FIFA 09

Alright, this is a very difficult achievement just because you need to win the biggest gold cup ONLINE and NOT OFFLINE wich is much more easy. I will give you great tips how to win online matches easier.

You don't need a perfect 5 star team with just star players. It doesn't mean that your team can play well together. Chemistry and morale are the key to winning matches.

I personally use a 2.5 star team when I play online. I find joy in using this team to win against the 5 stars dream team who has players like Ronaldo.

Formation: 5-3-2
Chemistry: 100
Nationality : England

Do always keep your team players morale high, at least higher > 85.

This is my custom tactics in online games. My opinion is that your formation doesn't really depends on your custom tactics. This tactics is suitable for fast counter attacks, good defensive tactics and flanks play.
Try it and hope that your gameplay will improve.

Build up:
Speed 80
Passing 33
Positioning free form

Chance Creation:
Passing 34
Crossing 90
Shooting 67
Positioning Free form

Defence:
Pressure 5
Aggression 35
Team width 33

TEAM CHEMISTRY

Team Chemistry is the most important factor in Ultimate Team. If you got a 5 stars team with low team chemistry ( less than 40), they will play sluggishly; poor defending, ball passing will be poor, shooting will be bad, first touch and pace will be affected as well.
If you play a team with high chemistry, you will notice smooth passing, stronger defending, nice move and pass play and shooting will be more accurately.

Personally for me, whenever possible; I will always keep an eye on my team chemistry when I need to reshuffle my players either due to injury, contract expires or low morale. The following is a explanation of how team chemistry works in Ultimate Team.

The Boot Icon: This represent the player favourite position. When the player card position matches the position on the team formation, the boot icon will turn green.

The Globe icon: This represent the player nationality. The globe icon will turn green if your forwards or midfielders or defenders are of the same nationality.

The Pitch Icon: The pitch icon refers to the formation on the pitch. The pitch icon will turn green if your players formation choices matches that of your managers. This is one of the most difficult area to acquire as your player formation trainers are hard to acquire. To get full ptich green icons, your players and managers must have all the same formation icon.

Lastly the team manager nationality also plays apart. As stated your manager must match your players in the formation and nationality if you want the full bonus. In other words, if your spend alot to acquire José Mourinho for your all England players team, it will not work out to its full potential unless you wish to base your players around Portugal.
Unfortunately, José Mourinho is not in UT currently. Hope EA can add Mourinho in UT soon.

TIPS HOW TO KEEP YOUR TEAM MORALE HIGH

Beside team chemistry, players morale are also very important. With high morale, your players will run faster, tackle better and shoot more accurate too.

Below are some tips for managing your players morale.

1. Create your own Team A and Team B of players to swap between matches.
2. If your player is on the bench for too long, the morale will drop.
3. Win more matches.
4. Avoid yellow or red cards.
5. Man-of-the-match player will gain higher morale.
6. Normally, the goal keeper is more difficult to gain morale than other players.
7. Try to keep a clean sheet. When your goal keeper concedes a goal, his morale will drop as well.
8. Search for team talk cards to increase morale.
9. Score more goals to increase morale.
10. Minimize players substitution and allow your player to play the full 90 mins to gain higher morale
11. If you lose a match, your substituted player(s) morale will be affected too.
12. Use team talk card on the player who has less than 85 morale.

PLAY THE MAN - NOT THE GAME

Winning or losing does depends on your temperament during a online game.
What I observed about myself is when I lost a game it's mostly because of my agitated temperament during the game. At times, when I make silly defensive errors to allow my opponent to score; I will tend to be angry and eventually lose the game.

Your opponent may also tries to intentionally agitate you in the game. Do not fall into their trap by allowing him to play the man! Instead, take a deep breath, put on a smile and imagine that you are playing a chess game. The practical chess-player looks out for the strengths and weakness of his opponents, and goes out of his way to capitalize on the weakness.

Similarly, one may also suggest to agitate your opponent by playing the man. I will recommend not to over do it as to leave a bad name for yourself. The one factor you should not consider, however, is how many fancy advanced skill moves you have executed if you can win the match with a brillant last minute goal.

Last but not least, one should only concerned only with the results, and that means going for the full 90 mins or extra-time if that is the safest way of winning.

USING PASS AND MOVE AGAINST HIGH PRESSURE AND AGGRESION TACTICS

Some of us find it frustrating to when your opponent uses high pressure and aggresson tactics to close down on your player (holding X/A); leaving no room to pass or maneuver. Most commonly, these type of tactics are used by fast running teams.
For me, to make room for my players, I normally use pass and move tactic to free up my strikers or centre forward. I will describe the steps as follows:

Step 1: When your forward or winger got the ball, your opponent using high pressure/aggression will sprint towards your player who has the ball. As soon as you noticed this type of play tactics, do a quick accurately short pass to your nearest player by holding L1/LB+pass button.

Step 2: If the pass is successfull, your opponent player (still holding X/A) will run towards your other player who has the ball thus freely your forward or winger player.

Step 3: Depending on the space and angle, you can execute a ground through ball or a high through ball to your forward or winger who has made the run. Of course you can ignore the pass to the player who has made the run depending on your players positioning.

One thing to note is pass and move is a form of attacking tactics. You should not do it too often in the game to tired your players, unless they have good stamina.

IF ANY OF YOU IS CONFUSED ABOUT ANYTHING I HAVE MENTIONED HERE JUST COMMENT AND TELL ME.

Good Luck and CHEERS!!!