The art of Defence

[L05TF33LING]

Lol - I got bored so I thought I'd start a thread about Defending.

Right I know some of the weaker players on Fifa 09 struggle whilst defending against the likes of Ronaldo, Ronaldinho etc etc

Drop a comment on what you would do if you had 3 Players running at you!

Eg: My favourite is when you go sliding in or you jostle.

[Automatik614]

R2+L2......master it.

[L05TF33LING]

What's that on the 360?

[vg88roland]

Back-up and hope they get hot-headed and fluke the chance.

[L05TF33LING]

Lol its quite funny that 25% of the time they do actually mess it up!
Especially when you send your Keeper out.

[Automatik614]

Originally Posted by L05TF33LING

What's that on the 360?

R trigger + L trigger

Hold both to mark and release L trigger to poke/subtle tackle when the time is right or the player makes a bad touch.

[L05TF33LING]

Originally Posted by Automatik614

R trigger + L trigger

Hold both to mark and release L trigger to poke/subtle tackle when the time is right or the player makes a bad touch.

Ahh right I see!
Any other favourites?

[ImperialGendarme]

Never chase the ball until last second just outside of box

[vg88roland]

Originally Posted by ImperialGendarme

Never chase the ball until last second just outside of box

Unless facing an all assisted opponent with Ronaldo up front. Had 3 goals scored against me this morning from 20 yards +.

[ImperialGendarme]

yea unless you play against fast strikers then put up high pressure

[vg88roland]

Surprisingly few comment about defending beeing cheating yet. Is it only me?

Rule of thumb: A good attack is based on a good defence. It's no use scoring bucket-loads while your defence is just as openhanded as Oprah.

[K1NGSM1LL]

Originally Posted by Automatik614

R2+L2......master it.

Check

[He_Is_Legend85]

Patience!!
Patience in defence is key!

[RFC1981Craig]

patience is a virtue i dont have!

any other tips mate!

faster y u not !"£$%^ replied yet!!!

[He_Is_Legend85]

But patience is key! You have to be patience! Don't rush into tackles, and try to force errors onto the opposite team. Be aware of the player you are controlling, and don't keep running from player to player as the ball is passed. This way you will leave a huge gap from the position of which you are using the player(?) You understand?
Here, the opposite team will take this advantage (World-class and legendary) and create runs into space and possibly a huge chance. Check out their gameplay. They are very patience! Patience is the key!

I guess an alternate option would be to assign every player a man to mark, and follow them closely and put the High Pressure into play and focus on counter-attacks.

[Automatik614]

Originally Posted by MixdBreh

Check

North London eh? I used to live in the Hendon area....I miss that place! The Emirates is amazing!

Another tip....I almost constantly hold A/X to rush the ball in the mid field. I switch to the R2+L2 when I have to defend closer to the ball.

My friends are big fans of using B/O to rush the second defender a lot. I haven't started using this yet.

[Holt8117]

When playing online it depends who I have as defender in a game against another team full of human players.

My fav defender is Nesta in the game and real life but what I try to do is if I have someone like Ronaldo running towards me I'll jockey backwards and if need be use the sprint button but I'll jockey along and view the other players around me to see where they are and if I see a player is moving into position to receive a pass I'll cut it off or If I have help near me I'll go ahead and move in and go for the tackle.

Key thing is don't always rush in towards the guy with the ball. All it takes is that and if you mess up that decision could cost a goal. You always want to keep the ball in front of you, look at the passing lanes and players around you and stay in front of the guy and at the right moment then close down on him.

All of that applies to real life soccer as well.

[MikeStephen]

on the ps3 I use the O button to let the computer pressure the player with the ball and use the right stick to flick to my other players to cover the other strikers. I also discovered last month just how valuable the L2 button is in jockeying and pressuring. As one guy above said, L2 R2, master them. Patience is absolutely the key.

Because I always use only two star teams I have found if I set my team to counter attack and ultra defensive I can deal with the lobbed through ball and sprinters a lot better. Despite what many may think I have to be even better and passing and dribbling tricks to get the ball forward as level 2 star teams dont have any fast enough players to bother with the long ball. I now also find that I am having the ball for a greater percentage of a game than my opposition, I rarely end up on the low side of the possesion stats.

I also never slide tackle which is probably a weakness, Im just not that great on timing them and would rather my defenders stay on their feet so they can help out again if a player gets past.

If you really want to improve your defending take a deep breath and play a dozen games with a level 2 star team, you will lose the lot, get hammered a few times but when you go back to a 5 star side you will have improved massively.

[XAPHS OLE]

OK Genious's explain to me how to defend when your player os "side steppin' " against lets say Ronaldo or Etoo??? I just have to say that the defending in this game is a BIG JOKE. Personally I've played 178 games online and I'm tired of loosing games 1-0 due to some stupid defensive mistake that can be fixed through EA.

OH and how many of you have had a ball deflect right onto the other teams attacker and he just plaaces it in the back of thenet... DEFENDING --- Yeah right... What's that in this game???

[markisbueno]

I personally try to be really patient as well. Then I try to poke the ball away when they try to get in the box. The only problem is when my defender pokes the ball away and goes to the next forward on the other player's team and has a wide open goal and nails it. Happens to me all the time, I guess it's just the way it is. I used to get really mad at how dumb the defenders play, but that happens in real life, too. I just wish there was a way to limit games so that you can play as only a 4 star team, 3 star team, etc.

[MikeStephen]

most of the goals i give away are my own mistakes, there are the odd unlucky deflection and there is one bug which trips me up, thats the one where a long lobbed ball is played over my defenders and while the defender watches the ball sail over he checks his run and the striker gets through. That one doesnt catch me out that often anymore as I use the right stick to flick to the deepest defender when I lose the ball and drop the defender deeper. The O button pressures the player with the ball. I would say at least 90% of the goals i give away are because I blew it.

[XAPHS OLE]

Originally Posted by MikeStephen

most of the goals i give away are my own mistakes, there are the odd unlucky deflection and there is one bug which trips me up, thats the one where a long lobbed ball is played over my defenders and while the defender watches the ball sail over he checks his run and the striker gets through. That one doesnt catch me out that often anymore as I use the right stick to flick to the deepest defender when I lose the ball and drop the defender deeper. The O button pressures the player with the ball. I would say at least 90% of the goals i give away are because I blew it.

Dude! You don't blow it. EA DID! This is a game and I can't remember the last time I've seen a defender "just watch the ball go over his head" CMON DUDE>>>>>

[shango11]

5 defenders, thats all you need

[MikeStephen]

Originally Posted by XAPHS OLE

Dude! You don't blow it. EA DID! This is a game and I can't remember the last time I've seen a defender "just watch the ball go over his head" CMON DUDE>>>>>

excellent!! im not crap after all!!! lol

[xxNos4r2xx]

L2+R2+X is the key...

You want to stay by your opponents side the whole way, if you are by his side 80% of the time they won't try to cross into teh box because you will be in the way. When they stop to try and get around you thats when you let go of L2 and try to take the ball away. This is my best tactic as alot of the time I set my tactics to Counter Attack, so once I retrieve the ball deep in my defence my midfielders and attackers set up really quickly for attack.

Also, slide tackling seems to be a tactic that has almost disappeared from fifa09 because everyone is affraid of getting fouled. If you come in from the side I would hold O to bring in an extra defender and then go a slide tackle, if the ball rolls away your extra defender should colelct the ball, if you give away a foul it almost will never be booked and if you do it will only be yellow. But that doesn't matter though because you achieved your goal of stopping their attack on goal.