Being dizzy from nasty strikers in FIFA 22 can be really frustrating. No wonder one is always looking for new ways to stop the opposing attackers. Apparently, the community is now looking for, well, rather brutal means to put the opposing OP cards in their place.
The pain with strong cards: Who doesn’t know it? Just when you’ve put together a fresh new team in Ultimate Team to shake up the Division Rivals, the shock hits in the first game: The newly purchased center-backs prove not to be an insurmountable defensive wall.
On the contrary: The opponent tricks around with their Mbappés, Ronaldos, or Neymars, slips past the defender, and nails the ball uncontrollably into the upper corner. After 30 minutes, it’s 0:3, and you just want it to end somehow – because the opposing OP cards are just impossible to deal with.
Of course, this doesn’t happen all the time, but often enough. And a user in the FIFA subreddit seems to have had enough. “bcsoccerfan” asked (via reddit): “Does anyone know how to injure the opponent’s players? Because it would be much easier in Division Rivals if I could just injure the best players of the opponent so I don’t have to worry about them.”
“That’s such a toxic way to think and play. I love it. Upvote”
This is how the post is received: The unusual question seems to have struck a nerve in the FIFA subreddit, as it has (as of now) over 2,300 upvotes and more than 170 comments, garnering unusually much attention for the topic.
Many users first amuse themselves at the question itself – because of course, it would be massively unfair to simply injure opposing players. However, every football fan whose favorite team has been humiliated by clearly superior opposing players will at least understand the thought process of whether one could risk a red card to take out the top dribbler of the opposing team.
That’s why there are several comments along the lines of user “Legendary_God177,” who simply writes: “That’s such a toxic way to think and play. I love it. Upvote” (via reddit).
But can you injure opponents? Besides the amused comments, there are some that seriously engage with the question. A proper, well-timed blood tackle against overpowered meta players like Mbappé, Kimpembe, and their colleagues – is that an option?
At least in Division Rivals and FUT Champions, that’s not currently feasible. There’s no real way to consistently injure opponents. Sure, you can repeatedly tackle the opponent and occasionally a small cross appears above the player indicating that there’s an injury – but in most cases, you can’t force a substitution.
It’s a bit different in offline modes like career or kick-off. There it can actually happen that players get injured and need to be substituted. In career mode, it can even lead to long absences. But in the serious PvP modes of Ultimate Team, that’s not currently directly possible.
That would be mean, right? At least user AssociationFun1845 thinks so: “That’s the reason why players can’t seriously injure each other and are forced to be substituted. I love the idea, but unfortunately it wouldn’t work, as the best players would be taken out within 2 minutes by two-footed tackles” (via reddit).
It’s actually assumed that such a function would be exploited pretty quickly – and in the end, only seven players or so would be left on the field because one team was dismantled and the other received endless red cards.
Is there an example? Does the topic of “unfair play” seem familiar to you in virtual football? Then you might think of the good old “This is Football 2002”. Because in this now 20-year-old game for the PS2, there were actually some nasty tricks. For instance, one could try to deceive the referee with dives and provoke cards for the opponent.
You can see what the game looked like in this video by YouTuber FNG (via YouTube):
And yes, the blood tackle was indeed present in that game. A tap on the R2 button led to a jumping, two-footed tackle, like you often see in heated local derbies when one team is down 0:13 and has finally had enough. This actually led to injuries for opponents pretty reliably – but it also often resulted in a sending off. It was fun nonetheless.
Could you use a blood tackle in FIFA 22? Let us know in the comments! Otherwise, here you can find some strong players with whom you might provoke your opponent to tackle.
