This, as well as the second guide, is just some additional tips.
I myself haven't played any soccer/football videogames except when I was little I played a game for the N64. So as you may expect I wasn't the best at this game starting out. Here are some tips that I learned, and I admit are simple, that would have helped me had I known earlier. I admit this guide has a lot of information and may seem jumbled, but I am trying to give help to those who have no idea what they're doing (much like myself when I first got this game) and would like some tips. I have looked through TA and x360a and haven't found much like this, so I figured I'd give it a shot.
Make sure and set up your line-up each game. I usually Stuck with a 3-4-3, which means you start with 3 defenders, 4 midfielders, and 3 strikers. This allows you to have more players in the opposing sides goal range to help with spreading the defenders and distracting the goalie. I had originally been playing with only one striker and two midfielders so I naturally got frustrated not being able to get anywhere near the goal.
You may notice the controls in this game may be a bit unresponsive or very bulky. There are some things that may help.
From what I understand and have seen, you/your player tends to run following what I call a 'crossword' type directing, being only left/right, up/down, and diagonal. You have to get used to this and use it accordingly based on what you're trying to accomplish, such as if you're trying to maneuver around defenders, you cant just go in loops for example. Once you make it past a defender, you can run straight knowing the opponents can't cut you off without catching up to you first. Another tip is for passing, shooting: for some reason, the game will take a little power nap in between you hitting the button and the action taking place. Make sure to pass or shoot as early as possible! Normally waiting till the last second is good timing, but this game has a delay (mainly in order to string the game animations together more fluently) so make sure if you're being pursued to pass it off a bit earlier than usual, especially if you're using a full charged kick.
While playing you may notice the other teams players may be faster than you. This really ticked me off and the only real way to avoid it is to wait until they are near, and then pass it off to a team mate. The ball moves much quicker than the players do, and passing is your best friend.
Going off the last tip, what I did when I first played was I would just mash A to rapidly pass the ball from one to another. This is bad. First off, pretty much every interaction with the ball has a power meter, which is below your currently controlled players icon in the bottom left or right hand of your screen. Try to scale the power of how far you want the ball to go, obviously. Next, if you have not played a FIFA game, check the controls!!! I checked them after ignorantly thinking I could just pick up the controls on the fly. I was wrong. The controls let you know what kind of action the button will activate. I used a lot of LT+A or just A passes for short, open field passes, as these are ground passes. If you are trying to break through the defense, try LT+Y. this will lob the ball over opponents, careful though because they will often intercept the ball in mid air.
Another thing for trying to score. A strategy I found useful is kick the ball all the way to your defender in the back-middle. Then kick it out to one side, have him run up as far as you can safely, then begin passing the ball between players. What this does is it makes all of your teammates, exception being the goalie, advance with you, giving many options on advancing the ball towards the goal.
Once you do get the ball near the goal, I found this to work: Try to bring it up on the outside, or near the sides of the field. Once you get about 10-20m away from the end-lines, try and kick it using a lob (LT+A) or a regular A pass if you can, to the center of the field. As soon as the ball gets to the player, tap B to kick it in. The first player near the side will usually attract most of the defenders as well as the goalie, so getting a well timed shot will leave everyone off guard and hopefully and easy goal. If the goalie manages to recover he will usually slap the ball out of bounds, which leads me to my next point....
CORNER KICKS ARE YOUR FRIEND. I have scored countless times on corner kicks. Here's what you do:
Aim the arrow a little more towards the goal than it usually starts out with. Kick with the X button with about 60-80% power (it's really hard to get it in the same range every time). Hopefully you will kick it to a striker and then repeat the process form the above tip. Tap B as well as you can timing wise, and hope for the best. about 1/3 of the time the goalie will block it, but the ball will be free, and since you already have multiple team mates available try to tap it in again.
Now for some defense. If you finally manage to score a goal (a miracle for me) Try to play a little defensively, keep the ball being passed in between midfielders and defenders. If the ball ever gets to close for comfort, smack that baby with a full powered X button kick. This will usually launch the ball allllllll the way across the field and buy you a good 10-15 seconds at least before it heads back to you.
One last major tip I have is on defense as well. A lot of the time if I didn't have the ball, I'd find myself sprinting (RT, BTW <- see what I did there?) after the guy with the ball, almost always followed by sad, sad, failure. It's like keep-away but you always lose. Always. Anyways, back off and eventually the other team will kick it up the field like I advised earlier. Now is your chance! Pursue the ball and either an AI of yours will intercept it or you will manage to get control of it.
That's it for now, thanks for reading and comment with thoughts, opinions, or if I should add/change/baleet something