Coventry City 9, Sunderland 0 Comments Off
Well, this is one way to put your bogey team in their place.
Nine goals in one game isn’t unprecedented for me in PES. I managed it once or twice in previous years. I remember one game in PES5 that I won 9-1. I had Veron in my team back then and he scored four of the goals. But…
In regards to PES2008, for the past several weeks I’ve had a certain sinking feeling lurking at the back of my mind and in the pit of my stomach.
While I was still getting to grips with the game I read forum posts on PESfan and elsewhere saying that the game was too easy and it was routine to get 5+ goals in every game. I never took much notice. I’m just an average player, I thought. I’ll be all right.
If this turns out to be the norm – if I discover that scorelines of 4-1, 5-2, 6-3, 9-0 etc. are commonplace for me in PES2008 – then the game might as well be dead to me. The only way I could continue playing Master League would be to handicap myself with some pretty restrictive house rules. I’ve kind of done this before, back in PES4. I also found that game relatively easy for a PES title.
But all of this is somewhat jumping the gun. I’ve had one 9-0 result. One swallow does not a summer make, and so forth. At this relatively early stage the jury is still out, but it’s walking toward the jury room door and Henry Fonda has nothing to say…
Back at that Sunderland game, Schwarz scored six of my 9 goals. Here’s his sixth goal, set up by a nice back-heel from Andy Cole:
In two other league games from this period I beat Arsenal 2-1 and Helsingborg 5-2. I all but sleepwalked through the latter match. Hmmm.
It’s frustrating not to have hit top spot again yet. Manchester United simply refuse to lose. As soon as they do, with my formidable goal difference, I’ll be there.
Man Yoo, myself, and Arsenal are slightly pulling away from the rest. I’d prefer a two-horse race to the title. It’s more clear-cut. It’d leave me some spare attention to concentrate on the Cups. Speaking of which…
The final match in the pre-tournament ECC qualifying group ended PSV 0, Coventry City 1.
It was a tight, tense game. I knew a draw would see me through, but a defeat would be disastrous, and while it was 0-0 I was always in danger.
It stayed 0-0 until the 80th minute. Every time PSV attacked I thought: this is it, PES2008 is about to mug me. But I held firm. Mattsson soothed my nerves in the 80th minute with a firm headed goal from a corner. I finished top of the group in the end. I would have qualified in second place on goal difference even if I had lost the PSV game.
The Treble is still alive. I did my level best to sabotage the campaign before it had properly started. I have dug myself out of a giant hole that was all of my own making. Never again. I’ve got a very welcome run of just one league game per week for a couple of weeks, and then I’ll start playing in a new group in the ECC competition proper, and the next round of the D1 Cup will also get underway. I plan to take great care.
My performances in the Cups so far have been eccentric to say the least. I played the first three games of the ECC thinking I had won just by turning up. I wasn’t just flirting with disaster – I was French-kissing it whilst stroking its thighs. Never again.
(p.s. I have to work over the weekend so we’re back to one post per day until Monday – then it’ll be two/three posts per day through to the big finish!)