PES Chronicles

Sparta Rotterdam 1-4 Coventry City

Ah. Now this was more like it. I needed this game. I was starting to get worried. I also needed this goal:

Sergio Garcia applies the finish. The replay clip doesn’t show the build-up, which was a fluid six-man passing move through midfield. This is definitely my favourite goal I’ve scored on PES2008 so far—including on the now-permanently-rejected ‘next-gen’ version.

In many ways it was similar to the kinds of goals I used to revel in scoring on PES5. I think this is one of the main reasons why I’ve taken such a shine to PES2008 on the PSP/PS2.

I also enjoyed scoring the above goal because I scored it while playing on the PSP, using the infamous analogue nub, which I would always prefer to use over the D-pad. I’m strange that way.

For the rest of this PES year you’ll always be able to tell instantly which console I’m playing on, because with the PSP you can see the faint reflection of my mobile phone in the screen, like this:

It was a great game overall for my team. Although I’m still getting bewildered and annoyed by the CPU automatically getting the ball back after I’ve put in good tackles. This ‘feature’ actually seems worse in the last-gen version than in the PS3 version. Still, it’s a relatively minor niggle, and I’m hoping that when I get better defenders I’ll enjoy a better bounce of the ball around the box.

Podolski got two of the other goals. Both of them were headers from Garcia crosses. Sergio Garcia had quite a game. (Have I mentioned how much I love his goal yet?)

These players are good but they’re not great. Not even Podolski is great yet, but he will be. Maldini and Couto are coming along nicely. Next season is going to be my season for promotion, I think.