The U-23 World Championship Mode allows players a taste of the future as they play as one of the 16 top Under 23 National teams in the world. While the League mode gives players the chance to play through a full season with their favorite club team from England, Spain, Germany or Italy. And the fifth and final mode, Training, provides the player with the chance to hone his or her skills in specific areas like penalty kicks, corner kicks, free kicks, or throw-ins. It also allows for a full practice match. Within the game itself, the In Game Management and In Game Tactics features allow for team management and play calling on the fly.
Players can also set the matches to take place in the day, evening and night times.
Taking full advantage of the advanced processing power of the PS2, the developers are upping the AI to make it more intuitive and responsive than ever before. With the increased number of calculations that can be made, the CPU will be able to react and respond much more realistic and give the player an increased amount of challenge without having to resort to cheat tactics. However, while the CPU-controlled players do react realistically, they don't really pose too much of a threat in the Japanese release of the game. Hopefully, North American players will get a version of the game that's more challenging than its Japanese counterpart. Audibly, the game features in-game music from the popular English band Jamiroquai and top European DJ Paul Oakenfold.