Ultimate Guide to FIFA - FIFA goes to Hollywood!

The second column from Darren Cross talks about that inch perfect pass.

Picture the scene… you’re playing FIFA 09 and you’re just inside the opponent’s half with the ball at your feet. You have a team-mate in space a few yards ahead of you, another one just inside who’d be perfect to play a one-two with and – right across the other side of the pitch – there’s your right-back with nothing but space surrounding him in all directions.

 Now what do you do?

If your answer is to give the ball to the first or second man, then congratulations. You’ve chosen the best option, retained possession and continued to build your attack which, with more sensible build-up play like this, will most likely result in a pop at goal.

But for those of you who, like me, can’t resist a challenge and the chance to show off ‘for the cameras’, there’s really only one option.

The Hollywood pass.

A quick change of direction and long press of the Hollywood button (which you may find mistakenly called ‘lobbed pass’ in your manual - must be a misprint) and off goes the ball, sailing 60-yards cross field to your team-mate. Cue that smug glance at your opponent who silently nods back to confirm that, yes, you are in fact a football genius.

It’s at this point that I’d like to see the on-screen player turn up his collar, put his hands on his hips, stand back and admire his work. Maybe that could be included for FIFA 11?

Unfortunately, the lobbed pass in FIFA 09 is more ‘straight to DVD’ than Hollywood, in that it’s a bit of a last resort. Something to try when there’s nothing else on or if you’re feeling lucky.

There are two mains reasons for this. The first is that the ball takes too long to make its journey across the pitch in 09, which gives your opponent the chance to work out what you’re doing, select his nearest player and move him toward your target while the ball is still in the air.

Secondly, the player you’re passing to rushes toward the ball and gets caught right underneath it, which means he needs to take more touches than he should to get it under control. This eats up valuable seconds and makes it even more likely that the guy you’re playing against will be all over you like a cheap suit, if they aren’t already.

The good news is that doesn’t happen in FIFA 10.

For starters, the ball moves twice as quickly across the pitch in 10 as it does in 09, so it takes half the time to shift it from touchline to touchline. It feels much more driven than lofted which, if you think about how someone like Steven Gerrard would play a long pass in a game, is far more realistic. So that takes care of the first problem.

Next up, there’s the Improved Trapping Intelligence. Instead of rushing toward the ball, players now make the kind of decisions you’d expect to see in a live game; judging the flight and speed of the pass, then getting into the best position so they may control it in as few touches as possible. This saves you valuable seconds which, when you combine that with the ball now covering the distance in half the time, means you can switch the play and have the ball under control before you can turn up that collar on your shirt.

The passing itself is better, too. More Accurate Passing means your players now figure out the best spot to aim for, so that the player receiving the ball doesn’t have to work as hard to get in under control.

There are tons of improvements in FIFA 10, which we’ll cover in much more detail over the coming weeks, but the enhancements to trapping and passing in particular will change the way you put together attacks, because ultimately they give you more options; the most exciting of which – for me – is the ability to play the Hollywood pass.

As flash as I might have made it sound here, being able to quickly switch the play isn’t just about showing off - there are genuine advantages for the attacking team. It allows you to shift the focus of your attack to an area where you have more space, buying you time on the ball. It gives you the ability to quickly play the ball to a part of the pitch where you can outnumber and overload the other team, and it gives you an out ball when you’re being heavily pressed in possession.

So the next time you play FIFA 09, keep an eye on that radar at the bottom of the screen and look out for players in acres of space. It’ll be good practise for when you get 10 and start hammering that Hollywood button.

See you next week.

Darren is a football writer and Deputy Editor of MATCH magazine