Nintendo Pocket Football Club is a football management game by ParityBit for the 3DS. It's a follow-up to a game they made on the GBA. Another follow-up has since been released in Japanese only, for mobile phones.

A charming, simplified football management sim. The main appeal for me are the cute graphics in the replays. They have lots of nice little animations, and the games have a pretty good flow! Though the offside calls are WAY too strict.
This was only released in PAL ZONE, though there is a Japan-only, GBA version available, which should be pretty playable as everything important is communicated with icons. No functioning online mode on the GBA though!
— Notes on 3DS Games

Don't worry about losing, especially in practice games! Focus on experimenting, and getting lots of training cards.

When you train players, certain combinations of cards will grant extra abilities, as well as increase base stats further.

• https://old.reddit.com/r/NPFC/comments/23d5wj/what_card_combinations_has_everyone_found/
• https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/643011-nintendo-pocket-football-club/69083291
• https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/643011-nintendo-pocket-football-club/69104184
• https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/643011-nintendo-pocket-football-club/69228152
• https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/643011-nintendo-pocket-football-club/69053574

• NPFC combo - Android app which seems to want every permission?
• Nintendo Pocket Football Club Combination finder - Seems busted?
• http://www.lemon-tea.co.uk/games/nintendo-pocket-football-club/pocket-football-club-combos-card-owned-selector-mkii/ - Not longer up, but it's on The Wayback Machine.
  • http://lemon-tea.wixsite.com/index/nintendo-pocket-football-club - Later version, also no longer up, not on Wayback.

One of the ways you have to control how your team plays is the 'Zones' option you find in the pre-game or training menu under 'Team Tactics'. Changing the length and position of the box can have a big difference on how your team plays: how they pass, how much they run…

A narrower zone will make your players pass and intercept passes more. A wider zone means they will play a longer passing game.
The further forward you put your zone the greater the chance of getting near the oppositions goal but also of leaving your goal open to attack. Further back creates a more defensive strategy.
— https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/643011-nintendo-pocket-football-club/75190582#4

※ The online service was stopped in October 2019 :(

• I recommend putting Player Selection to entirely Stable, 'cause the AI can do some weird changes. I had a keeper as a striker at one point :0.
• I find have Substitutions all the way to Proactive helpful too. As long as you have the depth?

Need to start keeping track of my team and what abilities they have. I've already played a couple of seasons, so a bit of info's missing.

• The Pocket League Story games by Kairosoft - also cute football managers, but not as good. They also make a bunch of other games in the same vein.
• Watching (classification)

• Nintendo Pocket Football Club Stats - on the Nintendo Europe website.
• Nintendo Japan's game page.
• Iwata Asks: Nintendo Pocket Football Club - Interview with Hiroyuki Sonobe.
• Nintendo Pocket Football Club on Mobygames.
• https://old.reddit.com/r/NPFC/
• The Cultural Differences Between NPFC and Calciobit - Differences between Japanese and PALzone versions.