Dream League Soccer 2019 Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Cheats & Strategies to Become a Top Manager

First Touch Games, the maker of the Dream League Soccer series of soccer management games, is back with Dream League Soccer 2019, and it’s now available for iOS and Android devices. While there are a lot of features and mechanics returning on this year’s version of the popular title, the new edition, of course, comes with a newly updated database of players from the real world of association football, albeit not in the teams which they actually play for — as is always the case, this is an “alternate universe” where everybody has been randomly assigned to new and fictional teams, and it’s your job to manage your team from the bottom-most league to the sixth, and highest tier of them all — the Elite Division. Aside from the normal career mode against AI opponents, there are other tournament formats as well, and as always, the option to play against human competition in PvP.

There are quite a few new features and the AI in this version has been upgraded and revised from the previous year’s AI, but before we really bear down on what’s new, we’d like to help you get started with the game, or restarted in the event you’ve downloaded the title and are hoping to resume the career you left behind on the previous version. Check out our Dream League Soccer 2019 beginner’s guide, as we now bring you nine basic tips and tricks that can help familiarize you with this deep and engaging new mobile soccer game.

1. The Basics – It’s More Than Just A Management Game

Anyone who’s played any previous iteration of Dream League Soccer should know this, but if you downloaded the game hoping for an in-depth managerial simulation not unlike the Football Manager series and nothing more, then this might not be the game for you. However, if you want to control every aspect of your team — your roster, tactics, formations, stadium, and especially your players as they’re out there on the pitch, then this is every bit the game you may have been looking for. This is arguably the most central feature of Dream League Soccer 2019 in general — it is as much a football management game as it is a football “action” game, and unlike games like New Star Manager or Champions Manager Mobasaka, you don’t just get to control your team during crucial offensive situations. You’re in charge for all 90 minutes on both offense and defense, which means every good or bad thing that happens on the field on either end is 100 percent on you. Still, that 90 minutes gets sped up considerably without resulting in any unrealistic scores, so at the end of the day, you’ll still be playing a game that’s fast-paced enough not to be boring in terms of the actual football action.

The basic controls during matches are just as they were in last year’s version. On offense, tap on the A button for a long pass or goal attempt, B for a short pass or shot, and C for a floater. On defense, A will allow you to make an aggressive tackle/challenge, B an ordinary tackle, and C lets you toggle from one player to the next. On the bottom left side, opposite of the A, B, and C buttons, you’ll see the virtual joystick which allows you to move your players up, down, left, and right.

Those who are used to playing management-only soccer games might have a hard time picking things up, but at least things are limited to those three buttons and a total of six functions for offense and defense combined. You also have Training mode as a returning feature — tap on My Club on the main menu, then go to Training, which allows you to practice on both offense and defense. If you’re a returning player (see the next tip) who hasn’t played in a while, or a completely new player, Training is a great way to get a feel for the on-field element of the game.

Assuming you haven’t chosen your team captain yet, the best way to do this would be to choose your best player per position depending on the play style you prefer. Forward captains work best if you like to go attacking, while defenders and goalkeepers are great for those into defensive tactics. Make sure you choose well, as you can only choose one out of the five options the game will offer for your team captain!

The concept of Dream League Soccer is that all of the world’s top soccer players (the game has a FifPro license, which means you get real-life players) have been redistributed to different fictional clubs, so keep this in mind if you’re thrown off upon seeing two rival players teaming up together on the same club. Also, take it easy if you lose your first game (as a new player — returning players don’t get this perk), as the game will reward you with 1,000 coins after you complete your first game! Doesn’t matter if it’s a win, loss, or draw — that’s Dream League Soccer 2019’s way of getting you started on the right foot!

2. Returning Players Continue Where They Left Off

Normally, if you uninstall a game then reinstall the very same title, you will continue from the very point where you left off, with your save progress intact. And it doesn’t matter what platform you’re using — the save game from the previous version won’t work on the new version in most cases, leaving you to start back from square one. Dream League Soccer 2019 is a completely different game from its 2018 version (despite the many returning features), but the game lets you continue your progress from the 2018 edition in the new title. This should be good news for anyone who played Dream League Soccer 2018 on a regular basis, but those who stopped playing the game for a while in between versions might be thrown off at first. Still, this should work for most returning players, especially those who spent real money to improve their team, or had gone several seasons on the earlier edition and enjoyed a good deal of success while at it.

3. Everything Matters Out There On The Pitch

Now if you’re a brand-new player, we might as well give you some tips on what to do when you’re actually playing matches — you wouldn’t want to lose a match to a weaker team because you aren’t controlling your players properly, right?

When it comes to the matches, you want to focus not only on the ball, but also on the other players — learn how to predict your moves before they happen and make the quick pass out to unmarked players, or those who don’t have any opposing defenders hovering around them. Also be on the lookout for opposing players who might be trying to tackle you or regain possession; it’s a whole lot of multitasking, to be frank about it, and it won’t be easy at first. But if you spend some time in Training mode, the transition to matches shouldn’t be much of a challenge as it would be if you’re going in cold without any practice at all. Pretty soon, you’ll get the hang of what we were telling you about in this tip — your eyes should be on the ball, on your teammates, and your opponents alike, sometimes all three at the same time.

4. Don’t Be Too Predictable

Although you will mostly be facing off against AI opponents in Dream League Soccer 2019, that doesn’t mean you should underestimate the opposition and expect free passes once you become skillful enough with the buttons and the joystick. The AI in this game can be quite smart, and it could detect if you’re using the same tactics all the time and making the same type of passes. As you could end up making careless mistakes by using the A button all the time or quietly lose possession through some rudimentary defensive maneuvers if you keep using B, it’s always a good idea to mix things up, and to throw in some use of the C button as well — floaters might not seem practical in most cases, but they do add to the variety. Likewise, a double-tap or right swipe could further shake up your offense and confuse your opponents, as the allow you to perform special moves.

5. Defense In Dream League Soccer 2019 – How Has It Changed?

Many say that defense is more important than offense regardless of the sport — in other words, the best offense is a good defense. That too can apply to the video game world, which is why it’s important you, at the very least, prioritize defense as much as you prioritize offense when playing Dream League Soccer 2019. But it’s not the easiest thing to do, due to all the onscreen actions that are required.

In last year’s version, it used to be fairly easy to contain the opposing side on the defensive end — keep hitting the C button to toggle from one defender to the next. This was to work around the issues with having the game automatically switch defenders for you, which resulted in AI-controlled defenders on your side being completely useless unless there’s some action nearby. In this year’s version, the game appears to have become smarter, which means tapping repeatedly on the C button will always, instead of some or most of the time, put you in control of whomever defender is closest to the opposing player who has the ball, thereby increasing accountability on your end. With this in mind, you’ll want to actually do something substantial before toggling to the next defender — try running into your opponent, try tackling them, try chasing them down, whatever it takes to regain possession. Yes, it is still possible to regain possession by using the “lazy man’s” style of defense — keep spamming the C button — but in Dream League’s 2019 version, that would be a lucky coincidence more so than ever before.

6. Don’t Be Too Aggressive When Tackling

With a perfectly timed slide tackle, you can de-possess your opponent and regain not just possession, but also momentum. But that’s the thing about tackling — it has to be perfectly timed, and not too aggressive, otherwise you get called for a foul, or worse, get issued a yellow card for, let’s just say, unnecessary roughness, to borrow an American football term. Using B is safe in most cases, but since it’s a safe and conservative option on defense as it is on offense, you probably won’t be making too many successful tackles that way. Using A, on the other hand, improves your chances of regaining possession with a good tackle, but also increases the odds that you’ll be called for a foul (resulting in a free kick for the opponent) or given a yellow card. Make sure you’re not attempting a tackle too long after an opposing player receives the ball, and save the use of the A button for those moments where you’re trying to come from behind or score that one late goal to win the match or, at the very least, salvage a draw. Also, be ESPECIALLY careful in the box, because if you’re called for a foul for tackling someone in there, that results in a penalty!

7. How To Save Penalties

Penalties, as any association football fan should know, are the sport’s equivalent to field goal kicks in American football or free throws in basketball. By that, we mean they go in most of the time, oftentimes upward of 70 to 75 percent of the time. As such, luck plays a big part in being able to successfully save a penalty, but the process of saving them in Dream League Soccer 2019 is thankfully very easy.

Pretty much, all you have to do here is to tap on the area of the goal where you want your goalkeeper to move toward when saving — it could be to the left or right, or you could just have him stay in the middle. You’re basically guessing the direction of the penalty taker’s shot, but since penalty kicks don’t happen on a regular basis and very rarely more than once in a game (unless it’s a penalty shootout at the end of extra time), we would suggest varying the direction — for example, if you asked your keeper to save toward the right during one match, you could have him go left in the next match, or vice versa. This can especially be applied during penalty shootouts, though you wouldn’t want to go right-left-right-left straight away in such a case; the game’s AI may be able to cotton on to this, so you could try something like right-left-left-right or right-right-left-right, for instance.

8. You Can Rage-Quit, But Be Careful If You Do So

It’s very rare for game makers to penalize players for rage-quitting, or exiting a game by quitting the app itself, if playing against AI opponents. As such, we don’t see any problem if you choose to do this against AI clubs in Dream League Soccer 2019, but the same twists in 2018 apply in this new version.

To jog your memory about how rage-quitting works in the 2019 version, doing this will bring you back to the last moment where the ball was out of play, as opposed to letting you restart the entire game or restart from the start of the second half. So if you’re planning to rage-quit because your opponent scored a goal you know you should have been able to save, don’t bother — doing so and returning to the game will bring you back to the point right after your opponent scored the goal. You can, however, rage-quit if your opponent is in a compromising position that could end with them scoring a goal. Just make sure the ball is in play when doing this!

As Dream League Soccer 2019 likewise has modes where you can play against human opponents, we are warning you right now against doing this. It’s one thing to deny a computer-controlled team the win or the advantage, and another thing to put the efforts of another real, live human being to waste just because you can’t keep up with them. Rage-quitters in PvP are invariably subjected to temporary bans or perma-bans, so own up to that loss and regroup ahead of the next match.

9. Watch A Video After Each Game For Bonus Coins

Coins can still be hard to come by in Dream League Soccer 2019, so make sure you’re patient enough to watch a 30-second video at the end of a match in order to get a 30-coin bonus. Of course, this is merely optional, but since you’re going to need those coins not only in order to beef up your roster with newer and better players but also to improve your stadium and meet the requirements for the next division (more on that in the next Dream League Soccer 2019 guide), it’s best that you opt for the video after each match for some easy currency! 30 coins might not sound that much, but it’ll often be more than the coins you earn for simply winning the match.

This ends our Dream League Soccer 2019 beginner’s guide. We hope you’ve enjoyed our set of tips and tricks. Don’t forget to check back from time to time for more Dream League Soccer 2019 tips and tricks!