The anatomy of a PES goal
Posted by: not-Greg in Camacho, European Cup (ECC), goal replay, league table, tags: Camacho, European Cup (ECC), goal replay, league tableSometimes, individual goals can change seasons—or save them, which amounts to the same thing. Sometimes, one moment of inspiration can make the difference between winning and ‘only’ drawing a game, between 3 points and 1 point.
In the league, my form has carried on much as before. I’m still winning more than I’m losing, but a couple of expensive draws are keeping me down in 3rd place, as the blurry picture below will testify. I don’t know why my hand shakes so much sometimes…
The European Championships group phase has started. and it’s started badly. My group opponents are Benfica, Sochaux, and Barcelona (again with the Barcelona… that’s two seasons in a row that they’ve been in my Euro group).
Benfica beat me 2-1. Ouch. They were 2-0 up and holding me at bay with ease. In the 75th minute I pulled one back with Schwarz, but it was too late. I tried my best, and chased after the ball like a madman, but after I’d scored that one goal I barely got another kick. Isn’t it odd how the CPU team can just maddeningly hold onto the ball when you want to get it off them the most? Most amusing to me are those instances when you do win the ball, fair and square, but you’re obviously not ’supposed’ to win it—and the game forces your player(s) through a few animation ‘frames of no control’, automated sequences that you cannot interrupt, enabling the CPU to retrieve possession. Rant ends.
It was a bad start to the group phase. I’m going for the Treble this season (as ever) and I can’t afford any more slip-ups. So imagine my deep chagrin when, in the second group game against Sochaux, it was looking like a 0-0 all the way. It was just one of those games—the ball mired in midfield, none of my wingplay coming to fruition, none of my few shots troubling the keeper. By the 85th minute I’d more or less accepted the draw, and was focused on not conceding a ‘traditional late winner’ to the CPU…
Then it happened. Camacho had had a quiet game in the DMF position (Bradley was unfit). He got the ball just inside the centre circle, played a one-two with Komol, and rifled the ball into the net. Here’s the original view:
A lot was happening there. First, there was the decision to play a one-two rather than take Camacho on a solo dribble. My playing style is strictly pass and move. It’s not that I’m not anti-dribbling in PES. I’m just not very good at it. I can beat one player easily enough, but then I’ll run into trouble after getting excited. (This is not the time or the place to start talking about the dribblefest that is the PS3 version. Suffice to say: meh.)
Having initiated the one-two with Komol, my next decision was what to do next. I don’t think I ever return one-two passes straightaway. I always hold onto the ball for at least a second or two, waiting to see if the passer will run on into a better kind of space. One with less opposition players around him, and more space in front of him.
That’s where Camacho got to on this occasion. Komol had held up the ball for what felt like a long time. Mostly in PES2008, that’s just asking to be swarmed by the CPU. I got away with it this time, and played it back to Camacho, completing the one-two.
Now he sprinted on with the ball for another stride, two strides. That space in front of him was suddenly being filled by an oncoming CPU defender. That’s another thing about PES2008: the way defenders will suddenly just be there, racing at you from off-screen. And the two chasing defenders were catching up. Three enemy players, incoming.
With a few virtual yards of space just ahead of me, I knew that the time to do something with the ball—pass, or shoot—was now. If I delayed any further, even though it looked like I still had time, the defender(s) would be upon me before I could take action. So what should I do?
I was only ever going to SHOOT, here. I had the shot cued up even before Camacho had recieved the ball back from Komol. The likelihood of me trying to take on the defender and/or fake-shoot and shimmy past him, was literally 0%. I really do just play pass and move. It’s all shamefully true.
Viewed from pitch-level, the first thing that strikes me is just how long I hold up the ball with Komol. It seems to be an age. An unimaginable length of time. The return pass finds Camacho and he takes it in his stride (his impressive stats coming to the fore)—and then he seems to have more time than I remember in which to take on a weirdly stationary defender. Hmmm. For some reason, in the original view (and at the time of playing it ‘live’), that defender had seemed to be running full tilt at me.
The shot, when it comes, is indeed rifled into the corner. The keeper had no chance. And that was that. I won the game 1-0. Sochaux went on a token run up the pitch and almost shocked me with an instant equaliser, but I held them off. That Camacho goal could be a massive goal for my season.
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I think I could play unlimited seasons on top player and I would never get to the point were I could win the treble every season. Nice goal!
I bought Euro 2008. In the shop FIFA 08 was just slightly cheaper so I may as well get the more refined gameplay. I am looking forward to a few online games were (hopefully) wonder dribbling Ronaldos are not possible!
I really hope you get on well with the full UEFA2008 game. I’ve been semi-deliberately avoiding chatter about it on the internet because I don’t want to tempt myself into spending the money on a game without club football. I plan to get it when the price drops to under £20.
If the online setup is anything like FIFA08’s, you’ll find it to be technically flawless. Konami take note!
Well the first match was an epic! It was on 20 mins per half which is sadly the maximum and on the default Professional Difficulty.
I made it Portugal vs Spain- me being Spain of course. The first half was just getting used to the game, it ended with me trailing 2-0, but I had chances. In the second half I was up against a brick wall until I brought on David Villa. I got it back to 2-2 and was happy with that making a few defensive subs (it was a qualifying game). In the end I got a corner, and with the whistling hostile crowd begging the referee to end it, I bagged a last minute header goal with Torres!
I think professional is the difficulty I will stick with for now, but the long matches make it even more fun. I know what your saying about the wasted money, but since I have not bought FIFA 08 this year, I think I can get away with it! But the EA engine has convinced me! Far more a footballing sim than PES this year.
Sounds like you’re having a great time with it, I’m really jealous! Oh, and I hear that the UEFA2008 online equivalent of Barcelona is France.
I just checked on Play.com, Amazon etc and it’s still going at full whack, £40 - unsurprisingly as the tournament hasn’t even started yet. On eBay the cheapest I could get if for is about £25 (from A Dodgy Seller, Esq.) but even that’s too steep for me. I do already have FIFA08, so it seems like a lot to pay for essentially the same game only without club football!
I trust you’re already playing with PES-style controls. But are you using the manual controls? That’s something I don’t think I’ve ever talked about on this blog - you can alter the controls to take full manual control of everything, passing, through-balls, shooting. I tried it once on FIFA08 and it’s ridiculously hard, but some players swear by it. Nowadays I use a mixture - Automatic passing and Semi-Assisted shooting.
You’ve inspired me to go and have a few games of FIFA08 later on. I’ll definitely check on the 45 minute half thing then, but it’s likely the same as UEFA, 20 mins max.
Yeah you are right, I wouldn’t spend that with FIFA 08 either! Maybe if you have a few games to trade in?
Some may call me insane though, that was my gaming money for the month! In other words it was this or GTA 4. I am happy with my decision though, GTA is not the best game in the world for me as it is with others for some reason.
Anyway this is what happened in my first Tournament. I started from the group stages with Spain on professional. My group was made up of Russia, Greece and Sweden. I played Russia first which was a very even game. There were few chances except near the end both teams seemed to wake up and come alive. It was end to end for the last 5 minutes, both of us hitting the bar. 0-0 it finished, and a fair result.
Next came Sweden in a ridiculous game! It finished 3-3 with Sweden taking the lead every time! It felt like a win at the end as it was such a tough game. With only 2 points it worked out that I needed to win the next game. Obviously because of their previous Euro win EA has rated Greece so well. They destroyed me, the final score was 2-0 it could have been 5. I had about 2 shots on target all game, they were completely unplayable.
So out in the group stages. Great start.
By the way if you ever do get the game, maybe get it for 360? It is cheaper for it and we could have the odd game online.
I was looking at the 360 version as I kind of feel I neglect my 360 and the games are usually quicker to drop in price, so yes, if I ever do get it it should be for the 360.
Re. GTA4, you’re not missing a great deal. Maybe I’m just too old now and/or the memory of the sublime Vice City has spoiled me for all other GTA games, but GTA4 lacks atmosphere. I never really loved San Andreas either. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a very good game. The next-gen Liberty City is amazing. But it’s not the stonkin’ 10/10 Triple-A title the gaming press has painted it as. The soundtrack is absolutely awful. I’ve always thought that without an outstanding soundtrack, GTA is just a very good action adventure game, and that’s all this is. It’s not the most unbelievably brilliant best game in the whole world EVER… I’ve spent more time since I got it playing Monster Hunter 2 on my PSP, which says it all.
No doubt I agree with you. I loved GTA 3 for a while and played a bit of Vice City, but I didn’t like San Andreas at all. GTA seems to get an inhuman amount of hype now, it is guarnteed to be the biggest selling game every new release.
I have been playing Euro all night, slowly getting better! I like the way the game is quite slow but near the end when either team needs to score it gets really fast! I also like chosing how my players close down the other team, it adds to the tactical side- which is very important in this game. The smaller sides are by far the hardest to play against. I beat Germany 3-1 comfortably because they attacked me, but teams like Russia are so hard to score against.
Had my first online game, no hint of lag which was good. I picked Northern Ireland and he Romania- he stuffed me 4-1. I was terrible, he just knew the game more than me. This will be the best when the game is challenging on Legend, where I win and lose in equal measure. Shooting is hard to get used too, I haven’t scored anything from outside the box yet, but the best goal was similar to your FIFA volley except MUCH closer to the goal! I can see this game getting a lot of play time from me, especially that I am playing 20 minute each way matches, and getting 1-1 scorelines- thats a great sign. As the FIFA I remember would have been 21-15 or something stupid like that.
What in the hell just happened??!! I must have done something to anger the people at EA?!! On the equivalent difficulty of regular or 3 stars in PES (professional) FIFA just embarrassed and tore me apart. I was England playing against Scotland and I lost 8-1?! How does that even happen……………
Apparently Naysmith is Pato/Bojan/Ronaldinho/Maradona and Pele all rolled into one god like vision of footballing genius, and can tear teams apart by himself.
Not Given - no, Professional on FIFA is not the equivalent of Regular/3 stars on PES! It’s the equivalent of just below Top Player. Just because it’s the middle of 5 difficulty levels, doesn’t mean at all that they’re the same.
Despite all of the sim-like qualities, it’s still a computer game at heart and will punish you hard if given the chance. Your experience reminds me of getting thumped 5-0 by Accrington Stanley in my first Manager Mode game on FIFA08. I’d drop down to Semi-Pro for a bit if I were you. The difficulty levels just aren’t the same as PES ones. Amateur, the lowest, is still a pretty tough game.
Also it sounds like the game still has the ultra-annoying keepball script. Do the CPU players still run into the corners and get their crosses over no matter what you do?
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