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EA Sports has released the latest Showdown Squad Building Challenges for FIFA 23 Ultimate Team, featuring Nick Pope and Danny Ward. With the World Cup festivities coming to an end in FUT after the tournament's conclusion, club football is set to resume soon. The Premier League will return with a host of fixtures on Boxing Day, including the featured showcase between Newcastle United and Leicester City.
The new inclusions are the first SBCs featuring club football after World Cup 2022's end. Moreover, they are also the only Showdown challenges featuring goalkeepers in FIFA 23. The two SBCS are enticing propositions for FUT fans, as goalkeepers are often not featured on promo rosters, making the Nick Pope and Danny Ward cards unique entities.
Nick Pope and Danny Ward have received impressive cards in FIFA 23 Ultimate Team
Boxing Day football is always an anticipated event in the sport, especially in the Premier League. All twenty clubs in the English top flight engage in thrilling footballing clashes on this day, and EA Sports is capitalizing on this hype with these Showdown SBCs. It's worth mentioning the Newcastle United vs. Leicester City match will take place on December 26.
How to complete the SBCs in FIFA 23
Both SBCs require a single squad with their own stipulations that must be completed to obtain the respective cards in-game. These are the requirements for the Nick Pope challenge:
- Premier League Players: minimum one in your starting 11
- Team overall rating: minimum 84
- Number of players in the squad: 11
Meanwhile, the Danny Ward SBC has the following requirements:
- Premier League Players: minimum one in your starting 11
- Team overall rating: minimum 84
- Number of players in the squad: 11
The overall expected cost of both the SBCs is around 40,000 FUT coins, which is primarily driven by the price of fodder cards in the FUT transfer market.
What do these cards look like in FIFA 23?
Both cards have an overall rating of 86 and have received significant upgrades over their base gold versions. Nick Pope possesses the following stats in six key goalkeeping aspects:
- Diving: 86
- Reflexes: 88
- Handles: 87
- Speed: 55
- Kicking: 81
- Positioning: 86
Meanwhile, Danny Ward has the following attributes:
- Diving: 87
- Reflexes: 87
- Handles: 86
- Speed: 56
- Kicking: 80
- Positioning: 86
Is it worth completing these Showdown SBCs in FIFA 23 Ultimate Team?
These Showdown SBCs, in particular, are tricky as they feature goalkeepers. These players are extremely subjective in the game's current meta, as they can't be directly controlled by gamers. In such a scenario, goalkeepers with the best attributes and chemistry links are preferred, making Nick Pope the more viable choice over Danny Ward.
Based on the position of the two teams in the Premier League table, Newcastle is also more likely to emerge victorious, securing the +2 upgrade for Nick Pope.
Showdown SBCs are a fantastic concept in FIFA 23, where the card from the winning team receives a +2 upgrade, with +1 to both cards in case of a draw. This idea was applied to World Cup games as well, with several Showdown SBCs being released throughout the course of the event. Now that club football is about to commence once again; fans will be eager to see the content EA Sports releases.
