Lucky to get nil
Posted by: Greg Downs in D2 Cup, negotiations, psp, tags: D2 Cup, negotiation period, pspIn the first leg of the Division 2 Cup, I was (in my humblest opinion) unluckily beaten by my new bogey team, Valenciennes.
I was 1-0 up until near the end. It was so near the end, in fact, that they would have to score, and then immediately get the ball and score again, to beat me.
I remember taking a look at the game clock, congratulating myself on being 1-0 up, and thinking: Hah. You’ve only got time for two attacks, maximum. You’ll have to score right now, and then score again straight after, to win… And that’s exactly what happened. Doh.
I’ve been struggling with PES2008. The PSP/PS2 version is a lot different to the PS3 version that I’ve been playing for the past 5 months. They really are completely different games—and the next-gen version comes off worse in comparison.
I didn’t have much hope for the second leg of the tie. Playing at Valenciennes’ ground, I started out well enough. I passed well and had some quality possession. I didn’t do much with it, but I was keeping, ah, them (I’m not typing out ‘Valenciennes’ any more than I have to) quiet.
Then I went 1-0 down.
Oh, well. Never mind. Nothing had really changed. If I could score two goals I’d take it to extra time. I carried on playing the way I’d been playing, which was very well. At one point I got the ball in the centre of my own defence and started passing it around. And passing it around, and passing it around. I put together a ten-man passing move that would have culminated in my greatest-ever goal in PES—if the attempted finish, from Elmander, hadn’t flashed just wide of the far post.
Then I conceded another goal. I was 2-0 down on the day, and 4-1 down on aggregate.
Hmmm. Well. All I needed were three goals, three away goals, and I’d go through. It wasn’t even half-time yet. This was totally feasible
Before half time came I was 3-0 down.
It was all over. But Fate decided to lend me a hand—or it tried to. I was playing this match on the PSP during my lunch break at work. I went to put my PSP down on the seat next to me while I reached forward to get my sandwich from the table. However, I tried to do both things at once, and ended up dropping my PSP on the floor. It fell about a foot, I’d say, and clattered face-down on the hard linoleum (Eh? Linoleum? Surely not—do I work in the 1950s or something? It was a hard floor. I have no idea what was covering it.)
No real damage was done. The battery compartment popped open, and snapped shut again without a problem. However…. The PSP reset itself. The 3-0 scoreline was no more! I could reload from my last save, pre-game, and play the whole match again from the start.
No, I didn’t do it on purpose. And anyway: I lost the second attempt 4-0, with a performance that was even worse than the first…
Things are not going well. I also lost the next league game. Then the mid-season negotiations came. I put all my remaining Default players on the transfer market. The CPU came in to buy Valeny, and offered me a really great DMF/CMF/SMF/AMF called Ayhan Akman in part-exchange for Ceciu. I took the CPU’s virtual hand off.
I couldn’t buy anyone else who was good. To be honest, I didn’t try very hard. I think that I’ve got a good squad and an adequate First XI. I can wait until the end of the season to pick up some more players.
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