Match

Once a match starts, it plays itself out automatically, and you watch rather than control players move by move. What you set up beforehand decides how your team performs.

Who takes the court

The seven players who play every match are whoever you saved as your default lineup (Team view, Tactics tab). There is no separate lineup to set per match. Save it once and it is used automatically until you change it.

Tactics

Alongside the lineup you choose an attack formation, a defense formation, an attack direction and an aggression level, and you can plan up to three orders that change them at a minute you pick. Once the match starts you cannot touch it. The Tactics article explains every choice. Tactics shift a match by a goal or two: a clearly better squad still wins most of the time.

Shooting zones

Shots come from three distances, each with its own scoring odds: a 9m shot from the outer arc, a 6m shot from close range, and a 7m penalty, awarded when a clear scoring chance is stopped illegally. The closer the shot, the more likely it is to score.

What decides the outcome

Every pass, shot, save and steal is an odds roll shaped by the players involved. See the Attributes article for what each skill does. A sharp attacker against a sharp defender tends to cancel out; the gaps show up when one side is clearly stronger. Home advantage gives a small, realistic edge to the home side.

2-minute exclusions

A defender who commits a foul can be sent off for two minutes, far more often when the foul gives away a 7m penalty than for an ordinary free throw. He leaves the court, his team plays one short with no replacement, and he returns when his time is up. Each running exclusion shows just under the scoreboard as a shirt number and a countdown, which stops whenever the match clock stops. A team can have up to three players excluded at once. The side with more players on court gets through to the 6m line much more easily.

Cards

A yellow card is a warning for a foul: nobody leaves the court. A player can get only one, a team at most three, and they are only shown in the first 15 minutes; after that, fouls are punished with 2-minute exclusions only. A red card comes with a player’s third exclusion or, very rarely, straight away for a bad foul. The team plays one short for two minutes, then a substitute comes on in his place, and if no substitute is left the team stays short. Each team’s cards are counted on the Stats tab of the live viewer and in the full-time report.

Cards never carry over to the next match, with one exception: a straight red always comes with a referee’s report, and that player is suspended for his club’s next match, league or cup. A red for a third exclusion never does. He shows a Suspended badge on your roster and cannot be picked until he is back. A ban not served by the end of the season carries over: he misses his club’s first match of the next one.

Watching it live

A running match can be watched live from the Competitions page (a league fixture, or a cup tie from the bracket), or from the Live button in the top bar while your own club is playing. The court shows the two sides in real time, with the score and clock above it. Under the court, a commentary bar in the two clubs’ colours describes each attack as it happens, and two tabs follow the match: Incidents (goals, exclusions and cards, per side) and Stats (possession, shooting, 7 metres, saves, cards and both teams’ tactics).

A cup tie that goes to extra time shows ET beside the clock. If it goes to a shootout, the shootout score takes the clock’s place, marked Pens, and every attempt is played out on court.

At full time the viewer turns into the match report: the goalscorers, each side’s player of the match and the full team statistics. A cup tie decided in extra time or on penalties says so under the score. Any finished match’s report — a league fixture or a cup tie — can be opened again from its card in Competitions.