PES Chronicles

(Yes…. that ftw! thing is starting to get old and annoying, isn’t it? ftw! is the new woot!)

Everything is different now:

I felt that I had to go back to 4-3-3. The 4-4-2 was adequate. It was workmanlike. It was solid. It was occasionally swashbuckling. But it wasn’t me. If it had worked out as well as I’d hoped, I’d stick with it. But I was still conceding the goals, and I was relatively blunted up front.

A few games ago I noticed that Donadel has DMF as an alternate position, so he’s taken the position from the still wet-behind-the-ears Duffy. Bramble is solid at CB. Shaw starts for me now (when he can) in Chairman Mao’s left-sided AMF spot.

And results were immediate. Boy, were they immediate…

Rosenborg have been a bit of a bogey team for me in Division 2. I remember them thumping me 5-1 – or something disgraceful like that – way back at the very start, when I only had Dodo and Stein et al to chase them around the park.

So, my first game with my new re-imagined 4-3-3, and Rosenborg are the opponents. I went 0-1 down in the first five minutes. I could have wept. Was this it? Was I doomed to play badly in Division 2 forever, and blog about it here to the increasing amusement/bemusement of everybody, including myself?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9FTr_UoTmo&rel=1]

Perhaps not. The above goal came just at the right time – immediately after the break. Wee Jimmy Shimizu pops up with a nice mid-range finish, in off the post. Now these are my real PES bread and butter goals – more, please.

De Ridder obliges, only a few minutes later, running centrally from a position on the left wing (how he got over there I don’t know). Another nice mid-range finish, and I held on for the win. Holding on for the win ftw!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXsBhsNSSGI&rel=1]

It was the start of a run of results like no other run I have had so far.

Rosenborg 1-2 Coventry City
Coventry City 4-0 Reading
Olympiacos Piraeus 1-3 Coventry City
Coventry City 2-0 Helsingborg

Played 4. Won 4. Lost 0. Goals scored: 11 Goals conceded: 2.

(At one point I had to visit the General Settings section on the Master League menu to check that I was still playing on Top Player difficulty.)

I’m particularly happy to be scoring goals again. It’s not just the amount of goals I’m now scoring that pleases me; it’s the kinds of goals, too. Traditional PES-style goals. If you’re not scoring them, you don’t know the game yet. Look at this one from Schwarz:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP7iz1YJvC0&rel=1]

(Incidentally, that’s probably the best-quality video I’ve captured with my mobile phone camera. I’m not certain what I did right – probably just zooming in the replay, and slowing it down. Zooming in and slowing down ftw!)

This is Championship form – or it would have been, if I’d started playing like it a bit sooner.

Shutting out the opposition is the key. Clean sheets+goals=results. It’s a mathematical certainty.

Coventry City ftw!

*quivers with excitement, and promises never to use ftw! ever again. Not even ironically*

The 4-4-2 is going well. Not great. Not spectacular. Won 1, Lost 1, Drawn 2. I haven’t scored many goals, but I’ve conceded a few less as well. That was the idea.

Negotiations. I’m playing games at such a rate that they seem to come around every day. Here in my third mid-season Negotiations, again without much in the way of transfer funds, I’ve made the following deals:

DONADEL (CMF, 26) – traded for Van den Berg (good riddance).
BRAMBLE (CB, 28) – traded for Rommedahl (ditto).
BOYD (CF, 26) – traded for Ordaz (not good enough often enough to justify keeping him any longer).

Towards the end of the negotiations period I received an offer for Ettori, another of the Default players who has been nothing but a burden to me. Nothing but albatrosses, the lot of ‘em (Macco slightly excepted). I sold Ettori for a very welcome 3100 points, and resisted the tempation to spend it in the market. I’ll play with what I have for now.

Bramble could be a key signing for me. An experienced player with stats to match. In real life he’s considered a bit of a joke defender, but this is a computer game, not life. PES2008 has some kind of ‘fan popularity’ thing relating to players. I haven’t really taken any notice of it yet, but there’s a letter A next to his name in the post-match screens. Everyone else has C or D. I think this means he really is a key signing. I hope there’s a knock-on effect that’ll boost the team’s performance. I really must read that section of the manual properly later.

Bramble is replacing Mattsson in the First XI.

The other new boys can fill in as required, along with the rest of the squad.

With a bit of defensive discipline and some ruthlessness up front, I’d still be in with a shot at promotion this season. It’s a long shot, admittedly, and in my mind I’m resigned to spending the 2010 season still in Division 2…

But what kind of attitude is that? I could do this.