As the fouls add up and FIFA 22 Coins so do the goals. Atletico Sanluque?o go 3-1 up. In the second half, CD Gerena, chasing the comeback, abandon their stoic, possession-based game. Fast forwards and pacy wingers are substituted long ball shots are launched into the box. Wave after wave of attacks is deflected by dramatic leaps from Sanluque?o’s central defenders. There’s a limit to the amount that the backs-towall defence can handle; Gerena is able to retake a goal.

In the last few minutes, and the pressure of the battle saturating already exhausted bodies and minds of Sanluque?o, they launch an epic breakaway, and triumph 4-2. While the players whirl away in joy as the Gerena team slump down on their backs. Some look at their heads, while others look to the heavens. They know how much this game means. It will be remembered as being one of the most significant two hours of football to ever be played. But it will never be recorded in any of the historical books.

For a change from club colours Each team is wearing Xsens motion capture suits. On the touchline, crews are hunching over laptops. The devices that signal short distances, capturing players’ movement down up to the millimetre. in the stands along with personnel studying tablets and displaying live metrics. Thousands of miles away, the director of animation is looking at the game on Zoom. But this isn’t the work of a space-age team of scouting, nor is it the most recent coaching innovations.

The developers are EA, who created FIFA 22. This is the first occasion ever, EA motion-captured the live 90 minutes of a football matchby tracking players’ movements to the level of detail which can later be added to its animation database. The gaming company looked for the major details right down to the minutiae: from the way a full-back kicks the ball with the laces of their shoes, to how a playmaker naturally glances over their shoulder when they receive a ball.

“Ultimately, realism equals better play,” claims Gareth Eaves, senior animation director at EA who conducted the meeting remotely. “We have wanted to do it for a long time but cheap FUT 22 Coins the technology had not been there.”