Fifa 12: How To Win Matches Part 2: On the Pitch

This hub will be all about things you can do on the pitch to have a better chance of winning matches in Fifa 12.

Skill moves are unnecessary in game unless you take the time to master them so that they actually become effective. I use a couple such as the Heel Chop and the Ball Roll. These are simple and most players can do them and it can get you a lot of space. The fancy ones such as the Advanced Rainbow Flick are complicated to do and often fail and you may get annoyed when you try and do them and the player does not have good enough skill move ratings.

If you have the opportunity then always take the sweaty goal. This is when you pass it across the face of goal to make the keeper in the wrong side of his net to stop the shot. People get very annoyed when you do this but it is their own bad defending that opened up the opportunity for the sweaty goal and if you do it, it is almost certainly a goal. Instead of going for the hard but skilful shot go for the simple and easy pass across goal which leads to the certain goal. Many people do not do this because they consider it almost cheating but there is nothing in the rules of the game which prevents you from doing this so you should just go for the easy goal.

Many people get annoyed if you play a long chipped through the ball to your quick attackers which results in their defenders being in the complete wrong position to mark the attacker and leads to a one on one with the keeper and if you take them right they often go in easily enough.

Finesse shots are one of the most overpowered things on Fifa 12 and they beat the keeper lots more than power shots. They are really easy to curl in at the back post and from the edge of the box keepers hardly ever stop them. You use them by pressing RB+B on the Xbox 360 and R1+Circle on the PS3 unless you do not play with default controls. Most attackers have very powerful finesse shots which score many goals.

Taking power shots to the goal keeper’s near post will often result in a goal. In real football the goal keeper’s main priority is to cover the near post but many shots at the near post score in Fifa 12. People complain a lot about near post finishing but it is part of the game and people abuse it so you should to.

Keeping possession around the box is a great attacking technique because, by doing short passes around the box, the opponent will get agitated and start diving in for challenges and either give away a foul or open up an opportunity for a pass through the defensive line opening up a great chance at goal.

This is a defensive tactic. Do not bring your one of your centre backs up to make a challenge. Always try and bring a midfielder back to make the challenge rather than leave yourself exposed at the back. One of the main ways that I score goals is that I get past his midfield line and he charges a centre back forward leaving my other attacker in open space for the pass through to be in a one on one with the goal keeper.

Charging the keeper is a very risky move. Only do it when you are sure that your keeper will still be able to use his fists by the time he reaches the player otherwise he is useless. The fake charge to make the opponent try and chip the goal keeper rarely works now because people are actually scared now of trying that because the fake charge is so overpowered. If your opponent is through on goal though and is around 30 yards out, so about halfway between the box and the half way line, charge your keeper because the opponent will not always be expecting it and will not really have enough time to react. This only works once or twice per game because the opponent will start to expect it and watch the mini map at the bottom of the screen.

When I get a corner I often score from them because on the first corner I get in a match I whip it in really close to the keeper but not close enough that the computer will actually react and the player would have to manually charge the keeper to win the ball. If the player does charge the keeper then on the next corner I will put it close enough that the player may think he has a good chance of getting to it but he actually is not and this makes for an easy header. If he does not charge the keeper then I just keep doing it really close to him because I score from that quite a lot. Near post corners can also be really effective if one of your players hangs around that area because sometimes my players are nowhere near the front post.