How do you say Getafe? 15
One of my pre-season friendlies was against a team called Getafe. But how is that pronounced? And which syllable do you stress? Get-AFF? Get-AFF-ay? Gee-TAYF? Gee-TAY-fee? I say Get-AFF. It’s probably wrong.
Come to think of it, how do you say Barota? (I say Ba-ROTTER.) Nachdegall? (Nash-di-GAL.) Ceciu? (SESS-you.) Huylens? (HI-lunz.) There are dozens of such names sprinkled throughout the PESverse. Hey, I sense a special post coming up in the future.
Shimizu? (Shim-ITZ-oo.)
OK, I’ll save it all for that special post. Back to the game.
None of my new players look great. Their stats are on the low-average side, with a couple of exceptions (Recoba and Morfeo). Still, they’re all better than the Default players by a country mile (and then some). But I doubt that any of them will be taking on teams single-handedly next season as The Elch used to….
I’ll be taking special close-up looks at individual players’ stats in the future. It’s an area I’ve neglected in the past.
Here’s a curiosity. Take a look at these mugshots of two of my new players – Matuzalem (left), and Kmolo (right):
They could be brothers. Twin brothers. Kmolo has an extra bit of fringe, and he sports a goatee beard that makes him look as if he’s Matuzalem in a parallel, evil universe. Otherwise, they’re clearly the same player model. Only facially, though. Matuzalem is a midfield whippet. Kmolo is a tall, bulky, classic centre-forward in the Schwarz mould. They’re both among the best of my new crop of players. Both had to go into my First XI. Speaking of which…
I’ve been spelling Libermann wrong all this time. When putting together my First XI list just now, I noticed my mistake and corrected it. Oops.
Anyways, my full squad for season 2008 is thus -
I’ve achieved pretty much all of my House Rule goals at a stroke – the squad size is 25 players, there are at least 5 Default players still in the squad (in fact there are 10), and at least 1 Default player is in the starting line-up. There are no Elcherino-style super-players.
My First XI:
As ever, this First XI is hilariously provisional. It wasn’t even the team I sent out onto the pitch in my first pre-season game.
When I finished last season I was in such a hurry to get it over with and – as I thought – walk away from PES2008 for a long time (or forever), that I simply accepted the first pre-season selections the game presented me with. In this case the teams were Getafe CF and a World Selection.
Things started pretty well against Getafe.
I held them off with what felt like ease… You never can tell when you’re playing PES, or any football game, or sometimes any computer game full stop, whether you are really the one controlling matters or if the game has simply decided to let you do something at this present moment for its own narrative purposes. It’s a feeling I’ve always had to some extent over the last few versions of PES. I cannot shake it off in this particular year for some reason….
I was doing very well, and then I scored. Camacho got me the goal. What to say about this player? He’ll be the first player whose stats and abilities I’ll look at in-depth (next week sometime). Camacho is plainly going to be a star – and, now that I’ve implemented the House Rules, I’m worried about him. What if he becomes too much of a star and I have to move him on? This is why I was so reluctant to return to PES2008 with draconian House Rules.
I won a penalty – a rare enough event – but knew that Morfeo would miss it wherever I chose to hit it. And Morfeo did miss it. I merely flicked the analogue stick to the right and tapped shoot. All very gentle, but it was no good. The ball hit the post, but it rebounded to Camacho…
I love a finish like that – booted into an ‘impossible’ section of the net (the underside of the roof of the net!), and then the shooter falling down under the defender’s hefty challenge. (Would I have got another penalty if I hadn’t scored? Would I hell.)
Getafe stormed back. They mounted consistent pressure but couldn’t get through my defence. I really know how to defend now, if I may say so myself.
Finally they got a free-kick about 25 yards out… and scored. Of course they did. A minute later they got another free kick in almost the same place – and scored this one as well. It ended 2-1 to Getafe. I had to laugh.
My second and last pre-season game before the season started was against a World Selection that featured the likes of Adriano, Ronaldo, Ronaldo (both Ronaldos), and Owen. They thumped me 3-0. So much for my defending. I was kind of lucky to get nil. I barely had a kick of the ball. It might well be another long, hard season ahead.
I enjoyed playing with my new players. More, I enjoyed playing PES2008. After several days of playing FIFA08, it felt a lot like coming home again.
The core PES gameplay has never been bettered as an overall football game experience. Over an entire decade it has stood up. Sure, this year’s next-gen flavour is a little sickly-sweet for my tastes, but it’s still there. It’s still PES.