Strategies with low level teams

[FlusterSF]

As propably many others, I'm stuck with the achievements to win the online world cup with 1-3 star teams. I've been trying with Togo and Thailand for some time now, but the script is always the same. I often clear the group stage and have had nice results in the first knock-out round also, but then I hit a concrete wall. As my surprice, there seems even to be little difference whether I'm playing Togo or Thailand. My attempts with other recommended 3 star teams have all been disasters.

Recently I've been noticing that my failure is most often caused by opponents who very effectively use one specific strategy: run along the side line to the end, pass to the box and attempt to head it in. Very simple and very hard to defend with a low level team. The attack doesn't result a goal that often, but when it's being banged over and over for the full 90 minutes, 3-5 goals is not a rarity.

I always play my matches ultra defence and try to be very patient on defence. I've got this to work quite well against most attacks and I'm often able to keep the score low. But when it comes to the heading strategy, I have no idea what to do. Since the opponent players are usually much faster than mine, it is easy for them to run and get a clear pass. The only thing I can cover with my wing back is to prevent the winger from advancing towards center. On the other hand, it seems to be plain luck how the players are arranged in the box. Many times by D is in the place and saves me that time, but sometimes it's not. And while the opponent forwards are way better than my players, it is very hard to struggle for the headers.

Does anyone have an idea how to defend against attacks like this? While I'm very confident of most types of attack, in these cases I've not found anything better than just hope my player is there to head it away. But on the later knock-out rounds there is always someone who keeps doing this and when he at the same time defends patiently, there is nothing I can do.