THE BIG MATCH

31. Near the end now. But wait! There are two different kinds of 'Play Match' screens. So it's quiz time again.

Are you playing in 'Manager Only' mode?
If 'Yes', go to 32. If 'No', go to 33.

32. If you're only managing your team and not playing for it as well, you have two choices at this point. You can elect just to see the result of the match, or by selecting 'Manage Match', you can juggle your team and then watch the entire game unfold in front of your disbelieving eyes, via 34.

33. When you get to 'Play Match', you'll only have two green icons to choose from. 'Stats' lets you check the current competition's settings and high-scorer list and look at all the squads in the competition, while 'Play Match', well, can you guess?
 

THE MATCH

34. Clicking on 'Play Match' again brings up a list of your squad, alongside a little diagram of your currently-selected formation. You can move players around (but beware of playing players out of position - they won't perform nearly as well as they would in their preferred position. Indeed, if you place players in silly positions, a little 'X' will appear beside their name, and a 'thumbs down' icon will appear at the top left corner of the screen to ram home the folly of your actions. It's not all negative, though - make a smart move and a 'thumbs up' will appear, accompanied by a little tick by the name of a player you're moving to somewhere he's going to be good. Go to 26 (SQUAD) for position details), select any of the 13 available formations (including the six custom ones you can design yourself - go to 30 for details), or view the opposition's squad and formation. Hit 'OK' and you're - gulp - in an Actual Match Situation. Good luck.

AND THEN WHAT?

And then you do it all again, man. You play a season, then another season, then another season, and if you're really crap you get sacked and if you're really good Barcelona make you an offer you can't refuse. Maybe, if you're really really good, you'll even get to manage your own national side, with the pick of your nation's players from every side in the world. And then, well, the sky's the limit. Who knows what might happen next? First there was Sensible Soccer. Then there was a World of it. Any ideas?

Credits