FC 24 90 UT Birthday Openda Player Review - Cop or Flop

A whopping two SBCs have just dropped into Ultimate Team and both surrounding the Belgian beast that is Lois Openda. You read correctly, EA have dropped two SBCs for Openda today. What’s the difference you ask? You are choosing between 5*/4* or 4*/5* Skill Moves and Weak Foot.

I have touched on this in the past but it feels a little bit there is a trick being missed here. This is the kind of content Player Picks are made for. Think back to the RTTK Kent and Forrest SBC from Fifa 20. If you made the wrong choice you’d surely regret it but that’s what makes it fun. We don’t need to have two identical Openda’s in our clubs. The alternative would be to make each card quite different by utilising playstyles, but the literal only difference here is whether or not you want 5* Skill Moves of Weak Foot.

You can check out the card here!

So for this one, I have opted for the Weak Foot boost. I know my playstyle won’t require 5* Skills and with that dynamic image, there was only one clear choice for me and I feel this choice will be most popular within the community.

For upgrades on this card, besides the already discussed WF/SM boosts, this Openda is a +2 on his UCL card with very minimal +1s across the board. Which does beg the question as to whether or not this is infact a +2 upgrade but that’s enough ranting for this article. Playstyle wise we of course have the favoured dual playstyle pluses on this card and he has been given the Quick Step and Power Header Playstyle+. Lois has also been given Technical and Chip Shot playstyles also.

Openda is linking up with the very best of wingers in George Best and that new Ultimate Birthday Coman from the start of this promo. In hindsight I maybe should have opted for some wingers with whipped pass in an attempt to abuse the power header but we move.

For Chemstyle here I feel it should either be the Finisher or the Marksman as ultimately you want to boost the dribbling and shooting. I opted for Finisher here so that I could boost the Agility and Balance but Marksman maxes out the Dribbling stat so that is also a decent chemstyle option.

Here are the following segments to unlock the Ultimate Birthday Openda SBC:

#1 - Bundesliga

# of players from Bundesliga: Min 1
Squad Rating - 85
Pack Return - Mixed Players Pack

#2 - 86-Rated Squad
Squad Rating - 86
Pack Return - Jumbo Premium Gold Pack

#3 - 88-Rated Squad
Squad Rating - 88
Pack Return - Rare Electrum Players Pack

If you are interested in completing the SBC for the “Skill Moves” Openda then the requirements slightly differ as the following:

#1 - Bundesliga

# of players from Bundesliga: Min 1
Squad Rating - 84
Pack Return - Small Prime Electrum Players Pack

#2 - Top Form

No. of Inform Players: Min 1
Squad Rating - 87
Pack Return - Small Rare Gold Players Pack

#3 - 88-Rated Squad
Squad Rating - 88
Pack Return - Rare Electrum Players Pack

Not a cheap pair of SBCs but also not necessarily expensive ones. The Skill Moves SBC is coming in at roughly 300k whilst the Weak Foot SBC is coming in 25k cheaper at 275k coins. If the weak foot SBC wasn’t already the obvious choice, this makes the decision clear. For the general playerbase the Weak Foot boost is by far more valuable. 

How did he perform in-game?

+ Pace. Enough said here really, the guy is just one stat off of being 99 pace and he is absolutely rapid.

+ Shooting is really good on this card but I will say at distance it isn’t amazing as the 79 long shots usually led to error for me. But within the box he was absolutely clinical.

+ Dribbling was also something that he performed really well, getting the Agility and Balance boost made this guy unreal on the ball.

+ Strength was actually something that surprised me on this card. I knew he had good physical stats but he fought off defenders really well which allowed him to burst free.

+ Positioning is also great, he was also finding open space for either those quick crosses to utilise the power header playstyle or just in enough space to receive a quick pass and send it to the back of the net. 

/ Passing is okay but mainly the short passes. Otherwise it was nothing to shout about. I would absolutely make him more of a target man than a playmaker. 

Openda - Cop or Flop?

Coming in at around 275k to complete this SBC and you really cannot fault that price. Up until EA announced he would have an SBC coming, his previous UCL item was coming in at around 170k. If this card was on the market it’s likely he would come in at around 250k so you just can’t complain at the price tag. Especially as there are so many upgrade SBCs out right now that will help get this done. 

In terms of In-Game performance, this card was decent. He certainly isn’t one of the premium strikers that you see currently such as the likes of that Werner Item. I think that would be completely different however if this card had been given a shooting PlayStyle+ and maybe even some passing playstyles in general. Give this card those and suddenly this is the next meta card you see in everyone's team. But don’t get me wrong, this is still a really fun card to use and will absolutely get the job done if you don’t have the coins to drop on one of those premium strikers.

Verdict = COP