FIFA10

Shooting in FIFA 10 isn't much different from previous FIFA versions, but there are a few small differences. One thing you may notice is that shots actually drop normally, in FIFA 09 they seemingly never stopped rising. Overall though, shots are a bit easier to pull off when compared to earlier versions, but not by much.

Regular Shots

The traditional laces strike is the default shot in FIFA 10. By pressing the default shoot button for your particular gaming console, the player will execute this shot. More powerful than the chip or finesse shots, but they are much less predictable and sometimes less accurate due to how quickly the power bar can fill up. I recommend this shot if you are shooting from relative distance (18+ yards out) because while in the box, the finesse shot will be more useful in most cases. The regular laces shot is more useful in the box in some scenarios such as a right footed shooter aiming for the wide left post while approaching from the right side of the goal. Of course, this isn't the only scenario, but you will have to experiment to figure out what works when deciding between regular shots and finesse shots, which are explained below.

Finesse Shots

Finesse shots are sidefooted strikes which are particularly useful when shooting from in and around the penalty box. Finesse shots are generally more accurate than regular shots, but will be much less powerful. Finesse shots also have a decent bit of curve, the amount depending on the strength of shot and time it has to curve. To execute a finesse shot on Xbox 360, hold down RB while shooting, and R1 while shooting on PS3.

Chip Shots

Chip shots are useful shots which are used to cheekily loop the ball over the goalkeeper and into the goal. A chip shot has a high arc and is not very powerful, but is useful for when the goalkeeper is not on his line and a bit farther away from the goal than he should be. This scenario occurs a lot when a player is on a breakaway and the opponent rushes his goalkeeper out too early, giving you enough time to chip it over him before he gets too close to cut off your angle. Sometimes in FIFA 10, goalkeepers are off their line for no good reason, so you should look for this and give it a try if he is. On Xbox 360, chip shots are executed by holding down LB as you are pressing the shoot button, and likewise for PS3 although you want to hold down the L1 button instead.

Volleys

Volleys are shots taken while the ball is airborne, making it much harder to get on target, but they look spectacular when you do so and it results in a goal. Volleys tend to be much harder than ground shots, both in real life and in FIFA. The control for a volley is the same as a regular shot on your console. Keep in mind that the volley category includes any airborne shot except for the header, so look out for opportunities to pull off an acrobatic shot such as a bicycle kick, which occur randomly and you cannot do much to increase the chances of them happening.

Headers

There isn't much to say about headers as shots. The control is the same as what it is for a regular shot for your console. Remember that a good header is usually accompanied by a good cross, so if you don't provide good crosses in from the wings, don't expect good headers. Crossing situations aren't the only ones that provide heading opportunities, but keep this in mind.

Setting Up for a Shot

When thinking about taking a shot, keep in mind the position of your player in relation to the goal. Also think about how the ball and your player are moving and how this will affect your shot. An example of an ideal time to shoot is when your player has enough room for a decent run-up, not pressured by opposing players, and the ball is on the ground and not moving fast.

Manual Shooting

By default, FIFA 10 is set to assisted shooting. This means that whenever you take a shot, the computerultimately directs the shot and determines its power for you in relation to where you “sorta” directed the shot and how long you held the stick for. Once you set your shooting settings to manual, you will realize just how much the computer helps you get your shots on target. When you first set manual settings, don't be discouraged by how your shots go everywhere but into the net. You will improve over time and in the end it will be worth it as your shots will be determined 100% by your command. This means that once you get good, you can hit the far corners out of the keepers reach much more frequently than if you'd spent the same amount of time practicing shooting with assisted settings.

FIFA 10 is a bit slower paced than FIFA 09, so passing is still a crucial skill to be able to do well. You must learn to posses the ball through passing before looking for that killer through ball that puts a striker in on goal and other useful techniques such as playing a ball to the winger and learning when to cross.

Possessing the Ball

Holding a good percentage of possession is very important. If you do not possess the ball, your opponent does, and obviously, he can score if he has the ball. Good possession of the ball is hard to teach, you must look for those short passes around the midfield. Don't be afraid to play the ball back! Even though you're loosing ground towards goal, playing the ball backwards to an open player gives him many more options forward than you would have had. He can then play a ball to the more central midfielder who was not an option when you had the ball, and he might have some really good passing options due to the space you opened up with this quick rotation of the ball.

Inside or Outside?

There are always pockets of space on the pitch where the defending team is nonexistent. You must look at the current team stance of your opponent, are they spread out wide and long leaving many viable passing lanes? Or are they cluttered more in the center of the field, leaving options for you to play the ball outside? You need to learn to analyze how your opponent's team is positioned, and take advantage of this. A good example would be that from a goal kick, the defending team tends to push into the center of the field, leaving your wingers or outside midfielders wide open. If you are to win the header, play the ball to any open player, who can then distribute it to your winger or outside midfielder. Another example is playing against a team who is very spread out, which is usually due to his formation featuring many midfielders and defenders. By noticing this, you already have the advantage that there will be more passing lanes than normal, and the through ball will be extremely effective.

Regular Passes

By pressing the default passing button of your gaming console, you play a simple sidefooted pass to a teammate. These passes will go right to your target's feet, so if they have a lot of room in front of them to run on to, you might want to consider the through ball, which will be explained later. Although the default assisted controls will aid your passing direction and power, you do have a considerable amount of control over the power of your pass, so analyze the distance between you and your passing target and hold down the passing button accordingly so it gets to him without being intercepted. However, if you want full control over the direction and power of your shots, I highly recommend looking into changing your passing settings to manual. See more on the Manual vs. Assisted debate here.

Lofted Pass

The lofted pass is useful when your passing target is wide open, but there is a player of the opposing team in the way of this. By simply lofting the ball over your opponent's head and to your target, you can evade this problem. Another useful time to utilize the lofted pass is by passing up to a big, tall striker. Most of the time, he will out-jostle and out-jump the defenders to head the ball to another player or even chest it down to his feet. This is useful because when done well, it is so sudden that the midfielders don't have enough time to get back, and you can attack just their back line.

Crossing

Crossing is an incredibly useful tool in FIFA 10 due to the effectiveness of headers and importance of strength. Done most by wingers and outside midfielders, the cross is when a player plays a lofted pass from the wide flanks of the pitch to open strikers in the box who are ready to put it into the net. There are three types of crosses in FIFA 10.

1. The Traditional Lofted Cross – by holding down the lofted pass button on your console, your player will play in a cross that tends to go high enough that heading the ball is the best option for your strikers.
2. The Low Cross – by tapping the lofted pass button down twice in quick succession, your player will play in a lower cross to the ground that is usually put away by not only headers, but also volleys. The ideal time to use this is when your striker us approaching the near post and there is not a defender in front of him, or when the player who is going to cross the ball is very close to the end line.
3. The Ground Cross – a ground cross is executed by tapping the lofted pass down three times in quicksuccession. This will result in a ground level, hard cross across the face of goal. This is useful for when the defensive line is rushing back to the goal to defend the cross but haven't quite made it there yet. If your striker is in line with the defence, but is faster and will beat them to the ball, then go for it. When done well, the cross will nestle right in front of your striker nicely for him to bang into the back of the net.

*Holding down LB on Xbox or L1 on Playstation while crossing with any of these three crossing variants produces an early cross intended for when you are not very close to the endline but still think your strikers are in a good enough position to cross to.

Through Ball

The through ball is an incredibly dangerous weapon to use against your opponent. The through ball is a pass which doesn't go directly to your passing target, but rather in front of him for him to run on to. Obviously, don't try this if your target doesn't have space in front of him, or if his marker or defenders around him are faster than him. The best uses for the through ball are for when playing wingers to give them a head start on their dribble down the line, or playing through holes in the defensive line so your striker can simply run past the defenders to be in on goal. The through ball can also be utilized to quickly speed up your attack in the midfield also, your center-midfielders will have space in front of them too!

Chipped Through Ball

Chipped Through balls have the same concept as the regular through ball, but that the pass is, well, chipped! This is useful for when your passing target has a lot of space in front of him and is faster than the defenders around him, but they are blocking passing lanes through which you can play a grounded through ball.

Manual Passing

Passing in FIFA 10 is set to assisted controls by default. By this, I mean that whenever you attempt to pass the ball, the computer greatly alters the amount of power your pass will have and the direction it will go, almost regardless of what you did with your controller. If you set your passing controls to Manual, you will have full control over the power and direction of your shots. It takes some getting used to, but it is very much worth it in the end, once you get good at it.

A new feature that debuts in FIFA 10 is a more useful, varied practice mode. Instead of just having a 1v1practice mode, you have the option of practicing any type of set piece, playing a practice match, or creating your own unique set piece play which you can unleash both offline and online.

Practice Set Piece

The 'Practice Set Piece' mode allows you to practice a Corner Kick, Free Kick, or a Throw-In. The most useful of which is undoubtedly the free kick practice. Gone are the days where you need two controllersto hone your free kick skills; intentionally fouling players with one controller, and picking up the othercontroller to give the free kick a try. If you've ever done this, you'll know that it can get extremely annoying. However, this is now solved with a simple free kick practice mode. Corner kicks are relatively useful, but are still primarily a matter of luck. Not quite sure why EA thought Throw-Ins are something we shouldpractice, but it is there if you need it.

Practice Match

Playing practice matches can be fun, and sometimes a quick way to try something out without having to go through the trouble of booting up a new game. They are also useful for getting a bit of a “warm-up” before playing online, if you care about ranks. In practice matches, there are no fouls, the computer is terrible, and every ball out of bounds goes to you; so if you haven't already guessed, you'll havepossession nearly the entire duration of your practice match, which has no set time.

Create Set Piece

Creating set pieces is a unique new tool to FIFA 10. You can pick a region for your set piece, and whenever you receive a free kick in this region during a game, you will be given the option of running this created set piece, provided you have saved it and assigned it to a D-pad control. By assigning smart runs and carefully planning out your set piece, you could have a deadly scoring opportunity each time you are fouled in this area. Keep in mind that it is not always consistent, as you can have a free kick from avariety of places within your region, so sometimes the passing angle may not be there when it was when you practiced it. Nevertheless, when done well, created set pieces can provide an excellent scoringopportunity, so get creative!

A brand new feature of FIFA 10 is the Virtual Pro mode, in which you can create a player and increase his skills. You can also use this Virtual Pro to unlock content and features, some are specifically for your pro to use, some are features you can use throughout FIFA 10, such as new celebrations or boots.

Accomplishments

Your player will unlock new skills and traits which in turn affect his overall. Keep in mind that it is impossible for your player to reach 99 Overall, the max is around 90. By viewing your Accomplishments, you can see which ones you still need to achieve and how to do so, and which ones you have already gotten. You will notice that some of the accomplishments are listed as 'Secret'. Below are the secret achievements that are not listed in the Accomplishments Book.

Ball Skills

Accomplishment	Reward
Dribble Past an opposing player	Dribbling +1
Chip the keeper and score from inside the box in a match	Ball Control +3
Score using the backheel in a match	Ball Control +3
Beat 100 players using skill moves	Dribbling +4

Defence

Accomplishment	Reward
Block a shot on goal	Marking +1
Win the ball 3 times with sliding tackles 2 games insuccession	Standing Tackle +2
Play 5 consecutive matches in defence without receiving a yellow card	Standing Tackle +3
Win 10 man of the match awards as a defender	Marking +4

Mental

Accomplishment	Reward
Score from within 3 yards	Positioning +3
Play 5 consecutive matches without being called offside	Tactical Awareness +3
Play 10 consecutive matches without being called offside	Tactical Awareness +4
Make 2 goal-line clearances in your career	Aggression +4

Passing

Accomplishment	Reward
Score from a rebound off the post	Reactions +5
Run 3500 yards in a match	Stamina +1
Get a mactch rating of 10/10	Strength +1
Tap in 5 career goals within 5 yards	Reactions +5
Make 200 career appearances	Sprint Speed +3

Shooting

Accomplishment	Reward
Hit the target with 3 headers in a single match	Heading Accuracy +2
Score from a laces shot taken outside the box in a match	Long Shots +1
Score a penalty during normal time in a match	Penalties +3
Beat the keeper with 2 headers in a single match	Heading Accuracy +3
Score 2 volleys in one match	Finishing +3
Score 10 volleys in your career	Score 150 goals in your career
Score a brace in 3 consecutive matches	Finishing +3

Traits and Celebrations

Accomplishment	Reward
Beat 5 defenders in a single match using skill moves	Unlocks Flair trait
Make 3 goal-line clearances in your career	Unlocks Acrobatic Clearance trait

Accessories

Accomplishment	Reward
Play a match in the rain	Unlocks Long Sleeves
Play 25 matches in the rain	Unlocks Undershirt

Rewards

Once you unlock an accomplishment, you will be given a reward for your efforts. Most of the time, this will be improved levels or traits which will be updated automatically, but sometimes you will receiveaccessories. To use your earned accessories, or to edit your Pro in other ways, go to 'Edit Pro', from the Virtual Pro mode interface.

Game Face

One of the most unique aspects of Virtual Pro, or FIFA 10 in general is Game Face, which allows you todownload an image of your own face to be used for your Virtual Pro! You can do this online via EA Sports' website. However, before you get into this I recommend taking a quick look at my guide on Game Facehere.

Playing Online

While you can take your player into a match in nearly any offline game mode, you may want to use them online. Your Pro will be available in Unranked games, and Pro Club Championship, which is an online game mode that allows you to create or join a club of Virtual Pros and help bring your club to the top of the leaderboards.