers bid SUPER HIGH prices just to get a brand name star. Be patience. Don’t buy cards for the sake of buying cards. Use the watch list feature to isolate good deals then wait for the auction to near the ending time. The patience will be rewarded with deals. The greedy will get slaughtered.

Hey, Where’s Play a Friend Mode?

Ea, We want to play our friends so we can kick the crap out of them. Get it? I could go on a rant, but why not let someone else take care of this. Andrew says:

I just want to kick Dustin’s ass – I still can’t play a friend in FIFA Ultimate Team. This option was a glaring omission in last year’s edition – apparently not glaring enough, however, as EA has yet to implement this simple and straightforward piece of functionality. I just want to show Dustin how much better I am at building a a team than he is. Is that too much to ask? (Source: MMOMFG)

EA Sports, please listen. We want Play a Friend feature in FIFA 11 Ultimate Team. You’re making millions of dollars off Ultimate Team, and I can’t even beat the hell out of my online friends.

Tips to Improve Your Ultimate Team Quickly

As I’m writing this, you guys are searching for tips to improve your Ultimate Team quickly and easily. I’m currently working on a FREE FIFA 10 Ultimate Team Strategy Guide that will contain a ton of good info, but give me a couple weeks to finish it. In the meantime, here’s a few good tips that you can apply now.

• Maximize your coins earned per game by understanding how the coins system works. FIFA tricks has an awesome Ultimate Team Calculator that does this in a snap!
• Pick 1 Formation and Stick to It. Then build a squad of players that like your default formation
• NEVER play Single Player matches. It wastes contracts, plus you can earn more coins by entering Single Player Tournaments because of Man of the Match and Tournament multipliers
• Snipe auctions in the last couple minutes to get bargains
• Hold on the players for as long as possible. You develop chemistry and can use training cards to get High Value players for much less than the trading marketplace

How to Get The Best Players in Ultimate Team

Let’s face it. Everybody wants Messi and C. Ronaldo on their squad. So how do you do it? There are 2 ways I can think of:

• Save a bunch of coins and buy them
• or Buy high demand players at a low price then flip them for profit

Either way, you need to earn A LOT of coins to afford the best players. You are wasting your coins if you hope to acquire them via packs. Packs are great for getting some trade bait to make coins. Otherwise, buying packs with your hard earned coins is inefficient.

Final Verdict on Ultimate Team

• Improved Trading Search
• No More 99 Player rating cheats
• Improved Team Chemistry
• More Realistic Team Training
• More Customization Options
• More Tournaments
• Live Auction Bidding

Warning! It’s highly addictive. I really like Ultimate Team, and I think it’s the most fun game mode in FIFA 10. It sucks that Ultimate Team always comes out so late because I only play it for around 6 months until FIFA 11 releases. Oh well, What are you waiting for? Get Ultimate Team Now!

If You Could Make The Perfect Ultimate Team, Who Would Be On It and Why?

My current Ultimate Team is above average at best. I believe in saving up coins to grab great auctions deal when they come by.

My Ultimate Team

• Formation: 4-4-2
• Defenders: Camara – Tasci – Distin – Seitardis
• Midfielders: Emmauelson – Caserta – Obodo – Saliham
• Forwards: Webo – Perea
• GK: Bruno

Reader Question: If You Could Make The Perfect Ultimate Team, Who Would Be On It and Why?

FIFtips presents the very first contest of 2010! In honor of FIFA 10 Ultimate Team’s release on February 25th, we are giving away a ton of cool prizes to you special FIFA gamers.

Contest Details

We’re working on a brand new FIFA 10 Ultimate Team strategy guide to be released on March 15th. You get 1 entry for every person that signs up on the download page.

• 1 entry per referral who signs up to the list
• The person with the most referrals gets the iPod Touch.
• 2nd most referrals gets the choice of the 2nd place prize
• 3rd most referrals gets their choice of the 3rd place prize.
• Contest Ends on March 26th
• Winner Will Be Notificed on March 27th
• Prizes Will be Delivered via Mail and/or E-mail through Amazon.com

The Prizes

1st Place: Brand New Apple iPod Touch 8 GB 3rd Generation

2nd Place:

4000 Microsoft xbox live points

or

$50 Prepaid PSN Network Card

3rd Place:

1600 Microsoft xbox live points

or

$20 Prepaid PSN Network Card

How to Promote

Send all your buddies and mates to this page using your very own referral link. Enter your e-mail address after the ?ref= to get credit for the referral.

You must use your own link because this is the only way to verify your referral.

Here’s an example of how to properly link to the guide download page using your e-mail address

http://www.fiftips.com/fifa10ultimateteam.php?ref=YOUREMAIL@EXAMPLE.com

Just replace the YOUREMAIL@EXAMPLE.com with your e-mail address and that’s it.

Tips on How to Promote

You can get really creative with this, but some easy ways are:

• E-mail your buddies with your referral link
• Send a tweet to your twitter followers
• Share the link on Facebook
• Blog about it
• Post the referral link in your forum signature
• Etc

If you have any more comments or questions, then leave them in the comments!

Grab your referral link and start promoting now!

http://www.fiftips.com/fifa10ultimateteam.php?ref=YOUREMAIL@EXAMPLE.com

Need help with FIFA 10 defensive tips, strategies, and tactics? Well, you have come to the right place. I received an e-mail asking the following question via a FIFtips subscriber:

Javier Writes:

I truly appreciate your communications but I wanted to ask you if you have any advance tips for building a strong defense. I find myself giving up too many goals. I would appreciate any feedback.

Defense is the #1 most important aspect of FIFA because you only have to score a few goals per game when you have a solid defensive front. We’re going to go over the elements of a strong defense and show you how to earn more clean sheets, defend better, and leave your opponents scratching their heads in frustration when attacking your back 4.

Introduction to FIFA 10 Defensive Strategies

FIFA 10 is very different in the sense that attacking and defending have a much more realistic feel to them. With the introduction of 360 movement, your opponent has the ability to outwit you even more than ever!

Of course, your defensive abilities must rise to the challenge. Luckily, there are tons of resources on the internet to help you improve your FIFA 10 defending skills and strategies.

In this article, we’re going to cover:

• FIFA 10 Defensive Controls for Xbox 360 and PS3
• FIFA 10 Defensive Tutorials
• FIFA 10 Defensive Strategies, Tactics, and Tips

FIFA 10 Defensive Controls for Xbox 360 and PS3

Before we go into any complex tactics or strategies, let’s cover the basic defending controls, shall we?

Jockeying

Jockeying is when you drop back your defender to give your other defensive teammates time to recover. It works extremely well to prevent counter attacks, block crosses or breakaway attempts.

• Jockey Controls for Xbox 360: Hold LT
• Jockey Controls for PS3: Hold L2

Jockey Press

While jockeying, you can also perform a tackle to dispossess your opponent. Use with caution because if you miss, your opponent will have a open lane to goal.

• Jockey Press Controls for Xbox 360: Hold LT + A
• Jockey Press Controls for PS3: Hold L2 + X

Face Up

If you tackle too much without facing up, you decrease the chances of winning the ball. Facing up creates a greater opportunity to win the ball.

• Face up controls for Xbox 360: Press LT
• Face up controls for PS3: Press L2

Call a 2nd Defender

When 1 defender isn’t enough, you can bring a 2nd defender to trap and win the ball.  This works extremely well in the corners and along the sideline. Be careful because if you don’t win the ball, you create large gaps in your formation to can be exploited heavily.

• Call a 2nd Defender Controls for Xbox 360: Hold B
• Call a 2nd Defender Controls for PS3: Hold O

Defensive Header

Clearing the ball out is crucial to protect your goalkeeper for shots and to keep your opponent guessing. When your opponent crosses the ball into your box, your defenders should hit the head out as far as possible to prevent any goal scoring opportunities.

• Defensive header controls for Xbox 360: Hold B while ball is in air
• Defensive header controls for PS3: Hold O while ball is in air

Defensive Clear

When in doubt, kick it out! Sometimes you need to clear the ball as fast as possible to prevent goals.

• Defensive Clear controls for Xbox 360: Press B
• Defensive Clear controls for PS3: Press O

Slide Tackling

One of the most popular tackles in FIFA 10 is the slide tackle. It’s also the most dangerous, and is responsible for the majority of my yellow and red cards

Slide tackling is great for last minute attempts to stop an attacker, blocking passing lines, or preventing breakaways.

• Slide Tackling Controls for Xbox 360: Press X
• Slide Tackling Controls for PS3: Press Square

That’s a quick list of the FIFA 10 defensive control options. Remember that each controls works for a specific situation. This should reduce the goals you allow and earn you more clean sheets.

FIFA 10 Defending Tutorials

Now that you know all the defense controls, watch the official FIFA 10 basic and advanced defending tutorials to see them in action.

FIFA 10 Basic Defending Tutorial

FIFA 10 Advanced Defending Tutorial

FIFA 10 Defensive Strategies, Tips, and Tactics

Darren Cross has written one of the most comprehensive defending guide filled with tactics, tips, strategies, and skills that I have ever seen. The entire article is posted over at FIFA Community and partially at EA Sports Community. I have included just the tips and strategies here.

1 LEAVE THE PASS BUTTON ALONE!

Without a doubt, the single biggest thing that’s made a difference for me is the way I defend in my own box, especially against crosses and long passes. As a player who likes to play attractive football, I’d always defend balls into my box with the pass button and look to head it down to a team-mate, in the hope of starting my own counter. But I soon lost count of the amount of times I headed the ball to an opposition player and gifted the other team a goal.

My thumb naturally hovers over the pass button because this is the one I use the most, so it took a surprising amount of effort at first to consciously move it over to the shoot button when defending balls into the box, and what a difference it made! Instead of attempting to find a team-mate with a risky header in the most dangerous area of all, I now simply head or clear it as far away as possible which, if it doesn’t go to one of my players, at least gives me a few valuable seconds to get some shape back. It might not be pretty but it’s very, very effective.

2 ALWAYS FACE THE PLAY!

I don’t know why, but hardly anyone uses the jockey function in FIFA 09. It’s bizarre, because it’s actually one of your most potent weapons when you’re defending. Jockeying simply means keeping your body positioned toward the attacker, so you’re always facing the play. This prevents turning your back while sprinting and trying to guess which way the attacker is going to go. It also gives you the best chance of making a standing tackle, so not only do you win the ball back, but you also immediately have possession. 

Jockeying is really easy to do, which makes it even more strange that it’s so rarely used! Just hold down the left trigger or L2 and your defender will remain facing the ball until you release the button. If the attacker is running at speed, then hold down the right trigger or R2 as well and your defender will perform a running jockey. Now all you need to do is wait for the right moment to go for the standing tackle. 

3 LOOK AROUND!

Just won a goal kick? Then take a second to chill out and have a look around. So many players fail to do this and start tapping the pass button as soon as they know they’ve won a goal kick, only to knock the ball straight to the opposition’s striker who gratefully accepts the gift and taps the ball home.

This is so easy to avoid, yet so many impatient players still do it. I know this because that used to be me, and because I see it ALL THE TIME online.

The next time that ball goes out for a goal kick, resist the urge to play a quick pass then have a look at the radar to see where your players and, more importantly, the opposition are. If you want to play a short pass then choose the player in the best position. Want to go long quickly? No problem, but aim the kick out wide instead of straight down the middle – most of the time you’ll have a player out there in plenty of space.

4 IF IN DOUBT, KICK IT OUT!

So many principles of real-life football apply just as much as when you have the virtual ball at your feet in FIFA as the real one in a game. 

As I said earlier, I’ll try to play as much Samba soccer as possible, but only in the right areas now. Across your own box and, to an extent, even in your own half are definitely not the right areas. I found that out the hard way. ‘If in doubt, kick it doubt’ is a classic football cliché that you’ll hear at any level, but there’s a very good reason for that… it’s true. 

So when you find yourself facing your own goal and you’re not sure whether to pass it to a team-mate or just clear it, don’t be afraid to send the ball high and up field or, if space is really tight, hit the infamous Row Z. That’s exactly what a professional footballer would do in that situation. 

You might get a bit of stick for playing ugly, but you’ll be the one laughing at the end of the game when you’ve kept a clean sheet and taken the win.

One more tip if you do have enough time to play the ball long ¬- use the left bumper or L1 and charge up the clearance with the long pass button. Using the shoot button to clear can sometimes result in your player lumping the ball straight out, which is fine in your own box or when you have no other option in your own half, but should be avoided if you do have a second or two to get the ball out of your feet and play it up field. Remember, the further you can get the ball away, the more time you’ll have to regroup.

5 DROP DEEPER!

At the end of last week’s column we looked at how a large number of real-life football principles also apply when playing FIFA, and that is especially true when it comes to defending against pace.

Speed is one of the hardest attributes to defend against in a real game of football. If someone is faster than you and has the space to open up then they’re going to get past you unless you rugby tackle them, so it’s at least realistic that the fastest players are also the hardest to stop in FIFA 09. I’ve honestly lost count of the amount of times I’ve been done by a high ball over the top of my back four for an ultra-fast player like Ronaldo or Torres to run on to and finish. It used to happen to me all the time.

As difficult as defending against pace can be, it is not impossible and there are a number of tactics real coaches use to reduce the impact of faster players. The most risky of those tactics is to play the offside trap, and that is an option to you in FIFA 09 (and 10, of course). Double tap up on your control pad just before the ball carrier plays his pass to the striker and your defence will surge forward with their arms in the air before you can say George Graham, but it’s not a tactic I recommend. You could time your trap perfectly for 89 minutes, then mess it all up with seconds to go and be punished. It is just too risky.

A much safer bet, favoured by managers who have particularly slow defenders, is to have one player drop a little deeper than the rest of the back line. This will take you seconds to set up, but could save you precious goals. All you have to do is open up Custom Tactics, then edit a defender’s base position so that he sits further behind the rest of the defence. How far back you move the defender depends on your style of play and ability, so the next bit is a bit trial and error. If you find that moving the defender back only slightly doesn’t make much difference, then go back into Custom Tactics and shift him a bit closer to your own goal. The target is to have him sitting deep enough to intercept balls over the top, but not so far away that he gives the striker time to pick the ball up in acres of space – you don’t want a striker running with the ball at your last man!

Once you get the position of your deepest defender just right, your next job is to use your other defender to give the striker as little space as possible. That’s exactly what a real manager would do, which brings me on to the next tip… 

6 USE SECONDARY PRESS!

Pressing is a common tactic used by FIFA players. In fact, it’s probably overused. I’ve seen tons of games where the opposing team defends by pressing all over the pitch, which is fine against weaker opposition but will bring you nothing but trouble against the top players, who’ll simply pass the ball around your constantly knackered players and play in the huge spaces you’re creating for them by running out of position.

Secondary Press is far less common yet can be so much more effective when used properly, especially if you use it in conjunction with the defensive tactics we’re looking at here. Initiating a Secondary Press (hold the shoot button while the other team has the ball) will get one of your AI-controlled team-mates to press the ball while leaving you in control of a separate defender, ideally the deepest one. This allows you to put pressure on the ball carrier with one player and take up a solid defensive position with the player you’re controlling so that, should the striker get past the AI defender, the player you’re in control of will be ready to mop up.

7 MANUALLY SELECT DEFENDERS!

Another tactic that should make an instantly noticeable difference to your defending is to manually select your defenders, instead of having the AI auto switch them for you. 

Some players like having the cursor automatically change to the nearest defender and it can be useful, particularly when you’re defending high balls. But, once you get used to it, you should find manual select much more effective, in attack as well as defence.

Once you’ve changed your cursor settings to manual, just press LB or L1 to select the defender you want to control. I find it most effective to combine this tactic with Secondary Press and have one AI player – either a striker, midfielder or defender, depending on the area of the pitch I’m in – press the ball while I move a nearby player into the position where I think the play is heading.

8 THINK LIKE A STRIKER!

My final tip is a simple one; ask yourself what you would do if you had the ball in the position your opponent is occupying. Nine times out of ten you’ll be able to second-guess the play and do something about it. If it doesn’t work for you because the other team have done something unpredictable or special, then it’s time to hold your hands up, take your medicine and go straight back in for another game. At least you’ll have learned another move to look out for in future!

More FIFA 10 Defensive Strategies (I recorded this for FIFA 09 but the same strategies still apply!)

Conclusion

Apply these defensive strategies and your performance is guaranteed to improve. If you have any other questions, please leave them in the comments!

I had the honor of interviewing Matt Hanson, a FIFA 10 Xbox gamer from Australia who is currently ranked #1 in Australia and #22 in the world for the Ea Sports Champions of Gaming Tournament this week. Matt is a long time subscriber of FIFtips.com, so I asked him to share his Top FIFA 10 tips and strategies.

Matt Hanson’s Top FIFA 10 Tips

1. The most important tip keep off the turbo button unless you alone on the wing or have no defenders between you and the goal.

2. Make sure you pass. I rarely enter the box without 5 or 6 passes beforehand it gets opponents disorientated.

3. On Xbox use LB as often as you can it triggers a close player to sprint forward. Then its usually a simple through ball and goal. Also use LB and the Y button for a lobbed through ball it works a treat when you have two attackers and one defender.

4. Use Chelsea. This is the team i have won most of my games with. dont change to all out attack or defense just leave it how it is.

5. Don’t get frustrated if you get scored against. I see so many people start to slide tackle and get red cards very easy. Keep a cool head.

6. Never quit a game. many times i have been down 2-1 in the 80-90min mark all it takes is 2 goals either 2 in regulation time or 1 in reg and 1 in extra time. Also by not quitting you start to understand how you opponent is playing and you can read passes better.

7. Double tap the Y button to make your keeper stay on his line. this is helpful because a lot of players will blast it from outside the box and the closer the keeper is to the goal the better chance he has of stopping it.

8. When you opponent is entering you half rather than holding the A button just sorta of stick close to him its easy for attackers to do trick moves to get past you so rather than drawing them towards the attacker i find it easier to head back towards the goals and block a hole.

9. Make sure you change your attacking style regularly. eg. if you run down the wing all the way to the goal then your opponent with probably guess you are going to do this again. So make sure you cut in and pass or even pass backwards the forwards again. this way your opponent never knows what to expect.

10. With fifa 10 goals from headers are alot harder but i have found if you use the pass button (A) instead of the shoot button (B) while the ball is in the air coming into the box, you can pick out a teammate and get a quick shot on goal.

Fifa 10 takes a while to get use to im playing the championship of gaming and im currently ranked #22 global and #1 in Australia this week. It seems to attract good opponents so make sure you have played a few against normal xbox live opponents first. I believe its all about being calm and just waiting for the right pass. It will come.

What tips would you add?

Matt’s tips are great, and I use many of the same strategies during my online play. Do these tips work for you? What else would you add to the list?

As of 2009, EA Sports has not announce the official release date of FIFA 11. Based on past release dates, we estimate that FIFA 11 will hit stores between September 24th and October 20th.