Osasuna rather than later
Of course, the pun in the post title depends on Osasuna being pronounced ‘oss-a-sooner’—which it probably isn’t, I know. I’ve had this debate with myself before, about whether it’s wise to pun on foreign team names when pronunciation rules for languages differ so widely. But I’ll go for it anyway.
I’ve lost again in the league to Osasuna. Hence their prominence today. That’s two seasons in a row that they’ve inflicted damaging defeats on me. Last season they took away my unbeaten status. That happened late in the season, after I’d conceived the notion of how grand it would be to go unbeaten through the whole season. So it hurt quite a bit. This season, my unbeaten status was already gone—it ended after a couple of games—so it hurts a lot less being beaten by Osasuna now. But still—it’s them, again. They’re supposed to be one of the league’s minnows, down there near the foot of the table. What is going on with Osasuna?
This season their defeat of me has left me slightly marooned in fourth place. I’m five points off the top. It’s a bit worrying to see Valencia emerge as the pace-setters at this stage. The last time they were in contention, they romped away with the title. I wouldn’t want to let the gap between them and me grow any bigger. It’s slightly concerning, but at least I’m not even halfway through the season. There’s plenty of time to make up the difference. And to get revenge against Osasuna. Are they some kind of bogey team?
Many a frustrated PES player has noted the ability of the so-called lesser teams to frustrate the human player in ways that the supposed big teams almost never do. The pattern is always the same. They get themselves an early goal. From that point on, the whole match is about you laying siege to their penalty area, but somehow never quite breaking through. You hit the post, the bar, the post again; their keeper pulls off miracle saves for fun; your ace strikers blast tap-ins into row Z. Either the game finishes 1-0 to the minnows, or they grab themselves another goal on a breakaway and make it 2-0—and then you’re allowed to score a goal yourself (how very strange!), making it 2-1, but then the game ends…
My sentiments exactly. Thats an odd script feature, i must say, totally illogical. Or maybe, to add to the “exitement & suspence”, Konami decided to let small teams surprise-beat you, but it happens far too often to be considered a “surprise”.
As for the pun-of-a-title, I found it rather amusing. However, it is just the inhabitants of the England, Australia and N.Zealand who would pronounce it with that final ” r “.
GL for the remainder of season 2016.
heyendo30 – thanks for the good wishes for the rest of the season. I’m going to need the top teams to slip up now that I’ve lost a few games. It’s annoying when that happens because you’re always watching for other results.
Regarding the pronunciation of the final ‘r’ in ’sooner’, I’d say that most English-speakers would not pronounce it with a final ‘r’. Most would say soon-UH, not soon-URR. E.g., the ‘r’ sound in ’sooner’ is the same as the ‘a’ sound at the end of ‘America’ (a-meh-rick-UH).
That final ‘UH’ sound is known as a schwa in the International Pronunciation guide thing. It’s a schwa that comes at the end of a word like sooner for most English-speakers. Only in parts of North America and some parts of Ireland and Scotland would they roll the final ‘r’ and make it into soon-URR. Even then it’d only be very, very slight and almost indistinguishable, really, from the non-rolled ‘r’.
This whole area is one of my interests – I once considered teaching English overseas and took an ESOL course where I had to learn all this stuff and I’ve kept an interest in it ever since.
It’s good to see that the game is still giving you problems and a worthwhile season! Imagine if your winning the European Cup every year, at least PES keeps it challenging- even if it must cheat in doing so!
You have turned me into a 4-3-3 player by the way! I was always 4-4-2 with two side midlfielders/wingers, but after reading the weblog months ago, I tried 4-3-3 and realised it suited my play more!
I tried to go back to Pro Evo online tonight and was turned off in two matches. UEFA is ten times the game next gen PES is, minus club teams and all. There is really no comparison after 3 days of FIFA.
Not Given – I think it’s great that you’re loving UEFA2008. I bet you still flinch automatically whenever you think that you quite like an EA football game now!
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing so. We have to recognise the truth and face up to facts. PES was lacking this year and EA stepped up their game with an all-new football sim. I played the UEFA2008 demo this morning and it was sublime. If only it had club teams! I played it immediately after a few games on FIFA08, and believe me, you really notice the gameplay tweaks. The shooting on UEFA is tons better. You’ve probably thought about getting FIFA08 as well for the sake of the club play in manager mode etc. (it’s got to be <£20 by now? pre-owned?) but try the demo first to see if you can stand the slower gameplay and slightly wonkier shooting.
Pre-March I’d played hundreds of games on FIFA08 but drifted away from it because the PSP/PS2 version of PES2008 came along and grabbed me with its classic PES gameplay. I’ll primarily be playing PES2008 for the next few months, but I’ve decided to play FIFA at least a few times a week as well. Even with its problems it’s still a great game – easily better than next-gen PES2008 IMO, and on a par with the current-gen one in terms of immersion and enjoyment.