Once I started professionally winning Squad Battle games on Madden nfl 21 coins World Class, I knew I was capable to give Division Rivals another go, and that I was interested to see how I fared against human competition. I had an excellent squad, but crucially I'd learned how to strike and shield; there was no way I would be staying in Division 9 for quite long.

In my surprise, even at the doldrums of this division, I was still coming up against squads better than mine -- we are talking 89-rated teams, the majority of the time. And, despite all that I'd learned offline, I was conceding a lot of goals, also. I would find that I'd be able to keep opponents to two or three shots per game, but I would concede all them; conversely, I would have upwards of ten shots , and just put away two or one. Losing a match 3-1 despite dominating the game turned into a difficult pill to swallow.

But I found that wins could arrive in classes: I'd get three or four on the rebound, move up into Division 8, then lose a few and drop down. My one aim, actually, wasn't to embarrass myself: I didn't mind losing, I simply didn't need to go battered 8-0. And to my credit, that never occurred: there was one game where I went 3-0 down in about 30 minutes, but ended up fighting my way back to 3-3; a huge achievement against a player who was definitely a shade better .

I now find myself in Division 7, and while I understand there'll be people reading this chuckling to themselves in this lowly achievement, the difference in my general play is night and day. If I could play myself from two or three months past, I'd likely win 15-0; the progress was dramatic. I'm still making silly mistakes and panicking defensively once I shouldn't, and I am not scoring as many goals as I feel I need to be, but there's no question I've improved a lot.

The next steps for me would be to work on enhancing what I've got. There are better versions of Pogba and Kante, for example, which would boost my midfield for a fee; I would love to find somebody like Eric Cantona upfront, but I know it's going to put me back millions of Coins. I'm at a stage now, along with my squad, at which I am essentially trading any cards that I earn and rescue my Coins so I can make minor improvements to the gamers I've already got.

I've actually mostly enjoyed playing on the internet; nobody uses a microphone so I have not encountered anywhere close to the amount of abuse I confronted in Madden NFL 21. I did get some very salty messages, but normally I believe FIFA 21's matchmaking works well; I feel like I'm playing against players in a roughly similar ability level, and this is leading to a competitive matches with fun ebbs-and-flows; occasionally I get roundly beaten by a better player, other times I win comfortably too. Fair.

As such, unlike Madden NFL 21, I believe I will continue playing throughout the remainder of the season. I am well on my way to qualifying for a Weekend League today, and while I would expect to get thumped by that kind of cheap Mut 21 coins competition, I've set myself a goal to keep improving my squad and also see how I fit up in that sort environment; I'll certainly write about my first Weekend League once I make it. If I could get just one win, I'd be very pleased.