This FAQ is for EA Sports? FIFA World Cup 2006 and is copyright 2005 by 
Michael Weaver, aka Havok3595.  At the present time, it can only be 
shown on www gamefaqs com  

This is version 1.0, which is incomplete in several sections.  I rushed 
to get this out in any version because the frequent question of ?What 
countries are in the game?? needed to be answered.  I couldn?t find an 
official list on EA?s site, and it seems that this information is 
pretty highly in demand.

Feel free to e-mail me at Havok3595 (at) hotmail.com with any 
questions, comments, or assistance.

This FAQ will be laid out in the following format:

1) Basic list of teams in the game, by region.  (C01)
2) Menu navigation and options, overview.  (C02)
3) Gameplay overview (keep in mind that I?m not great at it) (C03)
4) World Cup mode, including qualifiers, still in process (C04)
5) Global Challenge mode, still in process (C05)
6) More detailed team overviews, still in process (C06)
7) Unlockables, including how to get points, still in process (C07)

1) Basic list of teams in the game, by region (C01)

The teams in the game are indexed by region.  There are six regions in 
the game, just like in real life.  These are North America/Caribbean, 
South America, Oceania, Africa, Asia, and (of course) Europe.  Please 
note that these are based on World Cup qualification zones, so there 
are some countries in the European zone that you might not associate 
with Europe (Israel, Kazakhstan).  Here are the teams, by region, in 
the following format:

Region (# of teams in region): teams in alphabetical order

Ready?  Here we go:

Africa (32): Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, 
Cape Verde Islands, Chad, Congo, Congo DR, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, 
Ivory Coast (Cote d?Ivorie), Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mali, 
Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Togo, 
Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe 

Asia (14): Bahrain, China, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Korea 
DPR (North Korea), Korea Republic (South Korea), Kuwait, Pakistan, 
Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Vietnam

Europe (52): Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, 
Belgium, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, 
Denmark, England, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Georgia, 
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Republic of Ireland, Israel, Italy, 
Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia FYR, 
Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, 
Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Scotland, Serbia and Montenegro, 
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales

North America/Caribbean (13): Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, 
Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, St. 
Kitts/Nevis, St. Vincent/Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, USA

Oceania (6): Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Tahiti, 
Vanuatu

South America (10) Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, 
Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela

2) Menu navigation and options, overview.  (C02)

The first option you get is language: English or Spanish.  This will 
affect the announcers too, so I recommend giving Spanish a go every now 
and then just for spice.  Note that the English option has England?s 
flag.  Although Andy Townsend (one of the commentators) is Irish, 
you?re definitely getting British flavored commentary, which is 
appropriate.  Anyway, this choice (unlike some others) is not saved on 
your profile, so you need to input it each time.

If this is your first time playing, you?re asked to start a profile, 
which you should do because it takes 10 seconds and allows you to save 
points to unlock things later.  Just select a country as your home, any 
country.  It doesn?t matter and has no impact (as far as I can 
determine).  Well, it has a little impact: when you go to ?Play Now? 
your home country will be the first country you have the option of 
selecting.  Use R1 and L1 to change regions when selecting a country, 
then directional buttons to select a country within the region.

Finally, we?re at the main menu.  I don?t play multiplayer or online, 
so I?ve never ventured into the Online or Lounge (multiplayer 
tournaments) sections.  If anyone wants to give a little blurb about 
those, e-mail me and I?ll give you credit.  There?s a pretty self-
explanatory Practice mode, and Penalty Shoot-out which is everything 
you expect it to be.  I?m glossing over these to get to the main 4 
menus you?ll need.

My FIFA World Cup: This menu contains a list of unlockables (store), a 
list of objectives to fulfill to get more points for unlockables 
(objectives), create-a-player, game settings (including difficulty 
level, most importantly), and more.  It also exists as a submenu in 
another menu, but with less options.  We?ll discuss that later.

Global Challenge: This menu contains a bunch of historic matches which 
you can play to either preserve or completely wreck history.  Typically 
they will start at some specified point during the game (remember, the 
clock counts up, not down, and halves are 45 minutes).  Some of them 
start you from the beginning.  Anyway, whatever the case, you?re given 
a team, an opponent, a time, and three things you have to do.  
Sometimes these things are relatively simple, like ?Win? or ?Don?t 
lose? or ?No yellow cards?, other times they?re more difficult like 
?Score 5 goals? or ?Don?t get scored on?.  If you fulfill the main 
objective, you get a bronze medal.  One additional objective will get 
you a silver, and both additional objectives is a gold.  If you fulfill 
an additional objective without fulfilling the main, you still get 
points for it, and you can then get a silver by fulfilling the main 
without fulfilling it.  For instance, let?s say there?s a challenge 
where the main goal is ?Win? and the sub goal is ?No yellow cards?.  
Your first time, you lose but get no yellows.  You get the 100 ?no 
yellow card? points.  Now you play again and win, but half your players 
have yellow cards.  No problem, you still get a silver since you?ve 
done that.

Play Now: Essentially what it says.  Pick two teams, play them.  You 
can do it solo or multiplayer.  The unlockables in ?My FIFA World Cup? 
are available only in this mode with the exception of boots, which are 
universal (but are only visual).  Press R1 and L1 to specify a variety 
of things about the match.  Note: The match type options read from your 
tournament saves, so be sure to save once after you beat the World Cup 
and keep that save around.  Also note: As far as I can tell, different 
balls have no bearing on the game.  And finally note: Classic players 
have to be manually moved into the starting line-up.

2006 FIFA World Cup: This is the meat of the game.  You can either go 
directly into the World Cup with accurate 2006 groups or play through a 
qualifier from any of the six regions.  Press R1 and L1 to decide which 
type of tournament you want.  Bear in mind that if you go through a 
qualifier it will impact all of the World Cup seedings as the computer 
will simulate all other qualifiers.  We?ll get into exactly what this 
means a little later.  You can change teams out of groups or reselect 
the World Cup teams if you want to, how to do this is described 
onscreen.  You will need to conform to the usual requirements: for 
instance, you can?t remove host team Germany and you can?t get more 
than one Oceania team in.

Once you?re selected a mode and team(s), it?s time to game on.  Almost.  
You?ll select which person gets which controller, then which kit you 
want (all teams have two options, home and away, and a few teams have 
two more unlockable in Play Now mode options).  Next, you?re at a team 
management screen where you pick your starting line-up.  If you want to 
change someone in the starting line-up, select them then scroll down to 
who you want to replace them with and select that player.  They?ll 
switch.  Players are coded based on their preferred (personal) 
position, you?ll see some teams start them in alternate positions 
though.  This isn?t always a bad idea, since a speedy midfielder may 
work out good as a striker if you like to run breakaways.  You can 
press R1 to get to a menu to change the formation (pretty self-
explanatory), and R1 again to get to a list of who will normally take 
which kinds of kicks.  I strongly suggest keeping this intact.  Press 
start when you?re done, and you get a load screen with a wallpaper and 
?Did you know? fact for one of the countries (usually the home country, 
but sometimes the away).  I have two things to say about these.  1) Is 
it really necessary to have the number of World Cup wins as a fact for 
everyone since 130 of the teams have 0?  2) There were some pretty 
funky things going on in 1357 Portugal that I just don?t want to 
speculate on and feel I am better off not knowing.

3) Gameplay overview (keep in mind that I?m not great at it) (C03)

So, gameplay.  Default PS2 controls, offense/defense listed:

Triangle: Through ball/goalie charge (hold down)
Square: Cross/sliding tackle
X: Pass/Change player
O: Shoot/Conservative tackle
R1: Burst of speed (can be held)
L1: (in combination with another offense button press) Chip
Right analogue: ?Skill move?
Left analogue: Player control

Pressing start brings you to a pause menu where you can change 
formation, see game stats, and make substitutions.  If you make a 
substitution, they?ll come in the next time the ball goes out of 
bounds.  If it?s urgent (like, if your player is injured), knock the 
ball out of bounds on purpose.  You get 3 substitutions per game, but 
are not required to use them.  I don?t use subs very often, personally.  
If you play a little more aggressively than I and get some yellow 
cards, you may want to sub those players out.  Also, if you decide to 
change formation/mindset during the game, you might want to put players 
better able to handle your change in.  Injured players will be greyed 
out in team management and have a plus next to their name in other 
screens.

I strongly recommend not using the square button on defense unless you 
really have to.  It frequently draws a booking, sometimes even a red 
card (although the computer will do it a lot, and usually gets a yellow 
card at worst).  You are less likely to get one if you time it right 
and hit it when the opponent is facing you, but it still sometimes 
happens and the computer likes to turn around a lot resulting in many 
?it was legal when I started the slide, officer? type situations.

The two best ways to score, in my opinion, are the through ball/chip 
shot and the cross/header.  With the through ball/chip shot, use a 
through ball to feed the ball to a player on your team who breaks 
through to get the ball behind the opponents, run him towards goal, and 
press L1+circle when the goaltender starts to come out. For the 
cross/header, run up the sidelines then press towards the goal and 
square, pressing circle when it gets near your players.  This has a 
higher miss ratio but looks cooler.  Also, if the goalie gets a hand on 
it but doesn?t pull it in make sure to run in front of the goal and try 
to pick up the rebound.  Same applies for balls hitting the posts.

You can aim, but it isn?t easy on the fly.  Your left analogue stick 
judges the aim and the amount of time you hold circle judges the power.  
If you hold it too long, you?ll fire into the stands and the announcers 
will make fun of you.

I like using a 4-1-2-1-2 formation because it tends to cover most of 
the bases, but there are pluses and minuses to every formation.  Just 
about any play that burns 4 fullbacks will burn 5 just as badly, in my 
opinion, plus you sacrifice players in the middle/front.  Be sure to 
play to your individual players? strengths, too.  4-1-2-1-2 works best 
when you?ve got two speedy shooters up front to get through balls, if 
your forwards are slower you might want to consider something else.

You?ll encounter a wide variety of situations during the game beyond 
the basics.  Free kicks, penalty kicks, throw-ins, and corner kicks 
being chief among them.  For Free kicks, they are either direct or 
indirect, meaning that you can score from them or not.  It won?t always 
tell you, but a good way to tell is whether the defense has devoted 
three or more players to standing in front of you in a wall.  Press R2 
to have someone roll the ball back to you (which gives you a better 
shot), circle to shoot, x to pass, and square for a curved shot.  Use 
the analogue sticks to change your player?s position.  For penalty 
kicks, it?s just you and the goalie.  Press circle to shoot and left 
analogue to aim.  I recommend holding circle until you get just a 
little under the white line in the meter, that will put your shot 
higher up in the net.  For throw-ins, use x to select another player 
(there?s usually 3 targets), square for a direct pass to where they are 
now, and triangle to feed them forward.  For corners, press square and 
hold about 75% down to cross it in front of the net or x to pass.  If 
you pass off a corner or throw deep in the area, you should cross as 
soon as possible.  You?ll have players in front.

Defending these situations is somewhat simpler.  Circle adds a player 
to the line for direct free kicks (one maximum), and merely pressing a 
direction has your goalie dive to stop a penalty kick.  Press it once 
the kick gauge starts to fill because if you do it early you?ll simply 
walk along the goal line with little purpose.  

Like I say in the title, I?m not fantastic at gameplay.  Experiment 
with a variety of things, you?ll learn it.  Aiming passes can be a 
little awkward since despite the game?s claims it does not always try 
to find you a teammate in the direction you?re pressing and sometimes 
picks someone who is not the one you thought you had aimed at.  
Generally, though, you can fix this problem with experience after some 
frustration.

4) World Cup mode, including qualifiers, still in process (C04)

Here?s the big part, the meat and potatoes.  You can choose from one of 
six regional qualifiers or just move right to the World Cup itself.  As 
I said before, selecting the World Cup gives you the 32 teams with 
accurate brackets for the World Cup in 2006.  The developers were not 
mind readers, though, and this game came out early, so you might find 
that Croatia (for example) is much more competitive than they actually 
were.  

The qualifiers are a little different.  Each region operates 
differently, and I?ll go into it below.

The World Cup starts with a group play round where each of the four 
teams in a group plays each other once.  Wins give you 3 points, draws 
give you 1 point.  The top two point scorers for each group in this 
round go on to the round of 16.  The first tie-breaker is versus 
(whichever team won when they met), the second is total goals.  From 
here, it becomes a single elimination affair.  After the round of 16 
comes the round of 8 (?Quarterfinals?), then 4 (?Semifinals?), then the 
final two teams face off.  There?s a little inspirational video before 
they do, be sure to watch it at least once and be astonished that 
someone would bother to remix a twenty year old Howard Jones song.  And 
be further astonished that it sounds pretty good.  There?s also a video 
afterwards which the announcers will narrate.  A few teams (like 
Brazil, France, and USA) have specific things the announcers say about 
them, but most just get called ?this team?.  Works the same way in 
gameplay.

Here?s how the qualifiers work, by region.  At this time, I have not 
played an Asian or European qualifier.  Just like in the World Cup 
group stage, wins are worth 3 points, draws worth 1.  Also, sometimes 
you?ll be prompted to play a friendly game.  It doesn?t matter if you 
do or don?t, but keep in mind that this game doesn?t count as the game 
a red carded player is suspended for (they?ll be suspended for it AND 
the next qualifying game if they were suspended in the previous 
qualifying game).

Oceania: You play one game against each of the other five Oceania 
teams, the top two finishers then play a home and home series.  The 
winner of that plays a home and home series against the fifth place 
South American team for a berth in the World Cup.  
Total games: 9, not counting friendlies.  
Total opponents: 6

Africa: You are placed in a group of six teams, there are five groups.  
You play each team in your group twice (home and home), top team in 
each group qualifies for a berth in the World Cup.
Total games: 10, not counting friendlies.
Total opponents: 5

South America: You play two games against each of the other South 
America teams, home and home.  Top four finishers are qualified for the 
World Cup, the fifth place team plays a home and home series against 
the Oceania winner for a berth.
Total games: 18, 20 if you finish fifth, not counting friendlies.
Total opponents: 9, 10 if you finish fifth.

North America/Caribbean: You are placed in a group of four teams, there 
are three groups.  You play each team in your group twice (home and 
home), the top two finishers in each group are placed in a new six team 
group where you play each team twice again (home and home).  The top 
three finishers are qualified for the World Cup, the fourth place 
finisher gets to play an Asian team for a berth somehow (more details 
as I discover them).
Total games: 16, ??? if you finish fourth, not counting friendlies.
Total opponents: 7, ??? if you finish fourth. 

Asian qualifier: Unknown

European qualifier: Unknown

Bear in mind that Germany has an automatic berth and is not selectable 
in the European qualifier.  When a qualifier is over, you will 
automatically move into a World Cup using the results from the 
qualifier.

5) Global Challenge mode, still in process (C05)

As described above, Global Challenge mode contains historic World Cup 
situations that you need to make or break history with.  There are 
seven sections: one for each region, and one for World Cup finals that 
is unlocked when you have at least a bronze in each other challenge.

Europe: 

Croatian Sensations!
Player: Croatia
CPU: France
Score: 2-1, France in lead
Time:
Primary: Win
Secondary:
Secondary:
Strategy:

Asia:

Africa:

North America:

All Saints
Player: St. Kitt?s/Nevis
CPU: St. Vincent/Grenadines
Score: 1-0, St. Vincent in lead
Time:
Primary: Win
Secondary:
Secondary:
Strategy:  Both teams are crap.  You?ll be able to tackle easily, and 
his goalie is horrible.  Lots of through balls, lots of shots.  Some 
will eventually find the back of the net.

Oh Canada
Player: Costa Rica
CPU: Canada
Score: 1-0, Costa Rica in lead
Time:
Primary: Win
Secondary: Keep a clean sheet
Secondary: Win by two goals
Strategy: Canada starts this out with a corner kick, so be sure to 
defend it well and clear that ball out.  Sitting on the ball will get 
you a silver.

South America:

Oceania:

World Cup Finals:

6) More detailed team overviews, still in process (C06)

Eventually, I?ll have the teams listed here with Worldwide ranking 
(default) as well as the teams? scores in attack, defense, and 
midfield.  I will also try to list the star players for each team.  
Here is a sample.

Brazil
Zone: South America
Ranking: 1
Attack:
Defense:
Mid:
Preferred formation: 4-3-3
Stars: Ronaldo (striker), Ronaldinho (mid), Adriano (striker), Kaka 
(mid)

7) Unlockables, including how to get points, still in process (C07)

Completing certain objectives in the game nets you points, which in 
turn enables you to unlock certain things in the My FIFA World Cup 
store.  There are five categories of unlockables: classic players, 
classic kits, footballs, boots, and AI unlockables.  Most of these are 
only available in Play Now, boots are available in Create a player and 
edit a player menus.

All classic players cost 10,000 points and have specific teams they 
play for.  The flag in the background is the tip-off.  Note that the 
classic player with ?Pele? in his name is a Ghanian, not a Brazilian.

All classic kits cost 5,000 points and some of them aren?t very 
different from the normal kits which irritates me.

All boots cost 1,000 to unlock, some are palette swaps of others.

Footballs have varying prices from 500 to 20,000 for the golden World 
Cup final ball.

AI unlockables have varying point costs, with the 20,000 ?Perfect 
difficulty? being the most expensive.  Other items include No 
Infractions, Invisible Walls, Turbo Mode, and Slow Mode.

Things you have unlocked have a broken lock next to them, things you 
have not unlocked have a full lock next to them.

Getting points works three ways.  Under objectives (under FIFA World 
Cup) there is a menu that lists different objectives and how many 
points you get for them.  You get these rewards ONCE for each 
objective, and you must get them spot on (with a few exceptions).  For 
example, the ?three in the net? objective is triggered if you score 
three goals in one match.  It will not trigger if you score four, 
although you must have scored three on your way to four.  Five is right 
out.  You must be playing the CPU to trigger objectives.

Another way to get points is by winning matches against the CPU in Play 
Now or World Cup mode (including qualifiers).  You get a certain amount 
of points for the number of goals and shots on target you have, a bonus 
for maintaining a clean sheet, and another bonus for high possession 
percentage and passing percentage (over 60).  You get negatives for 
yellow cards, offsides, and low possession and passing percentages 
(less than 40). I will get the exact formula later.  I typically get 
about 200 points per match this way, which is a trifle.  Also, you get 
stamps for each country you defeat and you get a bonus from this each 
time you fill a ?page? in your passport (three teams from one region).  
This bonus is based on the difficulty level you beat them at, and your 
passport stamp will change colors based on difficulty level.  You only 
get a page bonus once, so going back and beating teams on higher 
difficulties only helps if you do it before completing the page they 
are on.

The final way to get points is through global challenges.  There are 
1700 points available for a gold in each one.  

The objectives have four screens.

Team objectives: All of these are ?Defeat n? where ?n? is each other 
team in the game.  Most teams give you 250 points, but former champions 
(Germany, France, Italy, England, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil) give 500 
and former finalists (Hungary, Netherlands, Sweden, Czech Republic) 
give 400.  You get an additional bonus for having beaten all teams of a 
specific region.

Match objectives: Some of these are easier than others, but these are 
basically conditions to fulfill during a game.  As stated above, the 
objectives are exact.  Three in net means exactly three in net.  Some 
of these say ?or more?, they are the exception rather than the rule.  
I?d recommend playing at a difficulty level you can manipulate to get 
the scoring ones.  Some of these are really easy, like ?No red cards? 
and ?No yellow cards?.  Others are much more difficult, such as ?Three 
Goal Comeback?.  In the future, I will spell these out with point 
totals and tips.

World Cup objectives: Similar to match objectives, but with the World 
Cup.  Qualifying for the World Cup with each zone, and each stage of 
the World Cup you advance to with each zone, have varying scores 
depending on the zone.  In general, the bigger soccer areas (South 
America, Europe) give more points for qualification and less for 
staying in than the less hard fought areas (North America, Oceania).  
Also under this are a few things related to goal scoring in the Cup, 
which is cumulative.

World Challenge objectives: An additional bonus for each region worth 
of World Challenges you complete.