I am now totally in love with the game. For one reason (and what's weird is that it's an offline mode only, something I thought was dead in this day and age)... CAPTAIN YOUR COUNTRY. You select and control one player (or create yourself - you choose a commentary name which is fabulous, I nearly got emotional when Clive said my name followed by "he knows where everyone is doesn't he, he's a great player").
The AI of your teammates is astounding, and the opposition plays exactly like it would in real life. You start off playing B-team games against Liechenstein and they literally pack 9-10 men into the box. You have to work your arse off to break them down, it's incredibly frustrating.
You don't have to press the "pass to me" button, in-fact it pays not to. Then they will only pass to you when it's natural, and the balls you get are amazing. Beckham did a through-pass to me that was just delicious, mouth-wateringly good. I smacked it against the post but my God, the feeling of the AI being so intelligent was just outstanding.
Ten games in and I got my first Man Of The Match award. When the national anthem started playing, I swear, I would have had a tear in my eye if I wasn't such a hardman. *Sniff* Seriously, you know you've earned it because it's so hard to get a good rating. So when you get man of the match, it's like winning an Oscar - oh wait, it's Ronaldo that gets the acting awards, sorry. :cry:
When I got my first proper call-up from the B-team to the A-team, my rating went from 8-average to 3-average. I was swiftly moved back into the B-team. :| Playing Andora is a totally different ball game from playing Italy, like I did in that A-team game. Andora will defend like hell because you're ENGLAND, MIGHTY ENGLAND (yeah right), whereas Italy will attack at every angle and RIP YOU TO SHREDS. At half-time I was battered, bruised and ashamed. I wanted to get the bus home.
It's a full-blown mode, you get about ten B-games, ten friendlies, qualifiers, group stage matches and then final matches. So with each game now lasting about 15 minutes (halves are now 6 minutes long by default), that means finishing the mode will take over 12 hours (if my maths is right).
I've known entire games take less time than that to complete, and this is just one mode! So you won't finish it in a day - unless you're really, really sad.
You get experience points after each game to boost your player's stats (if you create yourself you start with a skill level of 50 - compared to England's other B-team players this is ~20 behind them, and ~35 behind the A-team players). Once I've finished my England career (remember, the manager has to pick a squad to take to Euro 2008, IF YOU EVEN GET PAST THE QUALIFIERS, and if you play like crap you won't get picked and it'll be game over), I'll be trying with Wales I think. Lower skill levels all-round so I should be a first-team player within a few games.
Bear in mind lads this is just one mode and I'm addicted. On top of this there is an online cup mode (16-team knockout, it's like a normal online game except that a win takes you through to the next round and if you win the final you win a "trophy" to put in your virtual trophy cabinet), and I also love this mode. You've also got Online Leagues, same as FIFA 08, and I love those. And you've got more besides.
Gameplay is improved, reaction times are better, passes are easier to get right, AI is the best I have ever seen, teams change tactics depending on how the match is going and if they need to defend for their lives they will, if they need a last-minute goal they will push forward for one. Goalkeepers aren't super-human any more, but they do tend to be a bit far off the line sometimes.
Overall, I think the next few weeks are going to be very very difficult for my girlfriend.
and 
through balls, even with just a quick tap of 
