The revamped goalkeepers are one of the innovations that are noticeably present in FIFA 22. But not all players are happy about the suddenly improved keepers.
What’s going on in FIFA 22?
- The game hasn’t really been officially released yet; it officially kicks off on October 1st. However, the Early Access is already available, which EA Play members can use for ten hours each.
- This time-limited gaming phase was already enough to spark a big discussion point in the FIFA community.
- No wonder: it doesn’t take long to notice that something has changed with the goalkeepers compared to previous years. Usually, everyone in one of their first games will quickly think: “Uff – how did he save that?”
What’s new: For FIFA 22, both the goalkeeper AI has been revamped and numerous new animations for the keepers have been added. Accordingly, the goalkeepers behave differently than before. And: You can see movements and saves from them that you haven’t seen before.
A strange deflection of the ball, a reliable dive into the corner of the goal, a lightning-fast block with the foot: The keepers master numerous actions with which they prevent goals that would have been a sure score in previous games.
On the other hand, there are situations where you see a new animation, yet the goalkeeper still gets beaten. For example, when the keeper is struck powerfully and the ball somehow rolls into the net. Or when both teams are scrambling in the box and the ball somehow rolls into the goal rather than into the hands of the goalkeeper.
However: Overall, one can at least observe in this early phase that the goalkeepers are a significantly stronger factor in preventing goals than in the past. And this is currently sparking large discussions among the players.
“75-rated goalkeeper plays like Prime Moment Casillas”
This is what the community says: When you look around in the FIFA subreddit, there are some posts that deal with the goalkeepers in FIFA 22. However, there are differing evaluations of the new keepers.
- Some players are happy that the keepers in FIFA 22 reliably prevent goals. They felt the goalkeepers in previous years were too weak and appreciate the improvement.
- Others consider the goalkeepers nearly overpowered and are frustrated that numerous attacks do not lead to scoring. They find it unrealistic how strong the goalkeepers are at preventing goals.
Accordingly, there are currently two camps discussing the keepers in the community – and whether the performance of the goalkeepers should remain as it is.
- “I’m confused, I thought we all wanted better goalkeepers because they’ve been bad for years? This is the first year I think the goalkeepers are actually good. Normally they are useless, whether they are TOTY or not. Hopefully they won’t be nerfed,” writes a user (via reddit).
- “My 81-rated goalkeeper shouldn’t be able to make some of the saves I’ve seen from him,” is one of the replies (via reddit).
- “After the terrible performances that the goalkeepers have shown in previous FIFA titles, they are finally playing like real goalkeepers. If you keep complaining about it, they will be nerfed and we’re back to square one,” wrote a user (via reddit), which sparked discussion in the comments.
- “I would agree if a 75-rated goalkeeper didn’t play like Prime Moments Casillas,” someone countered (via reddit).
- “Did the keepers need to be improved compared to last year? Yes. Are the goalkeepers way too overpowering in certain situations now? Yes. I really don’t understand why people can’t grasp that we need a middle ground” (via reddit).
In detail, there is also talk about chances that would be nearly impossible for goalkeepers to pull off in real life – but can be done in FIFA 22. For instance, when a striker faces the goalkeeper in a one-on-one situation, strikes the ball hard, and yet the goal is still denied by a lightning-fast reflex.
It will be interesting to see how the situations develop in the coming days. After all, previous FIFA titles have repeatedly had mechanics that allowed players to reliably defeat the keepers. Just think of the ball roll, which allowed players to simply round the keepers in the past. It’s possible that players will find tricks again this year to reliably score goals – but currently, the keepers are keeping the goal tight.
Overall, this discussion also falls into a thematic field that has concerned the community for years: the contrast between gameplay and realistic football, and to what extent FIFA manages to implement that. Recently, however, an e-sports player even criticized the game’s realism:
What do you think about the current goalkeeper situation? Tell us in the comments!
