If you’ve ever loaded up eFootball on your console, picked a random mid-table team to test new skill moves, then spent 10 minutes fumbling through messy menus trying to get back to your custom Dream Team, you’re not alone. One of the most common questions new and casual players ask is how do you change your team in eFootball on console, and it’s not always as intuitive as you’d expect thanks to regular menu overhauls from Konami. I’ve spent hundreds of hours testing eFootball across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch, playing everything from casual exhibition matches to ranked Dream Team competitions. I’ve broken down every method you’ll need, no matter what game mode you’re playing, so you won’t have to close and restart the game mid-session ever again.
Step-by-Step: How Do You Change Your Team in eFootball on Console for Exhibition Matches
Exhibition mode is where most players first run into team selection issues, especially if you’re jumping in for a quick match against friends or the AI. The process is slightly different depending on what console you use, but the core steps are the same across all platforms. When you first open the exhibition match setup screen, you’ll see two slots for home and away teams, plus options for match length, stadium, and difficulty. On PlayStation controllers, press the Square button to open the full team selection menu, while Xbox users press X, and Switch users press Y. From there, you can filter teams by league, country, overall rating, or even recent use to find exactly what you’re looking for.
You can’t switch teams once an exhibition match has kicked off, so make sure you confirm your selection before you hit the start button. If you’re playing cross-play exhibition matches with friends on other platforms, the team select process works exactly the same, but you’ll have to confirm your pick before the lobby timer runs out to avoid being assigned a random team. Any custom Dream Team squads you’ve saved to your profile will appear at the top of the team selection list, so you don’t have to scroll through hundreds of licensed teams to find your go-to squad.
How to Swap Your Active Dream Team Squad on Console
Dream Team is the most popular game mode in eFootball, so knowing how to swap between your pre-built squads quickly is essential if you play ranked matches regularly. First, when you’re on the main Dream Team hub, navigate to the “Squad” tab on the top menu bar using your controller’s shoulder buttons. You can save up to 10 custom squads in eFootball’s Dream Team mode, which is perfect if you want separate setups for attack-heavy tiki-taka play, defensive counter-attacks, or specific opponent matchups. To swap between them, simply highlight the squad you want to use, press the confirm button (X on PlayStation, A on Xbox, B on Switch), and select “Set as Active Squad” from the pop-up menu.
You don’t have to back out to the main hub to swap squads either. If you get a ranked match invite while you’re messing around with a fun training squad full of bronze players, you can quickly swap to your competitive squad right from the pre-match lobby. That’s a huge time saver, especially if you play a lot of short matches in a row. If you’re playing through the Dream Team League campaign, you can also swap squads between each match of the season, so you can adjust your tactics to counter the next AI opponent’s play style.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Switching Teams in eFootball
Most of the errors players run into when switching teams come from small, unwritten menu quirks that Konami hasn’t fixed in recent updates. I’ve made all of these mistakes myself at one point, so watching for these will save you a lot of unnecessary frustration:
- Forgetting to save your custom squad edits before switching: If you’ve adjusted player positions, changed tactics, or added new signings to your Dream Team, hit the save button before you swap squads, or all your changes will be lost permanently.
- Trying to change teams mid-online match: Even if you’re losing badly and your entire attack is injured, you can’t swap to a different squad once an online match has started, and backing out will count as a loss and hurt your ranked rating.
- Filtering teams incorrectly when searching for licensed sides: A lot of lower-league and non-European teams are grouped under their country’s “Rest of World” category, so if you can’t find a specific team, turn off all league filters first to broaden your search.
- Accidentally selecting the away team slot in exhibition mode: If you’re playing against the AI, double check which slot you’ve selected before you confirm, or you might end up controlling the team you wanted to play against.
One other mistake I see all the time is players deleting old squads to make space for new ones, without realizing you can export squads to your console’s storage to back them up for later. That’s a huge help if you want to revisit a fun squad you built a few months ago without rebuilding it entirely from scratch. If you’re playing co-op with friends, remember only the lobby host can change the team for the whole group, so if you want to use a specific squad, make sure you ask the host to select it before the match starts.
How to Change Your Default Startup Team in eFootball on Console
If you always play with the same team for exhibition matches or casual co-op sessions, setting it as your default startup team will save you a few minutes every time you load the game. To do this, head to the main game settings menu from the home screen, then navigate to the “Gameplay” tab, then select “Default Team” from the list of options. From there, you can pick any team in the game, including your custom Dream Team squads, as the default option for all offline game modes.
This setting only applies to offline modes, so you don’t have to worry about it messing with your online Dream Team matchups or ranked progress. If you ever want to change it again, just head back to the same settings menu and pick a new team. I have my default set to the fun casual Dream Team I built with my favorite retired players, so I can jump straight into a quick game against the AI without navigating through multiple menus first. You can also save custom controller layouts tied to specific teams, so you don’t have to adjust your button mapping every time you switch between a squad that uses a lot of skill moves and one that focuses on defensive play.
At the end of the day, figuring out how do you change your team in eFootball on console is only confusing the first few times you do it. Once you memorize the button inputs for your console and learn to watch for the common menu quirks, you’ll be able to swap squads in 10 seconds flat, no matter what game mode you’re playing. Don’t be afraid to test out different squads for different match types, either – having multiple pre-built squads saved makes the game feel a lot more varied, especially if you play with friends regularly. If you run into any issues with missing teams or squad saves not loading, a quick restart of your console usually fixes the problem right away. You can also check the official eFootball support pages if you run into a more persistent bug that stops you from accessing your custom squads.