It might be old now, but when it came out UEFA Euro 2004 was definately the better soccer game of the time
Euro 2004 came out about nine months after FIFA 2004 was released and the changes between the two games were quite significant. In FIFA 2004, EA introduced the great idea but poorly executed Off-The-Ball Control. In that game you could with the use of the right analog stick control a player without the ball to get him into open space. While the idea was good, it had problems as you had to first cycle through three possible players to get the one you wanted and then quickly direct him where you wanted to go. Against the computer the function worked, but against human competitors the game idea failed to work the way you wanted it to.
With Euro 2004, they still had this feature but it didn't matter because the gameplay was good enough in other spots that you didn't worry about the use of off-the-ball. Euro 2004 also focused on countries rather than clubs giving you the chance to play as any of the 50 UEFA Nations and either help them qualify for Euro (if they hadn't already) or take them directly into the finals and win the trophy. While every country was there and well represented there is one large omission when it came to playing as Holland as the Dutch Soccer/Football Federation failed to allow the use of players in the game. So if you played as or against The Netherlands every player was just a number. Not too much of big deal unless that is your team of choice.
This game also introduced some interesting features. When taking your team through qualifying each player had a morale meter that either increased or decreased depending on how he was used. If a player scored a goal his morale improved but if he was subbed off or got a yellow card (or worse a red card) then that morale was decreased. Another minor pre-game addition was being able to go into depth with formations and strategy before entering the game with a great pre-game menu. There was even a Fantasy Feature where you could select a dream 11 for your team allowing you to mix and match players from across Europe for a super-star team. But the feature that really helped the longevity of the game was the Home-and-Away feature that allowed people to play 2-legged matches and have the computer keep track of all stats between the game. If you won your first leg at home 2:1 you knew that your opponent only needed one goal to win the series. This allowed you to play with friends with complete balance and if your buddy was known to throw the slide-tackles around, he might have to play the next leg with some players missing (had they been sent off in the first leg.)
But the game wasn't perfect. If you're a Dutch fan then you already know the missing players. For everyone else, the game is limited to only European Teams and down the line these teams differ greatly now then they did then. The team management options does have a lot of slow down while changing teams as it take a while for the game to load from one screen to the next. The game also might be a little bit more slow-paced at it's default speed, so you might want to change that before going into a game to fix. Lastly, the addition of classic teams or classic matches would have been a great bonus but hopefully when Euro 2008 comes out it will have that option.
Chances are, if you didn't play this game back in 2004, you won't play it now as the FIFA series has evolved greatly since that year, but none-the-less this was a great game when it came out and definitely a 'sorry for screwing up FIFA 2004' title from EA.