PES Chronicles

My league form continues to be appalling (just look at that table down below), but I have somehow navigated my way to the semi-finals of the D1 Cup.

My quarter-final opponents were River Plate. They started out in Division 2 with me almost four seasons ago now, but they got promoted in that first season. They’re a tough side – when I met them in the league earlier this season I was pummelled and harried and teased all over the place. I lost that game badly. I was worried about meeting them in the cup.

The first leg was away at River Plate’s ground. Due to fitness levels I was missing the likes of Donadel, Shaw, Schwarz, and Bramble. Ouch on every front, but I’d have probably rested some or all of them anyway. The league is the #1 priority. This Cup run is just a bit of fun – a sideshow.

I went out with my makeshift team – giving rare starts to Muntari, Mattsson, Reyes, and Traore - and just made the best of things. Perhaps I should play with this attitude (and/or these players) more often, because I defended well, took my one clear-cut chance, and won the game 1-0.

This was despite seeing what was at times an absolutely horrific amount of slowdown during the game. Whenever the ball was at either end of the pitch the game went into Bullet Time for up to several seconds. I coped as best I could, but it spoiled my enjoyment of what was a solid win.

The slowdown problem seems to be making a comeback for me in Division 1. I don’t know what is causing it now. I am quite concerned about it. I haven’t changed any of the settings that all but eliminated it a couple of weeks ago. I’m not doing any background downloading. It’s just got about 50% worse for no apparent reason.

A PS3 patch from Konami is rumoured to be in the offing, but all the talk about it is centred upon the online lag problem. Whereas it’s the offline game that is still the beating heart and soul of PES – or it should be. I’ll be watching how this situation develops very carefully indeed. I have played PES2008 on the Xbox 360 and not only does it look 10 times better than on the PS3, it also plays as smoothly as the proverbial baby’s bottom.

Getting back to the Cup, with that away goal under my belt I approached the second leg feeling that I would have to suffer a complete disaster to lose. And it nearly happened – River Plate got an early goal with more than a whiff of scripting about it. But then I went up the other end and scored three goals without reply. I’ll face Manchester United in the semi-final.

This Cup malarkey is all well and good, but there is disturbing news elsewhere… Around these two games, I suffered on the league front.

I lost four games in a row, scoring no goals at all and losing my discipline completely in one particular game as the frustration took its toll. I had 5 players sent off and the game was abandoned with a 0-3 scoreline awarded against me.

The latest table makes for some truly alarming viewing. I am 18th – third from bottom. In the relegation zone. I can’t seem to buy a result in the league right now.

There are eighteen league games left to play. I’ll probably be all right. I will be all right. Won’t I?

Two draws and a defeat heading into the 2010 mid-season negotiations leaves me still perilously close to the drop zone. I need better players urgently. It would make a hell of a difference. I took a quick break to play the first few games of an International Tournament with the same formation as my ML team but with international-class players, and noticed the difference immediately. I could actually defend, for one thing. Scoring goals isn’t really my problem in Master League.

Needing and wanting better players is one thing; getting them is quite another.

Yet again I’m seriously hampered by my team ranking. My ranking is ‘D’. It’s been ‘D’ since the start. What this means is that I cannot even place bids for very good players. REJECTED is the word I see eight times out of ten after asking a club’s permission to negotiate.

A DMF with the Middle Shooting ability is #1 on the wish-list this time around. Nothing else matters. Donadel is still doing fine – not great as in the latter part of last season, but fine. Good enough. What he lacks is real bite in the tackle, and anything like a reliable pair of shooting boots.

I went for and got MUNTARI (traded for El Moubarki+5000 points).

I considered putting him straight into the First XI in place of Donadel. But it’s weird… I couldn’t do it. Muntari is the better player in almost every respect (not least his shooting), but Donadel did so much for my team last season that he has become like a talisman to me. And get this: if I dropped Donadel I’d feel that I would be betraying him. In other words I have formed a sentimental attachment to a virtual football player in a computer game. They do academic studies about this kind of thing.

ORELLANO is a famous old PES name.

I picked him up from the Youth list. He was a moody so-and-so in PES6 and wouldn’t come to me until he was about 26, despite just hanging around in the Unbelongings for season after season.

BRADLEY is another fresh face from the Youth list – a CMF/SMF with Middle Shooting. It’s called Shooting from Distance in the search menus but good old Middle Shooting in all other menus. Sigh.

And finally I got some geezer called DJIBA, another CMF/SMF player with Middle Shooting packed in his boots.

Amazingly I was able to trade Burchet+2000 points for him. Djiba’s not really very good (hence the low points price in the exchange), but he’ll be useful for trading up at another level if he doesn’t work out.

With the departure of El Moubarki and Burchet, I’m left with just three of the original Default squad: Ivarov, Stein and Huylens.

Ivarov plays in the odd game when Friedel and Kim U Don’t are both unfit, and he does well enough for me to keep him on at least until the end of this season. Stein will be good exchange fodder in the future. And Huylens is retiring at the end of this campaign.

I’m worried again that I might have wasted the mid-season negotiations. Of the four newcomers, only Muntari is likely to be of immediate use.

It’s usual for me to struggle in my first top-flight season, but this year I’m struggling slightly more than usual. I want to get some clear blue water between me and that relegation zone as soon as possible.