EA Sports spends a lot of time and money looking at football players, at the game, and trying to bring the most accurate football simulator on the planet. For 2014 Fifa World Cup Brazil, they have squad updates, and daily updates of who is in form and who isn’t. It is a lot of meticulous work to make sure the game is accurate. The question is: does all of this really work? We are going to test this this world cup by simulating all the game in the schedule, and then checking how many of results are accurate. We don’t expect FIFA to get the details of the match right, that would be impossible. Instead we will see if the outcome is correct (win, loss or draw) and we will track the number of goals scored.

Opening day was an easy one, only one match, and one that should be easy to predict. Let’s see how FIFA did.

Day 1

Brazil VS Croatia

FIFA Result

Brazil 2- Croatia 1

Brazil 2

Luiz Gustavo (34′)
Luiz Gustavo (45′)

Croatia 1

N. Jelavic (45′)

Despite not suffering from the debut jitters that will sure wrack many of Brazil’s real world squad, this match up was surprisingly close. Croatia even managed to tie late in the first half, but Brazil was capitalized from a mistake and got ahead again in the second half. Brazil had most of the possession, but were unable to capitalize on any chance during the second half. Likewise, Croatia created chances, but in the end, they lacked a strong finisher to make them count. It is worth noting that both Hulk and Neymar were rendered ineffective by strong personal markers.

World Cup Game Result

Brazil 3- Croatia 1

Brazil 3

Neymar (29′)
Neymar (P) (71′)
Oscar (90′)

Croatia 1

Marcelo (OG)(11′)

Do not let the scoreline fool you. This was not a good performance for the hosts. Brazil won an ugly, rough game that saw them seem inferior to Croatia at times. Early on the anxiety of the world cup debut was palpable, as they kept retreating and giving Croatia space to play. In the 11th minute they were punished with an own goal by Marcelo on a play that should have been easy to defend. Brazil equalized later with a perfectly play by Neymar. This would be the best Brazil would be at all night. The problem is that the play that caused them to get ahead was a penalty gifted by the ref from a clear dive. The rest of the game, the host team, stayed in its own half and defended against Croatia, which came close to equalizing.

Conclusion

FIFA stars off well, predicting the first game correctly. Of course, this was supposed to be a predictable match. Despite, or maybe because, the fact that the real Brazil team played a worse game than their digital counterparts, they actually scored one more goal. It was easier to counter attack against a Croatia that was going to try to tie than to the video game team, which did not attack as heavily. Until the penalty, Croatia looked like they could have won the game, but like in FIFA, they didn’t have the finishing quality to complete the plays in the opposing box. Neymar was much more involved than in the simulation, and his partnership with Oscar made all the difference at the key moments in the game.

Day 1 Table

 

Join us tomorrow as we get our first full day of matches, including Spain vs the Netherlands. We will see if FIFA can keep this 100% success rate!