I remember when I first downloaded eFootball 2022 the week it launched, the first thing I wanted to do was settle a year-long bet with my college roommate about who was the better virtual striker. I’d been talking trash for months about my ability to score from half-volleys, and he’d been bragging about his unbreakable 5-3-2 defense. But I fumbled through the main menus for almost 25 minutes before I figured out how to send him an invite, and we lost another 10 minutes to connection issues before we finally kicked off. If that sounds familiar, this guide breaks down exactly how to play against friends in eFootball 2022, no matter if you’re on console, PC, or mobile, and whether you’re sitting on the same couch or 300 miles apart.
Step-by-Step: How to Play Against Friends in eFootball 2022 Online
Online matches are the most common way to play with friends, especially if you don’t live close enough for couch co-op. The process is slightly different depending on if you’re playing same-platform or cross-platform, but the core steps are the same for all devices. First, you’ll need to make sure your Konami ID is linked to your game account. You can check this in the account settings tab of the main menu, and you’ll need to confirm your email address to enable cross-platform play. Make sure both you and your friend have the latest game patch installed before creating a lobby, or you won’t be able to connect to each other at all.
If you’re playing with someone on the same platform as you, you can pull up your platform’s friends list directly from the eFootball menu to send invites, no extra steps needed. If you’re playing cross-platform, you’ll need to add each other as friends on your Konami accounts first. You can do this by searching for their Konami ID in the friends tab, or sending them a friend request link that you can copy and share via text or social media. Once you’re friends on Konami, their names will show up in your in-game friends list permanently.
To create a lobby, head to the “Friend Match” section under the multiplayer tab. From there, you can adjust match settings to your preference: set half length between 3 and 30 minutes, toggle fouls, offside, and handball rules on or off, and even restrict team ratings if you don’t want someone spamming the full PSG or Real Madrid squad. Set the lobby privacy to “Friends Only” to keep random players from joining, then hit create. You can send invites directly to your friends from the lobby screen, or share the 6-digit room code with them so they can join manually. If you’re still confused about how to play against friends in eFootball 2022 online, start by confirming your Konami ID is linked correctly, as that’s the source of 80% of setup errors.
Setting Up Local Couch Co-Op Matches With Friends
Local play is perfect for game nights, house parties, or just hanging out with a friend who’s over at your place, and it doesn’t require any internet connection at all to work. The setup process is even simpler than online play, and you don’t need a Konami ID to access it. First, make sure you have enough controllers connected to your device: most consoles support up to 4 controllers at once, and PC supports as many as you have USB ports or Bluetooth connections for. If you’re playing on PlayStation or Xbox, you can assign guest controllers without linking separate accounts, so no one has to log in to their profile to join the match.
To start a local match, head to the “Exhibition” tab on the main menu, then select “Local Match”. You can assign controllers to the home and away teams, or even set up 2v2 matches if you have four players and four controllers. From there, you can adjust all the same match settings you would in an online friend match: pick your teams, set match length, toggle rules, and even select specific stadiums and weather conditions to play in. If you’re playing on mobile, you can set up local matches via Bluetooth, though most players find that external controllers work better than split-screen touch controls for competitive games.
One common issue people run into with local play is controllers not being detected by the game. If that happens, don’t waste time messing with system settings first. Just close the game entirely, restart it, and reconnect your controllers before you open eFootball again. That fixes the problem 9 times out of 10, and it takes less than a minute to do. Local play also has zero lag, which makes it perfect for more competitive matches where even a 100ms delay can make the difference between scoring a goal and missing an open shot.
Fixing Common Connection Issues When Playing With Friends
Connection issues are the most common frustration people run into when figuring out how to play against friends in eFootball 2022, but 90% of them can be fixed in less than 2 minutes. Most connection problems aren’t caused by the game itself, but by your home network or settings that you can adjust easily. Restart your router and game 10 minutes before you plan to play, to clear temporary cache that causes connection drops and lag spikes. That’s the single most effective fix for almost every common online play issue, and most people skip it entirely.
If you’re still running into problems after restarting your gear, work through this list of quick troubleshooting steps:
- Stick to wired ethernet connections if possible, as Wi-Fi is 3x more likely to cause lag spikes or mid-match disconnects, especially if you live in a building with lots of overlapping Wi-Fi signals.
- Turn off background downloads on all devices connected to your network, as they eat up bandwidth needed for smooth gameplay. Even a single phone downloading an update can add 200ms of latency to your match.
- Double check that neither you nor your friend has a NAT type set to Strict, as this will block peer-to-peer connections entirely. You can check your NAT type in the game’s network settings tab, and most routers let you switch to Open or Moderate NAT with a single setting adjustment.
- If crossplay matches are laggy, turn off crossplay and stick to same-platform matches for lower latency. Cross-platform connections have to route through extra servers, which can add extra delay that’s noticeable during fast-paced play.
If you keep getting disconnected mid-match, try swapping who hosts the lobby. Some home networks are better suited to hosting peer-to-peer matches than others, and switching hosts can eliminate disconnects entirely without any other changes. Don’t use custom team mods or edited player files when playing online with friends, as these can trigger anti-cheat flags and get you kicked out of the lobby, or even temporarily banned from online play. If you want to use custom mods, stick to local matches where anti-cheat isn’t active.
Fun Custom Match Rules to Try With Your Friends
Once you’ve gotten the hang of setting up matches and fixing connection issues, you can mix up custom rules to keep your games fun and interesting, even if you’ve played against the same friend 100 times before. The custom rule options in eFootball 2022 are surprisingly flexible, and you can create all kinds of silly or competitive challenges that make every match feel new. Most players forget you can save custom rule sets in the lobby settings, so you don’t have to adjust every rule manually every time you play.
One of my group’s favorite challenges is the bronze team only rule, where everyone can only pick 1-star teams made up entirely of bronze-rated players. No Mbappé, no Messi, no superstars, just average players who miss passes and mess up shots regularly. It levels the playing field massively, so even the worst player in your group has a real chance to win. We also do a first-to-3-goals series, where there’s no set match length, and the first person to score 3 goals wins the round. We play best of 5 rounds, and the loser buys pizza for the group the next time we hang out.
Other fun rule ideas include the header only challenge, where you can only score goals from headers, or the outside the box challenge, where goals only count if they’re shot from outside the 18-yard box. You can also turn off fouls entirely for a chaotic, no-rules match where you can slide tackle anyone without getting a red card, which is perfect for casual play when no one cares about being competitive. If you have a larger group of friends who play regularly, you can even set up a small league with a points system, where everyone plays each other twice a month and the top player gets a small prize at the end of the season.
At the end of the day, eFootball 2022 is way more fun when you’re going up against people you know, instead of random players online who play 6 hours a day and only use meta formations. It’s easy to get frustrated with the menu layout and connection issues when you’re first starting out, but once you get the hang of the steps we outlined, you’ll be able to set up a match in less than a minute. Knowing how to play against friends in eFootball 2022 opens up hours of casual, competitive fun whenever you want, whether you’re hanging out on the couch or playing with friends across the country. Don’t be afraid to mess around with weird custom rules or bad teams to keep things fresh, and if you run into connection issues, run through the quick troubleshooting steps we listed first before you give up.