the only situation you get grossly overpowered is Cup matches, and once you lose twice, ur out and the red cards ain't going to carry over league, so red cards in CUP ain't a bad thing imo.

if in the spirit of "play fair", he has nothing to win for aside from trying not to lose so horribly. I was pit against an active player who was 3 lvls ahead of me and 12pts ahead. even with him using a flat 4-4-2, I played hard defensive, hard tackling 4-5-1V, I actually got close to forcing him to a goalless draw, if it wasn't for him scoring in the 89th minute, TWICE! but at least I held him 0-1, and his shot efficiency was a low 17%.

among playoffs where the underdogs were losing 0-8, 0-7, 1-5, I think I did great for a grossly underpowered underdog holding 0-1, 0-1.