Mother Hubbard’s trophy cupboard
Posted by: not-Greg in Real Madrid, Valencia, league table, tags: league table, Real Madrid, ValenciaThe end of season 2017 turned out to be more or less a carbon copy of the end of season 2016. After a pretty poor season for Coventry City it seemed that the team at the top of the table, the superb Valencia (one of the most fearsomely good AI teams that I’ve ever played against in PES), were going to streak away with the league title. I was scraping wins and scrambling around for draws and taking unexpected defeats. I trailed miserably in their wake. It seemed all over with about 5 games to go. But when it comes to the story of a Master League season, I’ve always found that the game has other ideas.
Sure enough, I picked up results in the last few games. Valencia dropped a ton of points almost for the first time all season, enabling me to get within striking distance before the final fixture. Yeah right, as they say. Hmmm, etc. Oh, well. There’s no need for me to be churlish. I’m playing a game, after all. I love the game, and I don’t have to play it. I could always play another game, or go and read a book (imagine that!), if it annoys me so much. Lately I’m really, really trying to see PES for what it is, not for what I wish it would be. I wish it was a little slower-paced (yes, like FIFA08). I wish its scripting wasn’t so blatant and in-your-face. But it’s still the franchise I fell in love with nearly ten years ago. Sure, it’s starting to look a little plump around the middle now, and its breasts are starting to sag. And… I won’t pursue this rather alarming metaphor any further. You get the idea.
The picture below shows the top of the table before the final game of the season.
So yet again, if I won the last game, I could win the league title. Yes, we really have been here before—too many times before. But there was one difference. A couple of them, actually.
Somehow, those two virtual also-rans of this Master League, Real Madrid and Barcelona, had kept up with myself and Valencia. Real had actually managed to overhaul us both and were sitting pretty on top of the table by goal difference. Four teams were within three points of each other. I spent a few minutes examining the table. It was interesting enough for me to want to do that. I don’t remember seeing many, or even any, tables like it through all the years. Four teams in with a shout!
I was in 3rd place, 3 points behind both Real and Valencia. I had to win my last game—against Deportivo—and hope that they both lost their last games. My goal difference was easily better than anybody else’s. (At least Real and Valencia weren’t playing one another; that really would have been a no-win situation for me.) I didn’t have to worry about Barcelona as long as I could get the win. All I had to do was win, and hope.
There was more than just the title at stake. Also at stake was second place. At the very worst I wanted to snatch that. I’d love to avoid pre-tournament qualifying for the European Cup next season. I fancied my chances of at least finishing second. Either Real or Valencia were bound to lose, I thought, allowing me to sneak into second on goal difference. The title was a long shot, but second was doable.
Perhaps predictably, Deportivo were immense against me in my game. They were almost at Valencia levels of superchargedom… I’ll cut to the chase: the final result was 2-2, and I was lucky to avoid defeat. It was 2-1 to Deportivo until about four minutes from time. Then I grabbed an equaliser—don’t ask me how—and went all-out for the win in the final seconds. But it wasn’t to be.
The picture below shows the final league table for season 2017…
As it turned out, the three other teams at the top all won their games. I’m amazed at how Real Madrid sneaked up from nowhere to take the title in convincing fashion. They really are as mediocre right now (in my Master League) as they have ever been. No matter. At least Valencia, my great rivals, were denied the crown. I’m more than a little annoyed about having to qualify for Europe next season—I hate the early-season fixture pile-up that it entails—but I’ll live with it.
4th place at the end of 2017 is a pretty poor showing considering the players at my disposal and the amount of time I’ve now spent playing PES2008. Not only did I fail to win the title, I failed to win either of the Cups. I end the season completely empty-handed. The trophy cupboard is bare. I’m very disappointed.
But in another way, I’m happy. It means that PES2008 still has depths to show me. I’m going to try to recover some of the lasting focus that I had a season or two ago. I’m also going to have a long look at my squad. I have too many players. Some of my talent on the bench is being stifled. I badly need a sensational left-sided AMF, for one thing. Season 2018 is next, and there’s still everything to play for.
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Congrats on NOT winning the league.;)
It still turned fun and realistic, I guess, though I personally experience the most joy when I WIN everything. It’s not realistic, I know. Maybe I’m too competitive or something.
Did you slim your squad down already? Or are you still to go through the negotiation period?
I’d lose at least one goalie, if I were you.
Good luck figuring out which players to keep and which to sack. I hope you keep Kim and Khumalo, anyway. Bradley, Prieto and Camacho, I suppose are keepers too.
If you really want to slim it down, look for the players who can play at least two different positions, and keep them for their versatility.
Adriano - the pre-season 2018, squad-trimming post is coming up tomorrow.
Re. PES and winning everything every season, it’s happened that way for me before in PES4 and I didn’t really appreciate it, so I do prefer it this way. Whether PES2008 really is any more difficult than PES4 (or 5, or 6), or I’m just careless/lazy/rubbish/complacent/whatever, remains to be seen.
I totally understand where you’re coming from, but I’m built this way. I get pissed off just by letting a goal in.
I am the same as Adriano, I am furious- even when the other team win the ball!
I just had an immense match (on professional) and one you wouldn’t expect from Euro 2008. It was Spain vs Holland and I won 5-4, with me being up 3-0 at one point and losing as well. Epic game, and rare enough on FIFA to really mean something.
Adriano & Not Given - I get that way occasionally. When I’m very frustrated with the game even losing the ball to the AI makes me soooo angry. I think it’s because I can see how it blatantly has to be programmed that way, i.e. there’s no alternative right now, with the present level of AI programming, to scripting.
But overall I love the unfolding narrative of my PES year too much to go in for reloading. I also play another game franchsie quite obsessively - Civilization. I’m off right now to continue a great game of Civ4 that I’ve got going. That’s another game with a tight-knit, quite mature community. I never reload old saves in that game either. I live or die by the decisions I make and the outcomes of battles. Funnily enough, thinking back, I got into both games on the exact same day. I picked up my first copies of ISS and Civilization2 on the same day at the end of the 90s.