And yet when you don’t have the ball, it feels more than ever like a non-contact sport.

When you’re in control, FIFA is a little snappier than it has been of late – it doesn’t take as long to release a pass, and you’re more likely to get a shot away before a defender steps in with a last-ditch challenge. In the men’s game, you can go several in-game minutes without coming close to touching the ball. “Part of the reason the women’s game showcases FIFA at its best is because the player skill level isn’t quite so high, and thus the occasional heavy touch or mistake means it’s easier to regain possession. The main caveat is that women’s games seem far more prone to random glitches: I got a bug that rendered one pre-match tackling exercise uncompletable, while on three separate occasions my defensive line stayed rooted to the edge of the 18-yard box, leaving me with little support going forward. Though it seems to take longer for strikers to get their shots away, and the best female players don’t quite have the close control of the superstars of the men’s game, these matches are often more dynamic, unpredictable, and exciting. I’m not convinced it’s a particularly accurate simulation of the women’s game – the quality of the football is akin to a Championship club between two teams with unusually high passing stats – but I probably enjoyed playing as the women more than the men because of these mechanical differences. And EA Sports hasn’t simply reskinned the men’s game you’ll notice tangible differences when playing as women, while female players have been fully motion-captured and look authentic.

This year’s World Cup saw women’s football reach a much wider audience than it ever has before, and it’s heartening to see 12 international women’s teams represented here for the first time. It’s ironic that this should happen in a year when FIFA introduces the single most progressive feature of the two games.

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