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.

All I want EA Sports to do is add:

• Improved GK responsiveness
• More realistic jostling motions
• No delayed commentary
• More camera options
• Quick throw ins
• More accurate player ratings
• More global leagues
• More African and Asia National Teams
• Less Jirky dribbling animations

Have you played FIFA 10? Share with us how you would like to improve next year’s series: FIFA 11.

Brainstorming Questions

• Which features should the next version of FIFA have?
• What are the unnecessary features?
• What new game modes would you add?
• What new national teams and leagues would you add?
• How should the controlling-system, gameplay, players, clubs and teams in FIFA 11 be like?
• What were the bugs in FIFA 10?
• Which version of FIFA Series was the best in your opinion?
• How would you improve online play?
• What was missing in the game?
• Do you have any ideas for its next version?

We’ll send your comments to the developers at EA Sports. We are not affiliated with EA Sports, and only serve to help EA make FIFA 11 a better game. Please write your comments in English, and be as clear as possible.

Other FIFA 11 Wishlists Around the Internet

• Eva Forums FIFA 11 Wishlist
• EA Forum FIFA 11 Wishlist
• FIFplay FIFA 11 Ideas
• EA.com FIFA 11 Ideas

Need FIFA 10 celebrations help? You’ve come to the right place for comprehensive instructions on the many exciting goal celebrations. Read our comprehensive FIFA 10 celebrations guide to learn how to do FIFA 10 celebrations – both new and old.

Complete FIFA 10 Goal Celebrations List for Xbox 360

Below is the list of celebrations along with the necessary FIFA 10 celebrations controls to execute the moves. Each move requires a different set of commands, so be careful when trying to perform too many celebrations at once. It’s easy to press the wrong buttons; take it slow

FIFA 10 Running Celebrations List for Xbox 360

Y	Two Arms Raised
X	Look At Me
B	One Arm Raised
A	Low Aeroplane
RS (rotation)	Windmill
RS (press)	High Aeroplane
RS up down (hold)	Kiss and Point
RS down up (hold)	Blow Kisses
RS right (hold)	Shhhhh
RS down (hold)	Arms Low
RS up (hold)	Hold Face
RS left (hold)	Hear Me?
RS right left (hold)	Fist Pump
RS left right (hold)	Come On

FIFA 10 Goal Celebrations Finishing Moves List for Xbox 360

LB + B	Standing Arm Sweep
LB + X	One Knee Fist Pump
LB + A	Kneel and Point
LB + Y	Arms Out to Crowd
RB + (rotate, rotate) A (to land)	Acrobatics 1
RB + RS down up down A	Acrobatics 3
RB + RS (press)	Knee Slide
LB + RS down up (hold)	Chest Slide
LB + RS up down (hold)	Bow
LB + RS (clockwise rotation)	Pumpers and Tumblers
LB + RS (press)	Jump Punch
LT + RS (clockwise rotation)	Cartwheel
LT + RS (press)	Robot
LT and tap RB	Dance
LT + RS down up down	Finger Point
RT + RS up up	Front Flip
LT + RS up up up	Pump It Up
LT + RS down up (hold)	Knees and Face
LT + RS up + RS (press)	Beg for Mercy
RT + RS right right	Boxing
RT + RS right left	Baby
LB + RS up + RS (press)	Knees
LB + RS left (hold)	Come On
LB + RS right (hold)	Roll to Sit
LT + RS down (hold)	Take a Knee

1. Please note: “I Can’t Hear You” and “Triple Fist Pump” are missing in this list. Refer in game.

Thanks for The Old News for the awesome celebrations list.

Complete FIFA 10 Goal Celebrations List for PS3

Below is the list of celebrations along with the necessary FIFA 10 celebrations controls to execute the moves. Each move requires a different set of commands, so be careful when trying to perform too many celebrations at once. It’s easy to press the wrong buttons; take it slow

FIFA 10 Running Celebrations List for PS3

Triangle	Two Arms Raised
Square	Look At Me
O	One Arm Raised
X	Low Aeroplane
RS (rotation)	Windmill
RS (press)	High Aeroplane
RS up down (hold)	Kiss and Point
RS down up (hold)	Blow Kisses
RS right (hold)	Shhhhh
RS down (hold)	Arms Low
RS up (hold)	Hold Face
RS left (hold)	Hear Me?
RS right left (hold)	Fist Pump
RS left right (hold)	Come On

FIFA 10 Goal Celebrations Finishing Moves List for Ps3

L1 + O	Standing Arm Sweep
L1 + Square	One Knee Fist Pump
L1 + X	Kneel and Point
L1 + Triangle	Arms Out to Crowd
R1 + (rotate, rotate) X (to land)	Acrobatics 1
R1 + RS down up down X	Acrobatics 3
R1 + RS (press)	Knee Slide
L1 + RS down up (hold)	Chest Slide
L1 + RS up down (hold)	Bow
L1 + RS (clockwise rotation)	Pumpers and Tumblers
L1 + RS (press)	Jump Punch
L2 + RS (clockwise rotation)	Cartwheel
L2 + RS (press)	Robot
L2 and tap R1	Dance
L2 + RS down up down	Finger Point
R2 + RS up up	Front Flip
L2 + RS up up up	Pump It Up
L2 + RS down up (hold)	Knees and Face
L2 + RS up + RS (press)	Beg for Mercy
R2 + RS right right	Boxing
R2 + RS right left	Baby
L1 + RS up + RS (press)	Knees
L1 + RS left (hold)	Come On
L1 + RS right (hold)	Roll to Sit
L1 + RS down (hold)	Take a Knee

1. Please note: “I Can’t Hear You” and “Triple Fist Pump” are missing in this list. Refer in game.

FIFA 10 Goal Celebrations Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

We hear the same questions about celebrations in FIFA 10 all the time. Here’s a short list of helpful FAQ’s that may answer your question before you ask it again. If you still need help, please open a thread in our FIFA 10 message boards.

Q: Why Don’t Any of the FIFA 10 New Celebrations Work for Me?

A: Use the right trigger and right analog stick for new celebrations. There are much more new celebrations if you use your virtual pro. You can unlock loads of celebrations using your virtual pro.

How Do I Unlock the New FIFA 10 Goal Celebrations?

A: You can unlock the new celebrations by playing be a pro season mode. Go to the virtual pro menu and go to accomplishments and flip to the celebrations page and they teach u how to unlock them.

Can I Create a FIFA 10 Celebration?

A: No.

FIFA 10 Goal Celebrations Youtube Video Tutorial

We found this great FIFA 10 celebrations walkthrough that show you how to do all of this year’s goal celebrations.

Passionate soccer fans make soccer the greatest sport in the world. Here are some examples of fans who know how to show their love of the game.

Brazil supporters pray for a positive result

Mexico fans celebrate a tight win over USA

German soccer fever starts at a young age

Even animals love the game of touch

Egypt triumphs over Ivory Coast

South Africa celebrates at the FIFA confederations cup

Scottish soccer fan gives his whole face to his country

Ukraine goes wild

Argentina football is life.

1 game can change the world

FIFA 10 has been out for over a month, but I am still REALLY excited about the future release of FIFA 10 Ultimate Team Mode. Out of every FIFA 09 game mode, I vouch that Ultimate Team was the most addictive of all.

I collected sports trading cards for many years, which makes me a natural card collector at heart. Buying, Selling, and Trading players reminded me of my childhood, and brought back all of my passionate collector feelings once again.

My FIFA 10 Ultimate Team suggestions are:

• Faster searching for cards and quick page flipping
• Better filters allowing you to search for cheaper cards
• More managers and coaches
• Integration of your Virtual Pro into UT

Last year’s Ultimate Team was fun, addicting, and fantastic. EA Sports, let’s hope you impress everyone this year.

EA Sports introduced a new game mode in FIFA 10 called Virtual Pro for Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, and PSP. Basically, it’s an extension of Be a Pro that allows you to fully customize your player, compete in various online matches and tournaments, and experience a more realistic football/soccer gaming experience.

Looking to improve your FIFA 10 Virtual Pro? Download our exclusively written FIFA 10 Virtual Pro Accomplishments Guide to unlock all your player’s achievements. It’s filled with virtual pro cheats, secrets, and all the help you need to improve your virtual pro’s skills and ratings.

EA Sports Introduction to FIFA 10 Virtual Pro Mode

Over at the EA Sports Off the Bench FIFA blog, Mike Takla shares some key insights into the newest game mode.

EA’s GamesCom adventure got underway in Cologne this week with a spectacular presentation of some of FIFA 10’s new features. Check out EA SPORTS Football World now for a video. And the highlight of those revelations was Virtual Pro.

FIFA 10 Producer Mike TaklaHello everyone, I’m Mike Takla – one of the FIFA 10 360/PS3 Producers – here to tell you about Virtual Pro, one of the new features for this year, as well as give you a quick introduction to our new Clubs feature, the EA SPORTS Pro Club Championship.

As it’s quite a deep feature I’ve broken the blog down into a few sections; firstly there’ll be a quick intro, then I’ll talk about Game Face, growing your Pro, taking him online and finally a little bit about my Pro’s career so far. I’ll also do my best to answer any questions you have so feel free to log in to the site and start adding these as comments.

Virtual Pro Intro

At the start of FIFA 10 pre-production (the producers’ favourite time of the year – when we brainstorm ideas for the upcoming game) we found a lot of the dev team, along with our community, commented on how they enjoyed being able to create a player to use in Be-A-Pro Seasons, Manager Mode and the other game modes, but found it a little frustrating that for many of the modes they’d have to create a new player and that none of their previous achievements counted for anything. Other feedback included people wanting to use their created player online in team play, as well as suggestions that our create-player feature didn’t allow you to achieve the same level of likeness you’re able to in other games. So the producers gathered together and created Virtual Pro; a feature that would allow you to do all of the above and much more…

Customising my Virtual Pro

One of the first bits of feedback we started working on was trying to improve the level of physical likeness you are able to achieve when creating a player. I’m sure you’ve all seen Game Face in other EA SPORTS games and although it might seem like we just need to take what they’re doing, it’s far more complicated than that, with each game using different character models and other technology that as a producer (we’re the ideas men!) I’m probably not the best to talk about. But anyway, we knew that getting Game Face into FIFA 10 would be a big win for Virtual Pro so immediately started discussing with our friends who run the Football World website how this could be achieved. Thanks to a lot of meetings with a lot of clever engineers we finally worked out how to get a head created on the web into the game and ‘Download Game Face’ was born.

The way this works for FIFA 10 is you can upload two photos to the web and using the Game Face tool, create your head and get it ready to download. Once you’ve created a Virtual Pro in the game you can download the head and it’s automatically applied to your player in the game. You can make changes to your face on the web at any time and get your new face into the game. Your Game Face will also be used as your Avatar when connected, and this can be viewed when playing online but maybe the best Game Face feature of all is that you can also download the faces of your friends if you’re playing in an online Club – seeing your friends smiling face after scoring a goal still gets me every time!

Growing your Virtual Pro

FIFA 10 Virtual Pro – TraitsAs I mentioned earlier, one of our goals for the feature was to allow you to play with and continue to grow your Pro throughout FIFA 10 – so you’ll be able to take him through the four Be-A-Pro Seasons, have him follow you around in your Manager Mode career or use him in Kick-Off, Tournament and Lounge Mode. You’ll also be able to use and grow him online, in a couple of specific modes which I’ll come to shortly, and unless you decide to select another player he’ll also be your man in the Arena.

In all the modes you can unlock EA SPORTS Football World Accomplishments to improve your player’s skills. There are over 200 Accomplishments to complete on the pitch with the rewards related to the challenge. For example, you can improve your finishing & score different types of goals, passing to create assists in various ways, and boost your tackling, and win the ball regularly. Of course, with each player having 28 attributes it’s far more complicated than that and there is a wide variety of different challenges – learning skill moves, making a goal line clearance, or reacting first to a rebound off the post are just a few more examples of the type of things you’ll need to do to take your Pro to his best.

As well as improving Attributes you can also unlock player traits, new celebrations and kit. Some of the traits that you can unlock include the new ‘Giant Throw’ f Stoke City’s Rory Delap, the new ‘Skilled Dribbling’ controls, as well as some old favourites such as ‘Outside of the Foot’, ‘Power Header’ and ‘Flair’. Whether you’re after a trait, a hand-stand celebration or some shiny gold boots there’s lots to unlock to make your Pro unique.

We know some people don’t have the same amount of time as others when it comes to improving created players, so we’ve tried our best to ensure that the difference between newly created players and those that have spent more time playing with their Pro is not too extreme, not just to give newcomers a chance but also because we believe at the end of the day when it comes to online play user skill level should always be the main reason for success. We’ve also tried to balance the effect of the Physical attributes so when you’re creating your Pro you’ll notice these change based on his Physical stature – so for example if you’re 6′7″ you won’t be the fastest guy around (sorry Usain Bolt!), and likewise a smaller player will be less likely to win a physical challenge. You can change the course of your career at any time and alter your Pro’s preferred playing position and their build, so it’s not the end of the world if you realise you’re not the best striker out there and maybe fancy a go as a full back.

Well that’s plenty about growing your Pro, but I did also want to mention the one last thing that will influence your player’s ability; recent form. All your Pro’s matches are tracked and the your most recent games will be used to award you a small form bonus, so it’s not just about building up your Pro – being consistent also counts.

Unlocking Accomplishments in the Arena

Online Clubs was a big success in FIFA 09, but also highlighted a lot of things we wanted to improve this year. One of the things we really wanted to do was give Clubs more ‘goals’ so that those that joined in at a later date, and those that do not play the game as frequently as others, still felt there was something to achieve as a team. To do this we created a new League system. On top of the Leaderboard we had last year, which tracks every Club’s record over time and places them in Divisions, we’ve added ‘Regional Leagues’ and ‘Seasons’. There are 11 Regional Leagues to join, with each having its own Leaderboard and each month is defined as a Season. So at the start of each month the Leaderboard is reset, and the new season and the battle for the title begins again, while at the end of a season the top clubs in each League are awarded trophies. Regional Leagues and Seasons means that whether you’re a newly created Club, or playing your 10th Season, there is always a goal for your Club over the next month. Of course, to prove yourself as the best Club around, getting to No 1 in Division 1 in what is now called the World Standings, is still the ultimate goal.

Another of the big things we wanted to do this year was to make creating and joining a Club easier. When it comes to joining a Club you’ll now get a list of the Clubs your friends are in and can search for ‘Public Clubs’ – Clubs who are open to new players immediately joining without needing the Manager’s approval. As well as making it easier to find a Club, we wanted to improve Club Managers’ ability to find players. This year, managers can view players’ previous match ratings, recruit free agents (people who are not a member of a Club) via the Pro Leaderboard as well as play Pro Ranked Matches. Pro Ranked Matches are quick ranked Online Team Play games where 20 Pros are put together for a ‘friendly’, although with all your stats tracked and Accomplishments up for grabs friendly is maybe not the right word. Managers can use the Pro Ranked Matches to recruit new players, while others can take the opportunity to build up their stats in the hope a top Club will come calling.

FIFA 10 Virtual Pro – StatsI can’t talk about all the changes to Clubs, as I’d be writing for too long, but I did also wanted to mention how we’ve gone to town when it comes to Club and Player stats. This year the top players in each Club will be called out on the Club home screen – the top Goalscorer, the player with the most assists and the highest rated defender, midfielder and forward. All your teams’ match stats can be viewed in the Squad Stats screen, which along with the expected games, goals and assists stats, also has info such as Pass, Shot and Tackle success for each player. Lastly, along with being able to view your own team’s stats, you can also view the Pro Leaderboard and compare yourself against the top Pros.

Entering the Pro Club Championship

One of the Producers responsible for the feature of course I play with my Virtual Pro a lot, and for me it adds another dimension to my offline game modes as well as making me take my online play a lot more seriously – now I’m playing with Mike Takla I have a reputation to keep up! As a United fan (yes I’m a glory hunter…) I normally assign myself to their squad, taking my hero Eric Cantona’s number 7 shirt (sorry Michael Owen but you haven’t earned it just yet). I also go and make myself Captain using the Edit Teams feature, and normally assign myself to corners, free kicks and penalties, which is a bit greedy but seeing as that spot is open now Ronaldo’s gone I thought I’d try to impress Fergie. Time to unlock some Accomplishments and get my Pro ready for the weekly Clubs match we have here in the studio…

I start off unlocking some Accomplishments in the Arena, juggling the ball, a Free-Kick, a Penalty and scoring with both feet is a good way to get started. Juggling the ball unlocks some new Skill Moves so I practice those to get myself some more tricks – as I play the game a fair bit I can normally get myself to 5 Star Skill Moves pretty quick nowadays, but there’s a check list and instructions if you’re not sure what you’ve done or if you don’t know the controls for the new moves you’ve unlocked.

Next up, some Be-A-Pro Seasons. Let’s see if I can get myself in the United 1st team and maybe earn some England caps. I unlock a few Accomplishments and increase my rep in the mode but decided to play some of the new Manager Mode, as it’s just too tempting. I start in the Championship with my second favourite team, Coventry City, as there’s an Accomplishment for helping get a team promoted. My Pro’s not bad for the Championship as I’ve still got the attribute improvements I unlocked in the Arena and in Be-A-Pro. After a long hard season, and a lot of unlocked Accomplishments (still haven’t scored a bicycle kick!), I’ve got a Pro who’s going to surprise a few of the guys in the office in the weekly Clubs match, and I’m sure they’re going to be jealous of my yellow boots!

The day of the big Clubs Match arrives, it’s the Game Modes guys versus the Gameplay team. They normally beat us pretty bad, but I’ve got my improved Pro this time, they are in for a surprise! My boots get a few comments, some not as nice as others, and having Skilled Dribbling gives me an edge, but they’ve got a pretty good defence, despite playing with brand new Pro’s. Finally we win a throw in and I can launch a giant throw! I launch one into the box but there isn’t an attacker in sight, what a waste of my talent! We end up losing, and my Pro’s superior skills didn’t quite make the difference I’d hoped, but only because of the opposition (the Gameplay guys are good!). A bit more training and I’m sure I’ll get my 10th league goal of the season, it’s been a three-game drought! Oh well, maybe next time – it’s too early to give up on getting to the top of the Pro Leaderboard just yet!

FIFA 10 Virtual Pro Accomplishments Walkthrough Video

First off, watch the complete walkthrough of Virtual pro to get a better feel of the new game mode in FIFA ten.

Is Your FIFA 10 Virtual Pro Game Face Not Working?

This is a common problem that lots of gamers have experienced in FIFA 10. My best advice is to follow the video tutorial below then try uploading your game face again. Sometimes it takes a few attempts to work. EA Sports is working on fixing many of the bugs, so don’t worry too long.

Download our FIFA 10 Virtual Pro Accomplishments Guide

Looking to improve your FIFA 10 Virtual Pro and unlock all the necessary accomplishments? Download our exclusively written FIFA 10 Virtual Pro Accomplishments Guide to unlock all your player’s achievements. It’s filled with virtual pro cheats, secrets, and all the help you need to improve your virtual pro’s skills and ratings.