Match Engine
Freekick strives to give the match engine a feel of realism, while offering a variety of clear tactical options for managers to indulge in. The focus of the match report is to be informative so the recipes for success can be analyzed. We can with confidence say that our simulation is the best on the market.
Any serious match simulation takes the quality of players and tactical options into account in the match. But few try to simulate the essence of football to enable the managers to make intuitive and football like decisions for their squad. Instead simulations are usually restricted to the game genre and lose their football feeling for anyone who knows the sport. While we do simplify parts of the simulation to make it enjoyable as a game, we believe we rise above the flaw of forgetting what we simulate.
One important, unique aspect of our match engine is that we describe the opportunity part in detail and that the challenges you read about actually occur in the simulation. As FreeKick is bound to no nonsense reports it limits the possibility to flavour comments within the report as everything written there actually occurs in the simulation. If the detail isn't covered in the simulation it cannot be reported according to the no nonsense policy.
Each side gets approximately the same amount of opportunities unless their tactics stipulate otherwise. In this occasion, we disregard the quality of the players and formation of each side as they will get their chance to prove themselves within the opportunities. This practice gives both managers the chance to analyze what went wrong just like an expert would.
The opportunity can be simplified as four steps; starting, midfield, penalty box and goal attempt. The opportunity starts with a pass, dribble or counterattack that brings the ball to the offensive part of the midfield. If the attacking side keeps the ball they will likely try to bring the ball into the box to go for goal. If the defence fails to conquer the ball, the attackers will try to score with the goalkeeper as the last obstacle.
It's fair to call the description in the last paragraph simplified as every player has orders given by the manager that might alter this four step description somewhat(long shots, seek corner...) and the effect of an action might also complicate the opportunity (rebounds, set pieces, counter attacks...). It's not necessary to make advanced choices to win matches, but it is often the best way to utilize specific players.
We also take into consideration that football is a team sport. Although stars are important at any place on the pitch, they are influenced by how good help they have from their team mates. Besides the obvious importance of a great pass, we also take into account the abstract part of football that only the experts usually comment. We see this as quite intuitive, but we explain the thoughts behind the zones in a separate chapter for you to indulge in.
During the match the conditional orders of the manager can come into effect. These orders are given before the match and come into effect when their condition (leading with 2 goals and/or in a certain minute for example) is true. Once again these settings are not necessary to win, but playing more offensive when behind in the second half can lead to an equalizer or even turn the game around. Substituting tired players are also a common conditional order.
Tactical options are described under "Tactics" and we suggest that you read through that section carefully for a good understanding of the tools that are available. FreeKick is a strategic game and it's quite possible to lose while having the best squad if one neglects the match tactics or don't understand the essence of the match simulation.
Details:
The quality of player actions in the match report are described in denominations based on the players skills. Although the denominations in the match report can deviate a fair amount, the average is still the player skill denomination (modified by form and stamina). Other influences to a player action are not incorporated into the match report denomination (such as the zone or positioning influence on a goalie's saving attempt).
The quality of player actions in the match report are described in denominations based on the players skills. Although the denominations in the match report can deviate a fair amount, the average is still the player skill denomination (modified by form and stamina). Other influences to a player action are not incorporated into the match report denomination (such as the zone or positioning influence on a goalie's saving attempt).
Opportunity Creation
Each side will get a base number of eight opportunities to try to get past the midfield and penalty box of the opponent in order to score a goal. A comparison of midfield skills can add up to four opportunities to the stronger side. Skills used for this comparison is Passing and the lowest average of the offensive pairs (OP+BC) and the defensive pairs (DP+TA). Unless otherwise stated, only the skills of midfielders are used.
Using advanced positions (W, OM, DM) or the Isolate tactical option will give away opportunities to the opponent. Although this is a clear disadvantage for the side using these settings, the upside of directing or diverging opportunities from certain players in midfield is worth it.
There are also opportunities that are dedicated to specific positions. Each Forward or Striker will get an opportunity each and Wing Backs get at least one opportunity if they have decent or higher in Constitution. A Wing Back with Awesome Constitution can even get four personal opportunities, but remember that position based opportunities always will be given to that position.
Although all opportunities will appear during the 90 minutes a full match is scheduled for (and additional ones will be calculated if extra time), the exact amount of opportunities will be recalculated when changes to lineups/tactics force it during the match. If one side uses "isolate" for instance, the other side will get one opportunity for 90 minutes. If that setting is only effect for 45 minutes, then there is only 50% that it will result in an opportunity. Fractions of opportunities will be chances to receive them. This includes flank defenders with a Constitution skill between the target number to get another opportunity.
Opportunities are started by passes or sometimes (if Ball Control is higher than Passing) with dribbles. If the player who starts the opportunity is inadequate in his offensive skills (compared with opponent midfielders), then he risks to start the opportunity with a long pass. The drawback with that is that such a pass never can be beneficial to the assistance calculation (although it still can be negative).
Details:
When in a clear lead, the winning side tend to lose concentration. As a result the leaders won't produce as many opportunities as otherwise expected. If the clear lead is lost, the squad will snap back to reality and go back to normal.
When in a clear lead, the winning side tend to lose concentration. As a result the leaders won't produce as many opportunities as otherwise expected. If the clear lead is lost, the squad will snap back to reality and go back to normal.
Counterattacks
Most counterattacks are made from midfield where using two wingers or the Opportunistic team order will increase the chance of achieving them. Using both will cause dangerous (+5 OP and BC) counter attacks. The chance of a counter attack is caused by a midfielder winning the challenge in midfield with a clear margin. If the counterattack isn't marked as dangerous, the counter attack doesn't differ from a normal opportunity besides how it occurred.
Defenders with weak or higher passing might counter attack from the penalty box. A keeper that saves a shot or header with a clear margin and controls the ball well might also start a counterattack. Both these situations are less likely to occur than countering from the midfield.
Details:
The number of counter attacks for each side during full time is limited to four in midfield, one for the keeper and one for the central defenders.
The number of counter attacks for each side during full time is limited to four in midfield, one for the keeper and one for the central defenders.
Clear Margin
When a player wins an offensive challenge with over two and half denominations it is regarded as "clear margin". The calculation includes both the reception and the positioning duel, where the latter has lesser importance. Also take into account "Drawback for extremely offensive midfielders" and that wing backs have much more easy to get clear margin.
Fouls
Players will put extra effort into challenges now and then. They do this when it's needed to add that little extra to come out on top in a situation or to better the odds; they are more likely to do this if they grasp that the situation will get dangerous defensively if they don't. The referee is infallible, which means that he sees everything. As the players never foul on purpose, the referee sometimes lets things pass, but he always keep track of the player actions and won't let them get away with repeated actions.
Putting extra effort into a situation can raise the skill effect with up to two denominations if needed to come out on top, but players seldom misjudge their effort that much and the referee is more likely to blow his whistle the rougher the play is. In positioning duels a player can put effort into getting closer or getting away. Note that regardless of positioning duels, ball control versus tackling, Aerial versus Aerial or any other situation – both the defending player and the attacking player can foul (although not at the same time). Certain personalities, abilities and experience affect fouling. Read more about this in their respective manual chapters.
Injuries
The injury system is balanced to avoid too much good or bad luck. This means that a player will only be injured a certain number of times during a season (assuming playing all league matched) based on his Constitution skill. In other words: the more minutes a player plays the higher risk of injury. So if a player is injured in the first match of the season he will be injured one time less for the reminder of the season. Which players (if any) that was injured during the match is displayed in the post-match line-up, but a complementary club news is also sent to the manager of the injured player(s).
If you, for instance, field a squad of outfielders with 35 in Constitution you would have about two injuries a match, if they had 45 in Constitution you could expect about one a match and if all your players had a Constitution value of over 65 you would seldom have injuries. A player is usually injured a full week. Since the keeper has no Constitution stat, it is assumed to be 45 for this purpose (both senior and youth). Players at the Wing Back position runs higher risk of injuries as that position uses Constitution for performance purposes. It’s also worth mentioning that the risk for injuries is halved during the part of the match where it's too uneven (one side has a clear lead).
We try to avoid that both attackers or both central defenders gets injured in the same match. Only one attacker and central defender may be injured on the pitch at the same time. If the club substitutes, it's still possible to get more than one player of each type injured. It's possible to get three players injured in any given match, where at least one will be a light injury.
The effect of getting injured always lasts one week from the match the player was injured in. If the injury is represented by a red cross, the player cannot participate in competition matches the upcoming week. If the injury is represented by a yellow cross, then the player (if he is an outfielder) has a 20 (-10 for youth) constitution penalty for the purpose of calculating fatigue (not for the purpose to resist further injuries) in the upcoming competition matches. Keepers with yellow cross injuries are instead worn down by shots much quicker than normal. There is 50% chance of an injury being light (yellow) instead of serious (red).
Suspensions
When a player commits a foul, there is a risk that he will receive a reprimand or a yellow card. Obnoxious players are being booked more often and can even talk themselves into a card without actually fouling anyone. Charming players sometimes talk themselves out of situations. Once a player receives a yellow card he will not foul in that match again as players in FreeKick don't foul on purpose and never as severe as to receive a red card straight away. Accumulating two yellow cards (in separate matches) will lead to the player being suspended for one match, but both yellow cards and suspensions are reset at the end of season.
Penalty kicks
The first chance to score for the penalty taker is if the keeper fails to go in the right direction.
Modification for the keeper:
- Master of set pieces
- Reliable
- Confident
- Quick
- Nervous (negative)
- Attacker is Master of Set Pieces (negative)
The second issue is whether the penalty taker actually hits goal. This is something that the taker should be able to do, but sometimes doesn't.
Modification for the penalty taker:
- Confident
- High Experience
- Reliable
- Nervous (negative)
- Keeper is going in the right direction (negative)
- Low Experience (negative)
- Artistic (negative)
The keeper gets a chance to save the ball if he goes in the right direction. The penalty taker uses the two best out of Experience, Passing, Scoring and Ball Control to take the shot. There is some balancing going on between these skills to (for example) simulate that you need technique to be able to use full Scoring or Passing. The keeper uses an average of (half of his) Experience, Reflexes and Interception.
Modification for the penalty taker:
- Master of Set Pieces
- Artistic
- Confident
- Nervous (negative)
Modification for the keeper:
- Master of Set Pieces
- Reliable
- Confident
- Quick
- Nervous (negative)
The keeper or posts may cause rebounds that are relevant if it's a penalty within the match, but not during a shoot out after extra time. The control skill has the same impact as versus normal shots, which means that the keeper can fumble the ball.
A player needs to be "warmed up" in order to be effective in taking or saving penalties. The reason for this is mainly game dynamical - it shouldn't be effective to aim for draw and substitute penalty takers or savers the last few minutes of the match. In order to avoid reduced penalty taking efficiency, the player need to have been on the pitch for at least 15 minutes. The shorter the time on the pitch the higher disadvantage will be.
Taking down high passes and shooting volley shots
A player that is better at shooting from the ground will always take the ball down to get the best chance to score, and a player with higher Aerial than Scoring will not bring the ball down. A player that receives a high pass and has close to equal Scoring and Aerial will sometimes make volley shots. These shots are harder to anticipate for the keeper, giving him a penalty of 10 to his positioning attempt.
Positioning and high passes into the box
When running into positioning to receive a high pass, the player actually need to understand something about aerial play (compared to his opponent) to be able to time his run optimally. Basically, if his effective Aerial reception skill is way lower than the effective aerial challenge skill of the defender, the defender will get a bonus to Defensive Positioning.
Details:
For each point over 15 that the attacker effectively has lower Aerial skill than the defender, the latter will get +1 Defensive Positioning in order to catch the attacker up to a maximal bonus of +15.
For each point over 15 that the attacker effectively has lower Aerial skill than the defender, the latter will get +1 Defensive Positioning in order to catch the attacker up to a maximal bonus of +15.
Hasty Action
If the assistance in midfield is high defensively (good or above), the attacking midfielder might be forced to perform a hasty action, reducing passing/dribble quality with one denomination.
Inferior positioning or technique
When an attacking player faces a defender with more than double the positioning skill than he has, he is in trouble. For every point of Defensive Positioning skill the defender has above double the attacker's Offensive Positioning, he will get +1 in effective Tackling/Areal. This is especially important in the midfield flanks, where the defensive Positioning only needs to be 50% higher to start getting bonus. This is marked as the defender being "prepared" in the match report.
The same is true for a player facing an opponent with double the Tackling compared to his Ball Control, although it's the defending players positioning that gets a bonus. For inferior technique it's in the centre midfield that the difference only needs to be 50% for the positioning to get a bonus. Also, the penalty for inferior technique isn't applied in the penalty box (as low Ball Control has other penalties there).
Details:
As an example, if a player with 20 BC faces a player with 50 TA in one of the flanks, then the defending player would get +10 (50-2x20)in the positioning duel because the bad technique slowed the attacking midfielder down. If the duel was in the centre, then the defending player would get +20 (50-1.5*20).
As an example, if a player with 20 BC faces a player with 50 TA in one of the flanks, then the defending player would get +10 (50-2x20)in the positioning duel because the bad technique slowed the attacking midfielder down. If the duel was in the centre, then the defending player would get +20 (50-1.5*20).
Fooling the keeper when having low Offensive Positioning
If the attacker loses the positioning duel versus the defenders he will have to make it up by winning the control challenge with an equal amount. If he doesn't, his effective Ball Control that he can use to compare with the keepers position will be reduced by that amount and a 50% added. Note that this does not affect whether he gets to finish or not, only how hard or easy it is for the keeper to predict the shot.
Example:
Assume that your player loses the position duel with 30 versus the defenders and win the control challenge with the defenders with 20. The difference is 10 and it is increased by 50% which makes the sum 15. This is the amount that the finishing player gets subtracted to his Ball Control when trying to fool the keeper. If he had 80 in Ball Control, his effective Ball Control would be (80-15) 65.
Assume that your player loses the position duel with 30 versus the defenders and win the control challenge with the defenders with 20. The difference is 10 and it is increased by 50% which makes the sum 15. This is the amount that the finishing player gets subtracted to his Ball Control when trying to fool the keeper. If he had 80 in Ball Control, his effective Ball Control would be (80-15) 65.
Fooling the keeper when having low Scoring
If an attacker has lower Scoring than 66% of his Ball Control he will not be as skilled at fooling the keeper as his Ball Control indicates. He will only be able to use half his Ball Control over the limit to fool the keeper. Note that this has only bearing for the purpose of fooling the keeper and not for the purpose of beating the challenge of the defender.
Keeper making mistakes and attackers losing focus
If the keeper is pummelled by shots he will sooner or later make a mistake. He tends to tighten his act after conceding a goal though. Likewise the finishers tend to lose focus if their side is ahead by several goals, making the goal attempts less lethal.
Adjusting skills to midfield
We regard Passing as the skill that defines how much you know of midfield play. This means that if the passing of a player is much lower than the other skills, that player won't be able to use them to their full extent. This creates a difference between midfielders and the players that operate in the penalty box, but it still keeps the flexibility of most players which allows them to play at different positions. This might feel a bit complex, but ensures an exciting and interesting midfield game.
You can see how your players look by clicking the MF Skills at your player list or by simply putting a player at a position outside the penalty box in a lineup. If Passing is the highest skill of the player, no adjustment is needed. For exact formulas, check the details. This adjustment is true even if the midfielder moves into the penalty box for some reason (by dribbling or flank defenders assisting a single central defenders). No player is adjusted during set pieces.
Details:
BC is restricted to 150% PA, and OP at 100% PA. If BC is 125-150% PA, then OP can be 100-125% of PA, for a total maximum OP and BC of 250%. This means that if BC is lower than 125% of PA, then OP is restricted to 125% of PA. The player can only use 20% of the skill over that restriction.
To adjust Tackling and Defensive Positioning we use 2.5*PA or 1.25*PA + 1.25*BC (whichever highest). The highest of Tackling and Defensive Positioning is reduced first to meet the midfield adjusted sum in order to create balanced defensive skills. The player can only use 20% of the skill over that restriction.
BC is restricted to 150% PA, and OP at 100% PA. If BC is 125-150% PA, then OP can be 100-125% of PA, for a total maximum OP and BC of 250%. This means that if BC is lower than 125% of PA, then OP is restricted to 125% of PA. The player can only use 20% of the skill over that restriction.
To adjust Tackling and Defensive Positioning we use 2.5*PA or 1.25*PA + 1.25*BC (whichever highest). The highest of Tackling and Defensive Positioning is reduced first to meet the midfield adjusted sum in order to create balanced defensive skills. The player can only use 20% of the skill over that restriction.
Drawback of really extreme midfielders
Of course, extreme midfielders will either be very skilled at getting through or very skilled at stopping the opponent. The drawback of this is of course that the players will be incompetent at the other area (defensively or offensively). In addition to this, there is a secondary drawback to their strong point. Note that this rule doesn't apply to attackers when they appear in midfield.
For the purpose of offensive contribution and to make counterattacks, the midfielder cannot use more Tackling and Defensive Positioning than he has Ball Control and Offensive Positioning. For the purpose of achieving a clear margin, the midfielder cannot use more Offensive Positioning and Ball Control than twice his Tackling and Defensive Positioning.
Restrictions to low Scoring attackers
To avoid attacker types that are non-intuitive, the position cannot their full Ball Control, Aerial or Offensive Position if it’s higher than two times the Scoring value. The part of those skills that exceeds two times Scoring will be halved. That means (for example) that if the attacker has a Scoring value of 40 and 100 in Offensive Positioning of 100, he will effectively only be able to use 90 in the latter skill.
Bad and good angles
A finishing attempt may be attempted from a bad/good or really bad/good angle for several reasons: demand of a certain type of pass, defender orders, being dominated in a positioning duel or because of the keeper having very high or low Interception skill versus a high pass.
Details:
Finishing from a good angle makes the shot seven (7) points harder to save, a bad angle makes the shot seven (7) points easier to save, and a really bad or good angle means that the effect is doubled to fourteen (14).
Finishing from a good angle makes the shot seven (7) points harder to save, a bad angle makes the shot seven (7) points easier to save, and a really bad or good angle means that the effect is doubled to fourteen (14).
Opening Pass
If your attackers have high understanding for playmaking (Passing Skill) and the central defenders they face does not, then the receiving attacker (or possible midfielder who dribbled into the box) might find an opening pass that render the other one totally free with the keeper. This isn’t common. It can only happen if the effective Passing skill of the two best attackers is higher than the Passing skill of two best defenders, and even if there is large margin it is unlikely to happen more than once in a match. But when it happens it’s a powerful action.
The attackers cannot use more Passing than they have in Scoring. The attacker who could receive the opening pass can also not use more Passing skill than his Offensive Positioning. Opening passes can never be found when controlling free balls. To have one really good playmaking attacker is more important than to have two pretty good ones. But if the 2nd best playmaking attacker is really bad in Passing (compared to the defenders), then the chance of an opening pass happening is greatly reduced.