A Beerens can be deceiving
(Of all the cheesy puns I’ve come up with for my post titles, that’s got to be the cheesiest. And it doesn’t actually mean anything.)
Beerens is the man of the moment. He’s one great player among many great players in my team right now. But he’s standing out for several reasons.
My other players are mostly doing what they have always done. Schwarz and Shimizu are banging in the goals (Shimizu is ten times the player in the right-sided CF slot in my formation then he ever was as an AMF). Kaiser continues to be – my favourite PES player trait – solid. Bradley is a superb DMF. Felipe and Mattsson are impregnable at the centre of defence. Lekstrom is a good keeper – as far as keepers go in PES2008.
Marcos was called up for the Spanish national squad and I played Beerens in his position for a couple of games. Beerens has held onto that position. There’s one good reason why. Well, a couple of good reasons, really: Beerens’ vital goals in a couple of key games have kept my season alive (just), and also there’s this:
Finally, finally, finally. A true long-distance strike into the ‘postage stamp’ corner of the net (near enough). They’re actually a lot harder to get in PES2008 than they were in the last couple of versions. You can see me getting a bit excited whilst filming the first replay angle. I slightly missed capturing the exact moment the ball went into the net. Hence the second angle.
I forget exactly which opponents that goal was against. I’ve been playing the games at such a rate that my quickly-handwritten notes are somewhat… chaotic.
In the League I have recovered my form, and things go from strength to strength. 5-1, 3-0, 4-2 – that kind of thing. I’ve shot up to second place just behind Manchester United, the only team to have beaten me in the league so far.
The next D1 cup tie is a few weeks away. I’ll complete my ECC qualifying group games first. In my next match I played Toulouse at their ground and won 1-5. That was very satisfying indeed after they beat me at mine. And the result has pushed me straight to the top of the group table, albeit on goal difference. But still, I’ll take it.
It’s worth noting that Toulouse’s left-back in this game was… Mathieu. The same Mathieu whom I have courted like an anxious lover for most of the past six seasons. The same Mathieu who has snubbed me every time. He had the sheer cheek to score Toulouse’s goal in this game. It was a meaningless strike from a free kick (of course) when I was already 4-0 up. But it still pained me. Curse you Mathieu!
With one game to go in the ECC group, against PSV, it looks like I could get away with a draw and still qualify, whatever the result in the Toulouse-Marseille fixture. But I don’t trust PES2008 not to swindle me out of my Treble dream somehow. I’ll be going all-out for the win. Going for the win ftw…
Looks like you’re well on your way to qualification. Don’t worry. You’ve pulled if off. As for Mathieu, screw him. You have Guimarães (he’s an RB not an LB, I know), and Kaiser and Bradley. All of them better than the blonde French guy. I’ve seen him play in real life, and he’s totally overrated in the game.;-)
With Mathieu it’s a sentimental, traditional thing for me to get him in Master League. That’s the only reason I’ve been mad-keen to sign him. If I was going to play this one career all year (like I’ve done in the past), I’d snap him up aged 17 in the Youth list in six or seven seasons’ time. He usually develops from that point into the greatest player in the world ever.
It’s probably for the best that I’ve missed out on him this time. If – IF – I win the Treble this season, it’s all over. I start again afresh. This Master League team’s days are numbered.
“Of all the cheesy puns I’ve come up with for my post titles, that’s got to be the cheesiest.”
^ I’m glad you said this, because now I don’t have to.
The gall of this Mathieu! To disrespect the rising power of Coventry City, and then have the nerve to add injury to insult. (Or really, just more insult to insult, since no harm was done.)
I hope that 3 or 4 of those 5 goals built up down his flank. Destroy him, then leave his team for dead en route to a historic season . . . that will teach him to snub you.
Crush the weak underfoot and hurdle the bodies of the dead! *FTW!*
Good to see you turning the season around after a few worrying moments. I just want to go back to a comment you made a couple of posts ago regarding the number of high scoring matches in the game.
This has been one of my big problems with the FIFA games in the past as it was simply a case of scoring 5 and hoping the opposition could only get 4. This year things seem to have swapped around with FIFA producing the hard fought 1-0 and 0-0 results while PES has gone all goal crazy on us.
Is it possible that Konami were trying to appeal to those who had previously played the FIFA games? If that is the case it’s quite a poor decision as all it has done is let down their fans who have been playing PES for years.
ck – I’ve been dipping into my FIFA08 manager mode game for half an hour or so now and then – compare and contrast and all that – and I’m sorely tempted to buy Mathieu in it (CCFC are a Big Four club in my bizarro FIFA08 world). If I do, I’ll leave the bugger on the bench.
stinger – the high scorelines in PES2008 are becoming too frequent to ignore any more. I no longer think it’s amazing and a great achievement to score a hatful of goals. I just think it’s routine, and I feel no achievement. FIFA08 matches on anything above semi-pro difficulty feature realistic scorelines. The pace of that game is slow and measured. It can feel stiff and awkward at times. PES2008 is the polar opposite in all respects – for better AND worse. FIFA08 is the simulation this year. PES2008 is the arcadey goalfest. I don’t see how anyone could claim anything different. I’ll be posting loads about this over the next week or two, and if – IF – I win the Treble, I’ll be playing FIFA08 for a few days or maybe even a week, and posting about it here.
I honestly can’t split the two for which one i find better this year. For a long while FIFA hasn’t even come close but this year PES’s many short comings mean it’s about even for me. I don’t see it as a good thing though. Instead of having what i feel is one outstanding game and one fairly average one we have two that sit smack bang in the middle.
I am being challenged like never before on FIFA and i am so far only playing on semi pro (although a lot of this is down to the poor players in my team, if i played with any of the top teams i can play on higher difficulties). It’s enjoyable but a couple of key things hurt it for me
1. The control issue which i have discussed before, if EA want to convert PES fans they need to allow the user to customise their own controls or have a setting available which is essentially the PES controls.
2. The manager mode is brilliant in all aspects bar 1. Not having contracts and instead allowing you to move to any club you choose at the end of each season. I always liked the idea of starting at an obscure club and building my reputation to get bigger and better jobs, now i can’t do this as i can choose to go wherever i want.
I’ve always found high scorelines were possible in ProEvo. Ive never played a ProEvo title without being able to put 8 or 9 goals past a team when I have the best players. Its not realistic to do it every week in reality, but the game uses statistics, and when you have a better team than the pc, you do end up battering them each and every week. I never got a huge result with the defaults (4 or 5 goals maybe once, luckily, because of an early haul plus late counters against 1/2/3 defenders).
anyway, mathieu isnt that great in this game i dont reckon. He was a master in the last edition (or was it 5? i cant remember, probably both). The benefit of you not having him in this ML is that you wont feel bad picking him up in the next ML, considering you said you dont want the same players (which will be hard to abide by, trust me – with the mid-season negotiations not offering many players on the cheap and schwarz etc available on the free, you will be highly tempted).
im owning with my original ML team. Torres upfront is absolutely racking up the goals. Im top of everything, and the huge 2games per week thing hasnt knocked me. the 2nd ML with great teams is going ok, im about 4th in the league, 10games in, havent lost yet. Had to bring in cheapo replacements for the poor players one starts with (its a good idea to advance search for players who’s wages are between 1 and 400 points and trade)
stinger – I hate it that FIFA08 makes you use R2 for sprint. This is one of the main reasons why I find it impossible to play both games at the same time (not literally at the same time, of course – I mean separately on the same day!)
When I eventually get round to FIFA08 week it’ll be a full-on comparison to PES2008. At this stage I don;t know which one will ‘win’. It’s been over a month since I played FIFA intensively.
david – I’ve never found high scorelines to be routine in PES. It’s one of the reasons people always cited for PES being innately superior to FIFA. “PES is like real football, you can’t score 5 goals every game. FIFA is a stupid arcade game!” – that kind of thing has been adorning fan forums for many years now. Not this year. You’d have to play FIFA08 to see just what they’ve done with it this year (***next-gen FIFA08 ONLY! PS2 and PC versions are ‘last-gen’***).
Someone over on PESfan posted the other day that FIFA08 plays the same way that PES used to play, and he only half-heartedly got flamed for it. It doesn’t, of course – Stinger got it spot-on above when he says that in real terms both PES2008 and FIFA08 are average games, all in all.
But FIFA08 plays closer to classic PES than PES2008 does. It hurts but it’s true. This doesn’t automatically make it a better game. FIFA08 has a ton of faults all of its own. The question is: which game’s faults are worse?
If I was a betting man I’d put everything I have on me playing PES5 – or the PSP version of PES2008 – for the rest of the year after this PES2008 Master League and the one after (the Superleague ML) are done with.