Isn't as good as it could be.
User Rating: 7.4 | World Soccer Winning Eleven 9 XBOX
Winning Eleven Nine is a good soccer game with lots of strategic options, but bad passing and defense ruin the experience. Attacking play has one flaw that nearly dismantles it: the passing. Accuracy is very poor. Short passes will constantly be sent pass the player, and it would easily be intercepted by the opposing defense. They do have another type, called the manual pass gauge, that is very hard to master. Basically, you use the right thumbstick to aim your shot, and hold it down to gauge to power. The accuracy is fairly good, but it's extremely hard to get the right power. This means that passes will either be too slow or too fast. Shooting is fairly good, once you get the hang of it. I don't like how sensitive the gauge is, as even filling it half way will normally be too much and the shot will go over. Free kicks are also hard, as it is nearly impossible to get the ball over the wall at times. Next we have defense, which is poor. You can't steal the ball. Period. Putting pressure on an attacker will cause a foul most of the time, and its extremely frustrating. Even if you don't foul the attacker, it's very hard to steal the ball, as using pressure slows you down, allowing the attackers to easily slip by you. I also absolutely hated the sidebacks. Instead of guarding the wings, they'll move up into the attack (sometimes as far up as my forwards), leaving my two centerbacks to guard the net themselves. Of course, I wouldn't have minded the defense as much had it been the same for my opponents. But it's not. Your opponents will easily steal the ball from you. You basically can't even get close to the defender without losing the ball. This combination of poor passing and impossibly good opposing defense frustrated me to no ends. As for game modes, there are plenty. There are TONS of formation options, and you can customize any position to your liking. Overall though, Winning Eleven Nine has a lot of potential, but its plagued by poor passing and defense. 
