Reading match reports

Technical cards show numbers from the stored match. If the defender did not reach the opponent, the next section describes the reception, not a tackling contest. The positioning draw is shown separately from the initial advantage: a positive draw favours the attacker. In the block calculation, mentality belongs to the defending team; ×1 is neutral, while the counterattack multiplier scales colleague contributions, not the probability directly. Each named player probability is a share of all outcomes; these shares sum to the total block probability.

Positioning quality and reaching an opponent are separate facts. The commentary grades the defender’s own effective Defensive Positioning, including form, fatigue, the midfield Passing limit where applicable, and any execution mistake in that action. It excludes team support, tactical bonuses, extra effort and the reach draw. Those terms still affect the contest against the attacker. A defender can therefore show good positioning and still fail to reach the receiver, or reach him with weak positioning. The outcome never determines the grade. An execution mistake means playing below his calculated level in that action, not having a separate speed skill. Old journals without the own-positioning value cannot supply this grade; the report does not reconstruct it from today’s player.

The analysis separates opportunities from finishing attempts. Blocked attempts count even when no unblocked shot follows. Rebounds are new attempts in the same phase; penalties, set pieces and finishes after a beaten trap have separate rows. A missing midfield record does not prove that midfield was beaten.

Each defensive duel rate divides wins by actual contested challenges for that team. Failure to reach is separate. A block and the clearance that follows may describe the same defensive stop, so do not add every action category together. Traps include only explicitly identified events; their goal count covers the immediate shot, not later rebounds.

The channel notes describe this match and show ties or missing data. They cannot prove which tactic would have won. Technical probabilities refer to different stages: blocking before accuracy, hitting the target, then scoring given an on-target attempt. Old journals keep their recorded evidence; missing values are not recalculated with the current engine.

First: who created the better volume and routes? Second: where did actions repeatedly break? Third: were the decisive moments representative or exceptional? This keeps one finishing streak from hiding a structural problem.

Every displayed action comes from a stored event. Qualities and margins are the values used by the engine, not flavour text.

Full report and live use the same commentary. A starting plan or an applied change describes what the team is trying to do. The action then shows what actually happened: a pass behind the defence, early pressure, a hurried ball or a counterattack that gets underway. When the move actually begins, its opportunity header carries a Counterattack label; the “looks to…” line just before it names the player who won the ball, and the break is that side’s very next action. The opening line names each side’s approach, its mentality and whether the offside trap is set, all read from the plan stored with the match; it reads the same for a managed club and for an unmanaged one playing its house plan.

The commentary follows the order of play. A diagonal is described when the pass is played, and space to shoot when the shot is taken. A defender can win a challenge before conceding a corner. At a direct free kick, the taker prepares, then strikes once. In older matches, a duel winner is named only when the saved action confirms it.

A tactical advantage does not guarantee a successful move. Interceptions made by the defence as a unit stay unnamed, and fatigue does not automatically explain every mistake. Where recorded, the report mentions extra work from Close down early as pressing, from Regain and break as winning the ball back, and from extra effort in duels. Older matches keep the explanations supported by their stored events.

The report also names the edge that decided a phase. A press can win the ball high (“The press has won it high up the pitch”); a patient side that gets past it finds the box stretched (“The press has left the box stretched”); a counter against a line caught upfield meets few men back; a Technical freedom finisher picks his way through the packed box; a long ball can be won in the air and headed clear. When the other side plays Adaptive shape, the sentence says so: it takes the sting out of the press, tracks the run, has the launch covered or regroups quickly. The technical detail shows the size of each box edge.

Support is named only when it moved the duel. A defender had good support from his team-mates (+6 or more) or superb support (+12 or more), or was slightly out-supported by the attack (below −5) or clearly out-supported (below −12); “on the break” means the counter-attack penalty was part of it. The neutral band, from −5 to +6, is left unsaid. The technical detail separates each player’s own skill from the action total: the receiver’s Ball Control and the defender’s Tackling, with form, fatigue and any execution mistake. A positive positioning advantage adds gradually to Tackling: 1 point for every 3 points of advantage, up to 5 at an advantage of 15, before fatigue and aerial adjustments. The labels and the Ground angles condition retain their existing thresholds. The situation around them (a prepared defender, a positioning advantage, leftover support, the press) is said in words and itemised in the technical detail, included in the pre-draw action grade. For example, own Tackling 67.71 is excellent, while a positioning contribution of 4.56 makes the 72.27 challenge superb. The draw never changes that grade. “Despite” appears only when the loser was graded at least as well as the winner, and at least decent. Extra effort is only ever thrown in by the player who was losing, so the report says so (“was losing the challenge and throws in extra effort”) and, when it turned the duel, names it as the reason (“With that extra effort, … wins the ball”). A defender who is slow to react never reached the receiver; one who is not at his sharpest made an execution mistake in the challenge. In midfield a defender comes away with the ball; in the box he clears the danger.

Now and then the report adds a dry remark after a phase lost by a mile: a positioning gap of 45 or more, a defender first by 40, a challenge or a reception that won by 40, a goal that beat the save by 20, a save that beat the shot by 30, or a miss 30 below the required accuracy. The remark comes after the explanation and never replaces it; hovering it shows the gap that earned it. At most 2 appear in a match, at least 20 minutes apart, never twice about the same player, and a match always shows the same remarks. Switch them off with Match banter in the display menu.

In Full report, shots, pressured opening passes and relevant reception, box and set-piece duel lines include Show technical detail. The panel is closed by default and loads the match’s frozen technical evidence only when it is first requested. Displayed numbers are rounded, while the stored value remains the source of truth.

A probability describes the chance before the stored draw; the realised result states what actually happened. A stronger quality or a high probability makes an outcome more likely, but never replaces the recorded winner. Read the realised result before interpreting the margin.

New box duels ending in a shot struck with the foot also show the colleagues eligible to block, their recorded skills and contributions, the combined probability and the shared draw. A successful block names its author even when a corner follows. Player analysis counts these blocks separately from clearances; ratings credit the intervention once. Older journals do not invent a missing blocker or block formula.

The shot and save grades describe the action total before the dice: execution plus situation for the shooter, Reflexes plus set-up and any historical standing term for the keeper. The technical detail retains each own-skill denomination separately. The dice affect the outcome, never these action grades.

• Finishing quality describes the attempt before the dice, including freedom, angle and other stored situation terms. It is not a goal probability.
• Direction is reported separately. A high-quality attempt can still miss when the attempt plus the shooter’s own dice falls below the required accuracy. The same dice decides the direction and, on target, the duel with the keeper; the label grades the attempt including situation, never the dice.
• The situation is told in the same sentence, in words: a completely free position, space to pick his spot, a tight angle, a packed box, a beaten offside trap, and a keeper who was slow to read the delivery (7 off his set-up) or badly caught out by it (14 off). Each enters the relevant action total before the dice, and the technical detail gives its exact number.
• The report can say made a good, excellent or brilliant save according to the keeper's effective Reflexes plus set-up and any historical standing term, before the dice. The keeper's set-up with the comparison behind it, the situation, both dice and the margin between save and shot are shown separately in technical detail, together with the goal chance knowing only that the shot is on target, without the values either dice rolled. The luck of the moment is named for the shooter and for the keeper alike: the dice stay contest terms, and the keeper's set-up is named beside the save grade from the value it added to the save.
• The report names the keeper's set-up for this shot in words beside his save grade: had the angle covered, had set himself, was in position, was a step late or was caught square. That name comes from the value the set-up added to the save, not from the keeper's dice or the denomination of Goalkeeper Positioning; matches played before 27 September 2026 named it from the keeper's dice. Older journals without a stored state still say in a good position from the stored Positioning input: 55.67 is good. Defensive crowding stays in the shot context and is not counted again as goalkeeper support.
• Handling comes afterwards: Control and the realised save margin explain whether the ball is held, pushed behind or spilled. A narrow save is harder to hold. When the stored save margin is at most 3 and the keeper holds the ball, the report says he only just kept it out but still held on. These three chances in technical detail all apply after a successful save.

A close duel is described from its stored result margin, for either winner. A better control or challenge grade does not guarantee possession; an inferior defender can still win narrowly. A lost duel can be a skill gap, bad role fit, poor support or a deliberate tactical trade-off. Compare repeated events before changing the player. Then decide whether training, lineup, approach or an opponent-specific order is the smallest credible remedy. If the table is tight, change the plan for the meeting with the club beside you. Do not expect one tactic to make every opponent score.