Review - EoaE Kaká

Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, also known as Kaká, is one of football’s greatest players and his career is coming to an end. Despite that he has an 80 rated overall card at age 35, and earned himself this 92 rated ‘End of an Era’ card that’s meant to look back at one of the greatest moments in his career. It’s incredibly cheap for a 92 rated card, but has some downsides.

This review is based on 10 games played with this card on a basic chemistry style, in Division 1 and Friendly games (For the Irish requirements). This was the team that Kaká featured in:

PACE

One of the things about Kaká is that he’s a tall player, 6 foot 1, so half a Mertesacker. 86 acceleration, and 83 sprint speed. As a tall player, it’s unique to be able to accelerate quickly, and very few players have that. Kaká is tall and speeds up quickly, meaning he almost gives a sort of Patrick Vieira speed where he’s this full on sprinting bear down the pitch. And if you thought you were quick, you haven’t seen a sprinting bear. And I completely mean this; it’s honestly how he feels when you hold down L2, and very much like Patrick Vieira but three pace faster. And let me quickly justify my rating below, he isn’t blistering fast, but it’s such a nice feel for his card. A tall, strong, and decently quick player is something I honestly think is better than small/weak and 90+ pace.

RATING: 4/5

SHOOTING

I don’t really know what to say, 92 positioning, 88 finishing, 91 shot power and long shots, 99 volleys and penalties. This is all before a chemistry style is added. This isn’t even a striker card. He’s in the right place, puts away 88% of his shots, they’re powerful, and distance isn’t a factor. It doesn’t even matter if it’s on the ground or in the air. You don’t get a much better spread of amazing stats, it’s similar to Aguero, but so much even better. I’ll speak on what I noticed the most of all here, and that was shot power beyond a reasonable doubt. His shots are so ridiculously powerful I think they break the speed of sound, and it shocks the goalkeeper, who then stands no chance. Next I noticed his long shots mostly because I’ve struck the bar so many times and the ball would ricochet off into space. His shots are so precise and powerful from distance that he’s as lethal from 30 yards as he is from 5. I like to use a card before I apply a chemistry style so I can feel out what’s strong and what areas are lacking. For Kaká I won’t think twice about boosting his shooting as there is seriously no need. Sadly one thing I noticed was that his left-footed shots seemed oddly not very powerful, I couldn’t tell if that was just an off moment or not but I felt it was worth noting.

RATING: 4.5/5

PASSING

Likely my third favorite category about this card is his passing. As a CAM your role is to contribute to the attack in every way possible, passing, dribbling, and shooting. Kaká has provided so many key passes in games and you notice! They’re those passes that you don’t think will go through but somehow snake their way onto your skippers boot. While he didn’t get me that many assists I loved it when he had the ball on his feet, because I knew he was able to instantly make a very very accurate pass, even if he was upside down and balancing a cup of tea I could count on him to keep the attack alive. 91 short passing, 94 vision, and 94 curve all come together to produce some more magic from the Brazilian legend.

RATING: 4/5

DRIBBLING

Kaká is one of those players that you can’t really describe how they feel because he’s so incredibly unique. Let me try the Frankenstein method, if you put together Prime Robert Pires, a sprinkle of Ronaldo, a little chunk of Patrick Vieira, a slice of Birthday Yaya Toure, and a sliver of Thierry Henry, you get Kaká. He is such an incredible player to dribble with, it’s astonishing what he’s able to do. Honestly I think the game is bugged and when you pass it to Kaká it’s stuck inside his foot, because he keeps it so fascinatingly close. It’s better than Hazard, than Messi, and better than Okocha. It’s easily the best feature of this already great card. Precision dribbling is your friend here.

RATING: 5/5

DEFENDING

Honestly atrocious, you actually notice how bad it is. When you use someone like Messi you notice all the great he does, but don’t really notice how poor his defending is. Kaká blatantly misses easy tackles by full on lunging the wrong way like a seal, his ‘dive’ is so poor I can’t call it a dive but more of a flop, and he will watch a ball straight up roll through his legs and not even try to grab it. Keep him so far in the attack he cannot get a single attempt to make a tackle because it’s a waste of pixel space unless he’s passed the ball.

RATING: 1/5

PHYSICAL

This section has a lot of love and a lot of hate. Let me start with the very clear 55 stamina and clear up the elephant in the room, oh no wait that’s just Higuain. It’s bad, and he gets tired very quickly. By the 65^th minute he’s clearly dragging his feet and he feels like a shadow of the former first half man. It’s like after the 65^th EA turn the card into his 80 rated one. That being said, I confidently use him through 90 minutes, and twice through 120 minutes. At the 75^th he should be substituted off, but through the whole 120 he can still shoot very well. So if you play him as a CAM, not a CF or ST after the 75^th minute you can still get a great deal out of him, but tread carefully.

Kaká stamina after 90 mins:

Now onto my next favorite part of this card, his strength. 88 strength on a fast player who can dribble incredibly well and pick out the top corners of the net. This is what gives him the Patrick Vieira feel, the brute strength. Kaká is so strong, he shrugs people off easily and the ball never even leaves his foot. If he didn’t have that 88 strength this card would be mediocre at best, but this makes him excel and such a threat everywhere on the green. This alone makes up for the lack of stamina.

RATING: 2.5/5 (Stamina makes it a ‘1/5’ and strength makes it a ‘5/5’)

MENTALITY

So not only does Kaká have passing, shooting, dribbling, pace, and strength, but four star skill moves and four star weak foot? The farther down I read the wider my smile gets. He can confidently use both feet and has all the necessary skills to cross defenders eyes. Yes, yes, and yes. He has the finesse shot, flair, and playmaker trait, to add onto his already drool inducing card. On top of that he has High/Medium work rates so he’s always sitting in that perfect pocket ready to move up and attack. Everything here is great, and in no small way disappointing.

RATING: 5/5

CONSENSUS

We’ve reached the end of the case, and the jurors have spoken (me). I love 99% of this card so god damn much. He’s so quick and strong, but he can still dribble like an absolute god. Then once you’ve stormed and pushed through the defense you can curl, power, or chip De Gea and make it look easy and smooth. There are two things I do not like, and that is his defending and stamina. His defending is seriously horrific, and stamina is a problem. But not enough for me to say that I don’t think he’s a good card, he’s ready for the Weekend League, maybe even pro players teams (I’d imagine their benches). What I recommend is playing Kaká as a CAM or CF for the most part, but be ready to sub him on/off. He’s either coming on at half time or leaving in the 75^th, likely for Lozano. That is how you can get the best of this card without having to worry about the downsides. As a striker I feel like he could play longer, but I think his passing isn’t used enough if he’s solely upfront and not pulling the strings of the attack like he can do so well. When it comes to his price? I think it’s a no-brainer, this card to me is worth well over 300K and I’d consider buying him before many other cards around 500K. At the moment he’s 100K and an absolute steal. If you want a great player to bring on at half time, or even a starting attacking midfielder, I’d think you shouldn’t hesitate to complete the Kaká SBC especially at the price he’s at!

RATING: 3.7/5

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