Dicing with death
After taking on Chelsea on the opening day and beating them comfortably, I had another Championship six-pointer against Manchester United. This one went against me.
I was the away side. It was 0-2 to me before half an hour was over. Then Man Yoo switched on their razzle-dazzle, and my players wilted like men of straw.
The manner of the defeat rocked me back on my heels even further than the setbacks in the European Cup. I had my full First XI out. The players were mainly fully-fit and in good form (orange and red arrows all round). I started well, sure: two good goals from Schwarz and Beerens. But then I was steamrollered in the second half.
In the next league match I ‘only’ managed to draw against Liverpool. I was looking for the win – pretty desperately looking for it – and nearly threw the point away whilst doing so. In PES2008, the CPU teams are at their most dangerous on the counter-attack. This is particularly true following a corner against them. Liverpool almost won the game several times in that way. At the end I felt lucky not to have lost badly.
I’ve fallen to my lowest league position for two seasons. The wheels haven’t come off my league campaign just yet. But they are wobbling slightly. It’s far too early to run a warm bath and break out the razor blades, but it’s affecting my confidence, and in turn my performances.
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The Treble, though, is still on. Just.
The second leg of the D1 Cup first round tie against Newcastle was the most amazing, incredible, nerve-wracking match I have yet played on PES2008.
I lost the first leg 2-3 at home, remember, and approached the second leg with a certain feeling of Doom. This feeling was not alleviated when Newcastle quickly went into a 2-0 lead, as I again panickily raced around the pitch trying to get myself five goals in the first ten minutes or something.
That would seem to have been that as far as the pesky Treble was concerned. It was all over. Wasn’t it?
No. Not quite yet. I got one back before half time. Beerens, my pre-season signing, has been pretty damn good for me so far. He’s got a couple of goals in the league. He played in this cup match, and I scored with him before half time to give me a slender hope. 2-1.
It was still 5-3 on aggregate to Newcastle. I needed two goals just to get to extra time.
In the second half I pulled out all the stops, and had chance after chance. Newcastle counter-attacked dangerously. I lived on the edge at the back as I threw everything forward. Alan Smith raced clear around the 60th minute. Bramble was nearby, just behind and to the side. I sprinted him across as best I could (‘Bramble’ and ’sprinting’ do not sit well together). I thought I had the angle and the positioning to execute a slide tackle. So I did. But I missed the ball and brought down Smith when he would have been clean through. Red card for Bramble, and I was down to ten men.
I still felt I had a chance. I’ve won games easily before with ten men. Never mind that this was Newcastle in the Cup. I could do it. I rejigged my formation. Instead of bringing off a striker for a defender, I rearranged the remaining three defenders into a classic back three and just went for it with a 3-3-3. I got my reward soon after with a goal from Andy Cole. 2-2! But there were only ten minutes of the game left…
Then I only went and made things even harder for myself by getting another player sent off. Bradley this time. I slid in on a Newcastle player in midfield as I was trying desperately to get the ball back, and the resulting foul was deemed a red card offence. Curse you Seabass!
I didn’t bother trying to rearrange my formation this time. To hell with it. 3-2-3 or bust.
By the 90th minute I had more or less given up. I was already preparing my brave face for this here blog. Then a loose ball broke to Beerens on the edge of the box and I took a shot… Goal.
2-3 to me, a mirror image of the first leg scoreline. With the last kick of the 90 minutes. Somehow, I had clawed my way back. Don’t ask me how. It felt more than a little odd at the time. If the game was scripted in my favour, so what. I was too busy punching the air. Bless you Seabass…
In extra time, I was more cautious with my play. I took off a striker and rearranged my defence into an orthodox back four. I pulled my two midfielders back as deep as they could go. I left my strikers up front, hoping to pick up scraps. I was by no means settling for a penalty shootout. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t concede again. I’d rather go out on penalties than go out by conceding a soft goal after all my efforts to get back into the tie.
Extra time was tough. It was a grim battle against fatigue and error, my players’ and my own (this was all taking place at 3 a.m. in the real world). Newcastle pressed constantly but somehow never quite got through. Whenever I got the ball I had few outlets up front or in midfield. The ball always came right back at me. I carved out a few opportunities but missed them all. So, fortunately, did Newcastle.
Penalties. I scored all five of mine. Newcastle missed one of theirs. I was through to the next round.
It felt good.
I know. The coin-toss of a penalty shootout happened to go my way instead of the CPU’s way. I’ve seen my players in penalty shootouts on PES blaze the ball high over the bar or at a post for no real reason too many times to believe that there was any actual skill involved on my part. I was just happy to be through.
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For the Treble to be still on, I had to win all three of my remaining games in the European Championships qualifying group. I’d lost two and drawn one of the opening ties. I was bottom of the group.
Here in stoppage time at the end of a somewhat overlong post (that Newcastle game was just epic), I’ll keep it short, sweet, and simple: I took on Marseille at home and trounced them 4-1. This was on the back of the D1 Cup result. I was on a high. I went into the Marseille game knowing I could and should and would win it easily. And I did.
The qualifying group table still makes for uncomfortable viewing. It’s very disappointing to be bottom with two games to go. But those points totals next to the teams’ names are bunching up nicely.
When I moved back to Kansas and started supporting the Wizards (Kansas...
Oh, come on, don’t leave us hanging here. I KNOW you’ve already played the rest of the ECC first stage matches. Just tell us if you went through or not!
On the subject of playing with 10 men, I’ve noticed that, at least in this version of the game, it’s not always necessary to rearrange your formation. Players either run a bit more to cover the spaces or the opposition is too dumb to capitalize on the lack of a player. It always seems like your team plays better when you’re down to ten. On the other hand, this year the CPU rearranges THEIR formation whenever they have a player sent off, whereas on PES6, the comp didn’t bother with that at all, and that was when I got my highest scores. I’d just position a player to get long balls right where they’d had lost their man.
Speaking of red cards, if you look at the previous post, you’ll see my comment about the ECC final, but I forgot to mention there and then that when we went into Extra Time, Bayern made their last substitution shortly before I got a brilliant through ball to my striker clean on goal, and their keeper (Cech, surprisingly) fouled me while trying to stop the ball. I was very scheptical when he got sent off, and I made a bet with myself that their keeper/striker (Schlaudraff) would be better than Oliver Kahn, but the opposite happened. I score 5 times in Extra Time..
Woah. That was an epic Cup match. You know, there may be some life left in the old dog yet. If PES2008 can give you that kind of game and the general run of results you’ve had this season, it might be worth playing on!
mirandinha – You’re right, I’ve finished the qualifiers… I’ll be posting another post later tonight (6th Dec).
It’s been a few years, but I seem to remember one of the PS1 versions of ISS (might have been ISS 98) where I often went down to 10 men and 9 men, and I ALWAYS seemed to play better. Playing online last week I was up against someone who got a player sent off early and he never plugged the gap in his midfield, and the game didn’t do it for him.
Sooner or later this blog will enter a different phase featuring more general articles about PES gameplay (past and present) – as I originally had in mind when I started it. A good general article about coping with 10 men or 9 men would be a good ‘un I think. If/when the time comes I’ll brazenly steal everything from the comments here and from PES forums
(I’ve responded to your comment about your Treble in that other post.)
ck – there’s plenty of life left in PES2008 yet, but that doesn’t detract from any of the negatives surrounding it this year. The Newcastle game was immense, though – one of the most memorable single matches of Pro Evo I have ever played.