| abstract
| - One star characters are the worst choices if you want to win matches in Head Soccer. They all have power shots that can score, but only in a very specific range or against specific opponents (for example, characters with low jump), and most of the time you need some luck as well. Otherwise they cause own goals or just don't score at all. Only if you consider yourself a Head Soccer pro, you could play with one of these to find out if you're really that good. But let me say this before you accept the challenge: you must be very confident with yourself if you think you can win Head Cups with one of these. 62) Japan = This was a close call but I appoint Japan as the worst Head Soccer character. Congratulations Japan, you are the worst, but in fact I think he's not even much worse than the character that comes in 57th place for example. Japan is as "good" against 5 star opponents as characters like South Korea and Cameroon, but the reason that Japan is ranked lower than those characters is that Japan's shot even is an uncertainty against the worst characters. Sure, as an opponent in the game he's not even that easy to defeat, but once you play with him you witness how miserable his power shot is. Japan is like a lottery, you hope for the best and if you win it's awesome, but you're not even surprised if you lose for the umpteenth time. And it sounds so promising, "Ninja Shot", but it has a very small range where it is "effective", and "effective" means here that there is still a huge chance that it will miss the goal or even worse: it scores an own goal! At first you might think you can make something out of the randomness of the power shot, but your opponents are all like "Nope, you don't fool me with your lousy shot" and then they block it without any problems. Japan is only good at messing things up so for the love of... yourself, don't use him! 61) Romania = Be prepared, this is one big criticism I have of Romania, because someone finally had to do it. Romania is better than Japan because Romania has three power shots instead of one. That gives you the advantage that you can choose yourself which of his three horrible shots you use. Let’s start off with his air shot. In my opinion, it isn’t made for scoring but for wasting time. It can only go in if your opponent can’t jump high enough to reach Romania’s bat, or in the very unlikely event that the ball bounces into the goal while Romania is using his freaky vampire actions on his opponent to make him disappear, but an equal amount of times the ball ends up in the wrong goal. Years later, when Romania is finally done beating up his opponent, you must be ready to transform into Usain Bolt and dash the ball in the goal before your opponent is back. An almost impossible task as he reappears too soon in my opinion, unless the ball is really close to you. Then you have to seize this rare opportunity with both hands, because any other way to score with this power shot is ruled out. Romania’s ground shot is remarkable as well, in the way that it doesn’t matter where you use it, but where your opponent is positioned in the field. That sounds more complicated than it really is. When Romania performs his ground shot, he flies towards his opponent, picks him up, flies some distance further and puts him inside a coffin along with the ball. So: When the opponent stands on the edge of his penalty area and Romania picks him up there, he carries him and - more important - the ball right into the goal so the shot scores! However, it is useless when the opponent stands anywhere else in the field and it is very often countered by CPUs. And Romania has such an ordinary counter attack that I don’t even want to talk about it, sorry. 60) USA = USA's power shot is in almost everything a worse equivalent of South Korea's shot. It has less chance to go in from various distances, a weaker knockback effect, a smaller chance of knocking your opponent out and it is slower. But just when you think it can't get any worse, you see that the after effect of the shot has no use at all! The ball is meant to turn invisible, but CPUs always know exactly where it is. And even worse, when your opponent counters it and uses it against you, it does turn invisible, giving you an unfair disadvantage. USA would be very last in this ranking if it wasn't for the ability to score in front of goal. That's really the only place in the field where it works how it should work: The ball starts some distance in front of USA so when you use it there it's an automatic goal. But, yeah, if you can get there with the ball, why shouldn't you just kick it in? Maybe because USA's shot can even score when your opponent has his power shot activated. Moral of the story: USA has an actual use, but only in one certain spot. It is so challenging to make it score from any other distance to the goal, it just won't, I guarantee it. 59) Cameroon = Cameroon is the worst African character in Head Soccer in my opinion (there aren't that many to be honest, D&D Dream should really add some more of them, but I notice that I’m already digressing while I’m not even started yet). Probably most of you will agree with his low rank. His power shot is slower than that of his good buddy South Korea, and moreover it scores a bit less, but as opposed to him, Cameroon has an after effect. Still, that doesn't make him beat the South Korean character, because the ball bounces away most of the time so it's hard to score a goal against your electrocuted opponent. But what made me decide to choose Cameroon over for example USA is the fact that Cameroon doesn't electrocute himself anymore after the last update, which is nice. 58) South Korea = So South Korea is a better version of USA. It's faster and it knocks the opponent out more often. The main difference is that South Korea's recommended place is on his own side and high in the air, and not in front of the goal. That's an easier place and I think that's the reason that most people think he isn't even that bad. But some are too positive about him, they claim South Korea is “very good”, while he really is far below average. His power shot is so simple and misses a good effect, and when you use it with your opponent standing close in front of you, you already know you're screwed. The only thing I highly appreciate about him is that he doesn’t waste your time. When his shot misses (which happens… often), you can immediately play on again and make another attempt to attack the goal. And besides, the speed can come in handy sometimes. 57) Russia = At first sight he looks so similar to Cameroon that it is a mystery that he is 2 places ahead of him, and above good ol' South Korea. If you look more carefully, you see that Russia's shot curves down. Hey, is there any way to use that in your advantage? Yes, there is! Choose Russia, choose a costume that increases your jumping ability and have fun! The best place to activate your Ice shot now you can jump this high is on your own half. Much to your surprise you will see that Russia scores quite often, because CPUs are likely to jump too early. Even when you're not wearing a costume, you can make this power shot go in despite of - or actually thanks to - the curve it makes. Stand a bit in front of the half-line and if you jump high enough, the ball flies over the defender's head and into the goal. Even while you might have thought the curve makes the Ice shot easier to block for opponents, the opposite is true if you use it the right way. Also, Russia's after effect is slightly better than those of the characters that come before him. It’s still not easy to score while your opponent is frozen, but at least Russia gives you some time. 56) Colombia = That Colombia is up here and not in last place may surprise you. Well regarded, Colombia has the worst power shot of all, but not every CPU seems to get that. The only thing you have to do (and probably you do) is jumping and walking forward and voilà, the ball is in Colombia's goal! Because CPUs handle it the wrong way sometimes, it works better against them, and sometimes you can still score out of the after effect, but that is not easy. The air shot basically creates a defender that is not even that much weaker but at least you can push him out of the way, his ground shot makes him disappear but only for a very short period of time. Besides their after effects, both power shots are the same and they can both cause own goals, but only against certain opponents. In case your opponent is stupid enough to not score an own goal, keep calm and stay focused: if your opponent is disappeared, quickly dash the ball in, and if your opponent is immobilized, calmly walk with the ball towards the goal and meanwhile push your opponent backwards, so in the end you'll score. Miraculously, there is a chance that the shot scores at once as well, but this is rarely ever seen. Before the shot comes, there's all kind of hard-to-describe mess on the ground. Only if the opponent jumps on one of those things so he jumps right over the crowd with the ball, the shot can score out of itself. You can leave me a message if you are one of the lucky few on this planet to have witnessed this miracle. Ironically the very best thing that can happen when you use Colombia's power shot is that your opponent counters it. I think that says it all. 55) Hungary = Before I started this ranking I foresaw an even more shameful spot for the 5 star character that is next to India and only 3 places away from power house Ecuador, but this seems fair. If I were to describe him in one phrase, I would choose "own goal machine". His air shot is terrible but at least it pushes the opponent back, his ground shot is even worse and it's not that his counter attack compensates anything. Okay, it doesn't end up in an own goal as much as his other shots, which is quite refreshing if you have played with Hungary for a while, but it is not better than most power shots you counter. It makes you very insecure if you play with a character and every power shot you use is the wrong one. Only that his power button effect stuns the opponent makes Hungary clearly better and his power shots will score more often, but even THEN his they can still cause own goals! There is only some hope left for you if you have just knocked your enemy out with your sword, but did anyone ever see that happen?
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