Happy FIFA release day everyone! EA Sports’ popular video game franchise hit stores today. Last week we examined the USMNT’s player ratings for this year’s game. You can check them out here if you missed those.
In celebration of release day, EA Sports teamed up with MLS to put on some real-life skill game challenges to mirror the ones they have in their game.
In their first match-up, they got two USMNT players in Sacha Kljestan and Steve Birnbaum to battle it out in a several different games:
The first challenge was a passing one. Each competitor must control a pass, find the designated mini-goal target, and then pass it into the net to earn points. This was a bit unfair as a it’s an attacking midfielder versus a center back. Obviously Sacha was always going to show his class.
Several more challenges followed, I won’t spoil them for you. These look really fun, though. I particularly enjoyed Sacha ribbing Birnbaum over the D.C./RBNY rivalry.