How did FIFA 17 do with the Dynamo’s player ratings?

EA Sports’ FIFA 17 will be coming out on Tuesday, September 27th in the United States. The free demo is out now, as are the ratings for every player in the game.

You may or may not have seen them yet — here are all of the ratings, and here are the Dynamo’s ratings — but I will be taking you through some players on the Dynamo and evaluating whether or not EA got the ratings correct.

A couple notes before we begin: I have no idea how EA rates the players (whether it is scouting, or if they have analytics they use) so if I don’t agree with one, it’s based solely off of my view of the players having watched them extensively; in addition, I only will be looking at starters or players who have played considerable minutes this season.

Here are those players: Cristian Maidana, Alex Lima, Ricardo Clark, Boniek Garcia, Mauro Manotas, Will Bruin, Collen Warner, DaMarcus Beasley, Andrew Wenger, Raul Rodriguez, and Joe Willis. Tyler Deric, David Horst, Agus, Jalil Anibaba, and Abdoulie Mansally are the notable exceptions.

Let’s get started:

Cristian Maidana

Maidana is given a 74 rating, tied for the highest of any Dynamo player, and is mainly considered a ‘CAM’, or ‘center attacking midfielder’. His highest attributes come from the technical side of the game: Short passing (76), free-kick accuracy and curve (76), and overall passing (75). He is also given a 77 for agility and a 76 for vision.

He has just 60 finishing and 64 shooting, although he is given a 70 for shot power. His pace and acceleration hover between 67 and 68, while his dribbling and ball control range between 73 and 74.

The good: His free-kick accuracy is deservedly high, as are ball control and agility. He is given a fair rating for pace and finishing as well.

The bad: His vision is definitely too high. Maybe last year I could see it at 76, but this year I think it would be better at around 71 or 72. His passing rating also surprised me, as he has not shown that he is a good enough passer to warrant a 75 rating.

Verdict: In general not bad, although the overall rating could be taken down a couple notches.

Raul Rodriguez

Rodriguez gets a 74 rating, which was driven by his high marking (79) and slide tackle (78) ratings. His aggression rating is at 87, giving you a good glimpse at his playing style.

His overall defending rating is 74, while his passing is just 57. He gets a 77 for jumping, but his heading accuracy is down at 61. His pace is at 62 and his sprint speed (which is apparently different from pace) is the same as Maidana, at 68.

The good: His physicality (75) and aggression ratings are fair. I can understand his low passing rating, and his sliding tackle grade is deserved.

The bad: How he gets a 77 for jumping but a 61 for heading accuracy is beyond me. His marking rating is surprisingly high, although it definitely should be at least at 76.

The verdict: I’d say he deserves between a 72 and a 74 rating, so I can’t say I disagree all that much with EA on this one.

DaMarcus Beasley

The second and final defender I will be looking at is the one and only DaMarcus Beasley, who gets a 72 rating from EA. His 85 pace is mainly where that comes from, although his 85 agility, 77 reactions and 75 balance also likely played a part.

He got a 66 defending grade, which includes 65 interceptions, 67 marking and 68 tackling. For passing, he got a 65, with 67 vision, 65 crossing, and 67 short passing. In a addition, he got an 81 for stamina and a 78 for jumping.

The good: It’s good that he’s being recognized for his pace. I can agree with most of his passing grades, as well as his dribbling (71) and ball control (69).

The bad: His crossing rating should most certainly be at least 70. His defending is severely underrated by EA.

The verdict: He shouldn’t be two ratings short of Rodriguez. Let’s even it out and make them both 73s.

Boniek Garcia

One of the Dynamo’s jack-of-all-trades, Boniek is listed as a right midfielder on FIFA and given a 72 rating. His pace (78), dribbling (77), and agility (77) are his top attributes.

EA rates Boniek particularly high from a technical standpoint, shown by his dribbling and agility ratings. He also was given a 71 for ball control. His passing grades hovered around in the mid-60s, ranging from 69 for vision to 62 for long passing. 55 was his defending valuation, which may seem low, but is actually pretty solid for a midfielder of his caliber.

The good: His pace is indeed that good. His overall dribbling rating (75) is certainly fair. His positioning grade (73) is a nice touch from EA, and his 68 for short passing and crossing is the right rating.

The bad: His free-kick accuracy (55) should be higher. They may have overrated him on dribbling and ball control, if only slightly.

The verdict: In itself, a 72 is fair. But let’s see some other players’ ratings before we jump to any conclusions.

Will Bruin

Will Bruin was given the same rating as Christian Pulisic. FIFA’s weird.

Bruin got a 70 for pace, 64 for acceleration, and 75 for sprint speed. I’m honestly not sure what to make of that. His dribbling is 62, while his ball control is 69. His passing grades go from 50 to 57, while his physicality was 80 and his strength was 85. He got a 72 for positioning, 67 for finishing, and 67 for overall shooting.

The good: His physical ratings (pace, strength, balance and so on) are mostly spot on. His passing deserves to be 55.

The bad: I wouldn’t complain if his finishing was a couple points higher. No idea what to say about his pace ratings.

The verdict: Not much wrong with his overall rating. Pulisic is the one who should be higher.

Ricardo Clark

Ricardo Clark was given a 68 by EA, with the ‘physicality’ category bringing up the average. He got an overall 79 in that area, plus 86 aggression, 75 strength, 82 stamina, and 82 jumping. In every other category, he ended up in the high-to-mid 60s.

In passing, he finished with an overall 63, with 70 in short passing and 67 in long passing. Crossing, vision, and free-kick accuracy brought down his score there. In defending he was pretty even, ranging from 64 to 69 in the various sub-categories. His pace was 69, and his dribbling was 67 with 74 balance and 71 reactions. He got an 80 in shot power, but just a 64 in shooting.

The good: His shot power, obviously. His short and long passing scores are reasonable. His physicality scores surprised me in a good way. I’m okay with his defending grades.

The bad: How are his shooting and finishing statistics that low, aside from shot power?

The verdict: Clark should be an easy 70 or 71. Move everything except physicality up proportionally.

Andrew Wenger

Graded as a left midfielder, Wenger got a 67, which is just one lower than Jordan Morris. Wenger was like Clark in that his physical attributes were his best, as his pace was 79, his stamina was 78, his aggression was 74, and his agility was 71.

EA clearly was not impressed by his skills in possession, as he got a paltry 60 in short passing and 61 in passing overall. A got a 72 in shot power, but a 61 in finishing. His ball control was 69, which is pretty impressive, and his balance was 74.

The good: His pace and physical attributes are well-deserved, as were his ball control ratings. That’s about it.

The bad: His defending (overall 57) aren’t bad for a player like him, but his ratings in that area should be five or six points higher. I can’t figure out why that rate him so low in passing. He’s not that bad. His shooting should be more like 65 or 66.

The verdict: Andrew Wenger is better than a 67. He should be more like a 69 or even a 70. Jordan Morris, meanwhile, should be at the very least a 73.

Collen Warner

Collen Warner got a 66 from EA Sports. A 75 in aggression, a 74 in jumping, a 74 in agility, and 74 in shot power were his highest ratings. His pace was an even 69 throughout the board, while his physicality was an overall 70. He got a 60 in defense, which seems low, but he got good scores in the most important sub-categories: 72 interceptions and 66 marking, although his 52 in slide tackling and 49 in standing tackles were disappointing scores.

His passing hovered around the mid-to-low 60s, with his overall grade finishing at 64. His shooting got a 61, while his overall dribbling score was 67, including 70 balance and 68 ball control.

The good: Almost everything. His passing is certainly mid-60s-level, and his ball control and dribbling scores are perfectly reasonable as are his interceptions (in other words, his ability to read passes) and marking grades.

The bad: His overall defense score probably should’ve been a couple notches higher. Not much to complain about, though.

The verdict: He may have been more suited as a 67 or 68, but for the most part EA got this one right.

Alex

Alex Lima, widely considered to be the Dynamo’s MVP this season, is rated as just a 66 on FIFA 17. EA says that he is a defensive midfielder, which is not true. His play is that of a classic box-to-box midfielder, unquestionably, but EA unfortunately does not know that.

His highest ratings were acceleration, at 79, and stamina, at 75. He was given an overall 66 in dribbling, with a 72 in agility, 70 in balance, and 65s in ball control and dribbling. His shooting overall rating was just 56, including 55 finishing and 54 long shots. He got a 68 in aggression but a 59 in strength. His defending was 64, plus 68 interceptions, 65 marking, and 67 standing tackles. His passing was mostly between 60 and 65.

The good: I can definitely understand his acceleration and stamina ratings. I don’t have problem with his dribbling grades.

The bad: His shooting is below 60, which is a travesty. His overall physicality is just 64. His passing could be upped a notch or two. He’s a better defender than 64.

The verdict: His overall rating should be something like 68 or 69, easy.

Joe Willis

The only goalkeeper on this list is Joe Willis. Tyler Deric was given a 68, if you’re curious.

His ratings are all on that card above: 68 diving, 65 reflexes, 65 handling, 68 positioning, 60 kicking, and 47 speed. EA doesn’t go particularly in-depth with goalkeeper ratings.

The good: 60 kicking is valid, as is 68 diving and 65 handling.

The bad: Reflexes should be more like 67 or 68. Positioning may be a little high.

The verdict: Nothing really wrong with this. If he were on the same level as or higher than Deric, then there would be an issue.

Mauro Manotas

Manotas gets just a 62. 69 pace, 69 balance, and 69 jumping are his highest ratings. Nothing over 70.

His passing ratings were all under 50 except for 53 short passing. Defending was mostly in the 20s. Physicality was 49. Finishing and shot power were 65, while overall shooting was 60. He got 62 ball control and dribbling, while his overall dribbling rating was 63. He got 68 agility, but 56 positioning.

The good: His shot power and finishing stats are okay. I don’t have a problem with 69 pace.

The bad: I understand that his passing is still developing but 49? Really EA? 49 physicality is also too low for a striker of any kind. His overall shooting is clearly over 60; after all, he just scored a hat trick against the defending champions. Ball control and dribbling should be over 62.

The verdict: 65 would’ve been the rating I’d have picked.