Seems you are playing it wrong, like me at first.
No, it doesnt seem that the levels of the enemies try to level with yours in this game, the thing is, you are trying to move to much your camera, and possibly are also using too much the drawing lines to move your characters.
The level you have is so great you can beat the next team after the occult easily.
I beated the occult with a much lower level than you and in my first try.
Some tips:
-Look how your team is placed (the strategy they use before the match) which one are you using? If I remember correctly I beated them with the diamond formation, though im using others right now that work better.
-Use Kevin a lot, and I mean a lot. Is the best player with Axel in your team. So have both passing the ball to each other while advancing destroying their defenses. If you need someone for help in the middle use the orange hair guy with red nose.
-You are possibly doing, like I did, passing the ball to the players feet. That, I have experience, is the worst possible way to play this game, as there will be always one enemy behind you that will let you not advance. ALWAYS, while trying to go for a goal, pass the ball infront of them (2 or 3 meters max), they will unexpectedly turn like flash, leave the enemy behind, and go for the ball. DO NOT DRAW A LINE FOR THEM, they do it automatically, if you draw it, it will not work.
-Do direct fast passes, lots of them. Its easier using at least 3 team mates. Shoot the ball to a teamate, then, BEFORE this teamate hits the ball, pass it to another one, or to the one he just passed. You will see letters above the player that say "direct". This will turn stupid the defenses of the enemy. ITS ALSO VERY USEFULL TO SCORE A DIRECT GOAL WITH IT. They are very easy to score them this way, even without using any power. For example, near the area pass from axel to kevin, repeat if necessary, so that the goalkepper doesnt no what to do, and before the player that is going to shoot to goal has the ball, hit the goal. This will make a direct goal, changing you commands, instead of shooting, it will say in one of them soemthing like "head hit". Max power to it and easy goal. I probably mark them like this 75 percent of the time. Theres only a draw about fast passes, they will not give you additional experience as they dont count as "good" passes.
-For taking the ball use the majority of the time (the same for stopping an attack with the ball) the right command, the kick one. At the start of the match the stupid, and random, referee, will shout usually fault. When he does like 3 or 4 of those (to either side) he usually doesnt appear again, even if you are commiting faults all the time. At first I thought faults were only if you tried to kick someone from behind, but nope, I later discovered you can also get them from the front, sides, and even using things like tackle or power moves, or not even get them doing a lot of this things. Yep, the referee in this game is stupid, and its random.
-If they have to throw a fault from their part, or the goalkeeper needs to kick becuase it went out or it has been a bad pass the game stops. Use this at you advantge and place your team in between the one that is going to shot the fault and the one that can receive that ball. You will, the majority of the time, get an easy ball and even be alone with the goalkeeper to score and easy goal. I have never used the stopping the match command.
-In this match, YOU NEED to score a goal before they use their special move and score a free goal. In the second part of the match try scoring easy goals with kevin with the tips I gave above.
keep passing it around, if you can keep possession of the ball throughout most game you'll be safe I think.
