Last week I wrote about a game where my opponent got his goalie injured and didn't replace him for 40 minutes. My superior team couldn't manage to get a single shot on target during this time. July Fourth claimed that the game automatically puts an outfield player in goal to cover for no goalie being there.
Today, I used my 3-4 star team playing a guy who has bought loads of scout players and not one of his players were below 6 stars. 4 minutes into the game - my only goalkeeper gets injured and the game says "he is stretchered off, he can't continue". Now I don't have a backup goalie and I remembered that game of mine from last week so I thought I'd try this out.
I left my injured goalie in goal and lo and behold, my opponent didn't get a single shot until the 60th minute! And even then they were two shots that the commentary didnt even mention. Every time his players were through 1-on-1 they missed the goal. Every time his players took a shot, my players would block them.
Unfortunately for me, my midfielder received a red card from out of nowhere (my first red card in 2 seasons). My opponent got a freekick and his 7-star freekick specialist scored. After his goal, his team was STILL unable to get any shots on target. I even subbed two players in midfield and defense to see if the game-engine would react but nothing happened. He kept not hitting the goal.
When the game ended, I quickly checked the match ratings.... and my injured goalie got an 8 in rating and 158 skill point advancement!! Haha, how did he do this when being injured? This shows that when a goalie is injured, if you don't sub him he will continue playing (unlike what July Fourth initially thought about injured goalies) and the game engine won't let the other team hit the target.
This is a very interesting bug and if you get your goalkeeper injured, remember to not get panicked and sub him off. Instead keep him on and you will do great!