FIFA Goalkeeping:How to Be a Better Goalkeeper

In FIFA 15 and 14, 13 and 12 for that matter if you are playing Head to head or Ultimate team games you can force your keeper to attempt saves by pressing the shoot button when the opponent has taken a shot. Pretend you are the keeper and move the left stick in direction of the ball and press shoot. You will be surprised how useful this is.

A goalkeeper in Pro Clubs is a must if you are aiming big and want to become the number one club in the world. A pro goalkeeper is (in my opinion) the most important person of your team. If you are struggling to score or are just literally being outplayed, a good goalkeeper can keep you in the game, whereas a AI keeper would just fold over. We’ve all had that moment in a Pro Clubs match where the AI keeper fails to save a simple shot and after you think to yourself “I could have saved that!” It can be very frustrating!

1. Camera angle
Change your camera angle to ‘Pro’. It will be a lot easier this way as you can see where you are positioned in the goal and it also makes it easier to see the path of shots and crosses too. The camera is set behind the goal and it pans with the position of the ball. Pressing select will change the camera position from behind the goal to the ball, which can be useful when the ball is further up the pitch for viewing purposes. Watching from your goal line is pretty boring! I wouldn’t recommend playing with the ‘tele’ angle either. You can’t quite judge if a shot is going left or right of the goal or if you’re in the middle of the goal. It may take some time getting used to, but believe me you will reap the benefits in the end.

2. Positioning
This is probably the hardest part of being a pro goalkeeper, your positioning. I often hold left bumper (LB on xbox/L1 on PS3) to keep my pro goalkeeper in position. Most of the time it is pretty competent, but when dealing with corners and crosses, I would strongly recommend repositioning manually! Please see my paragraph on corners further down the page for a full explanation. Keeping LB/L1 held also stops you from running out of position too much. The last thing you want to be doing is running around like a dodo bird in the area. Your goalkeeper will lose his composure if you do this, allowing the attacker to catch you off guard and possibly score as a result.

3. Dealing with 2v1 (sweaty passers)
The only time I would consider not using LB/L1 is when dealing with 2 on 1 situations. This is where the attackers have broken free of your defenders and are coming straight at you. The opportunity arises where the attackers can perform what I like to call a “jobseeker” (known as sweating in the community). Their tactic will be to bring you out and just before you get close, they’ll pass across to the other attacker and score. Using LB/L1 doesn’t account for these. The pro goalkeeper will line up to defend against the attacker with the ball, probably at the near post. But when they pass, your goalkeeper will be out of position allowing an easy shot into an open goal. Don’t get caught out!

4. Don’t spam pass button
Have you ever noticed a pro goalkeeper throwing his arms into the air when the ball is around the box area? Or, why a goalkeeper makes an acrobatic dive out at corners? This will be because the pro goalkeeper is spamming the pass button. Do not ever do this. This puts your goalkeeper in a state of trance where he cannot perform any movement until a second later. This could cost you dearly with one on ones. A good striker will try to trick/fake shot you, hoping that you’ll be spamming pass for them to score. Be confident and press pass button only at the right time. The striker will no doubt hesitate if you do not take the bait and you’ll be successful in winning the ball.

5. Corners
Corners can be tricky at times. Do you rush out or stay on the line? My advice, always stay on the line. Keep LB/L1 held down and do not spam pass! Your keeper will then only commit to intercept crosses if it is close, otherwise get ready for a potential header on goal. A pro striker against an AI defender will no doubt get onto these headers. Your goalkeeper will have already reposition himself to defend against the incoming header so don’t panic.

6.Goal kicks
Goal kicks depend on your playing style and other pro players. If you have a tall pro striker up front then it would be an option kick the ball to him for a potential nod on to his striking partner. If you choose this path, do not apply full power to the kick. Your strikers will struggle to gain the ball and you’ll most likely lose possession. Try aiming for around 75% power (green bit of the bar) and it should 9/10 times land at your strikers head.

7. Saving power penalties
This won’t work for finesse shots but you will be able to tell if the player is going to use power as you can see the power meter! So practice this technique and you will save most power penalties.