The words "EA Sports" and "underdog" don't often belong in the same sentence, we know. Somehow, though, we find ourselves repeatedly struggling to avoid mentioning that FIFA Manager 09 is the de-facto underdog to industry standard Football Manager in the space of text-based soccer (or football if you're nasty/not from America) simulations. The legendary descendent of Championship Manager still hasn't announced firm plans of its 2009 edition, leaving EA with an opportunity to swoop in and gather fans' hearts with screens and details of a potential FM killer. If EA's preview of the game at the recent Season Opener event in Vancouver is anything to go by, it will have a distinct chance to do so.FIFA Manager has always attempted to differentiate itself from Football Manager by presenting a slicker presentation style more in line with the EA credo. The biggest differentiator is the 3D engine the game uses to simulate matches, something which has been overhauled for the 09 release. The development team has significantly rehauled the match system after spending most of the 08 developmental cycle working on the menus involved with the system. The game features new commentary, sounds, stadiums, shirts, rendering, and AI, all of which can be fine-tuned and edited by the end-user. Graphically, the game looks closer to FIFA 08 than Football Manager 08. The substitutions and lineup screens within the match have also been revamped to allow for quicker, more intuitive changes that encourage the user to tinker with their formation and tactics.

For those more interested in a text-based analysis similar to FM, the text mode was also completely overhauled. The idea is to combine a live ticker of results and information with commentary on the match going on. The system's conference mode allows the user to read about up to four matches at once, switching to different matches for cut-ins on important moments like penalties or last-gasp chances. The system again allows the user to edit commentary, but a deeper vocabulary and intelligence allows the game to comment on events using player attributes or previous statistics in the game or the season, while seeing injuries that happen in stages and warnings before a player gets a yellow card. That doesn't surpass Football Manager's model by any means, so we'll need to see how FIFA Manager 09 uses the commentary to peg it as superior or inferior. The game's Story of a Season mode has been fleshed out and expanded to provide more detail on a player's success over the course of a season. The game now features 60 specific screens with statistics and information, as well as 20 videos that are triggered by events like a team's first trip to Europe, or a striker winning the European Golden Boot.

What most excited us about the game, though, were the significant amount of random screens that were discussed and shown that, while not part of any broad category, were incredibly intuitive and relevant to being a manager; essentially, things we'd put together ourselves anyway, but provided instead automatically by the game. A good example would be the list of transfer targets taken from a list of relegated players at the end of each season, detailing players we could potentially purchase at a bargain rate (why hello, Robbie Earnshaw!).

The team has also fleshed out many of the sections with further detail and options for customization. The staff section now features more than 20 positions and adjusts coach's performances for morale. The interview and press conference module now has 400+ questions and is available for edit; all in all, more than 40 areas of the game are modifiable using the game's provided editor. And 1800 different messages allow the user to communicate with other coaches or players, regardless of whether the message is positive or negative. We don't think you're allowed to just bother them for no good reason. Scouting agencies can be hired, and scouts can be given a queue of players to prioritize for scouting; a youth player transfer market allows the Arsene Wenger's of the world to poach, say, a Cesc Fabregas; youth player contracts also exist to attempt to prevent such an act. It's easy to offhandedly dismiss FIFA Manager 09 as inferior because of how consistently good Football Manager is, while justifying it by making snide comments about EA putting together a management sim. Immediately dismissing something because of the company that makes it is just as bad as immediately praising a game because it's made by a popular developer. Evaluated on its merits alone, FIFA Manager 09 looks to be a worthy contender to the throne of Football Manager. As the game's release date draws nearer and we actually sit down and put it through its paces, it will be exciting to see who the king of soccer management simulations in 2008-2009 really is.

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