PES Chronicles

Here we go again. It feels as if I’ve been playing PES forever. It feels as if I’ve been playing this particular Master League career for even longer than forever. If that’s even possible, which it isn’t, what with ‘forever’ being an abstract concept and all. It’s impossible for anything to be longer or shorter than an abstract concept. I’m drifting… Is it October yet? Not yet. That’s when PES2009 will appear, and I can’t wait. Hang on… Is it September yet? Not yet. That’s when FIFA09 will appear—the game that’s got the PES community buzzing like no other FIFA before it—and I likewise cannot wait. But naturally, yes, I can wait and I will wait. Ho hum.

That rather whimsical opening doesn’t mean I’m tiring of PES2008. Historically I play an instalment of PES until the eve of the next instalment’s release. I don’t see any reason why this year should be any different. Granted, FIFA09 will pop up about a month before PES2009. That just might alter the complexion of the PES build-up this year. But in some form I expect to be playing PES2008 right until the end.

Season 2018 started with an opening league fixture against… Valencia. They’re the big boys of the division and have been for a couple of seasons. Talk about an early season six-pointer. This was the big one, straightaway.

It was as tough a game as I expected it to be. The ebbs and flows of this individual Master League have turned Valencia into a monster of a team—one of the best AI teams I’ve ever played against in any PES.

I struggled to get a shot on goal in the first half, but started to come good just when 45 minutes were up. I could have done without half-time getting in the way. After the break it was back to the same dour stalemate. Just when it was looking like a 0-0, I got a corner. I lofted the ball into a packed penalty box. Valencia managed to clear it—straight to the feet of Camacho. Usually I’d have just blasted it, but I saw the packed penalty box and knew I had to try to pick my spot. Here’s the replay showing the placement of the resulting shot (the initial chaos after the corner is reflected by not being immediately able to see the ball at the start of the clip!):

I loved that goal. Not just for how it was socred (I rarely get to deliberately pick my spot like that), but for what it represented. The final whistle went a few minutes later and I’d won the early season six-pointer.

In fact it’s been a great start to the season all round. I won my first European game, against Olympiacos Piraeus, 2-0. I’ve got to play through a qualifying group to get into the European Cup equivalent—this is always a real pain. I hate the fixture pile-up. I always want to just get on with the league at the start of a season, but qualifying means there’s a European game every week from the start. Oh well.

League game number two was against Barcelona. I’m trying to be a bit stingy at the back this season—conceding less goals is one of my long-term ambitions. (It might also help me, you know, win things too.)

So imagine my disappointment when Barca streaked into an early 2-0 lead. Oh no. What had happened? Never mind. I knuckled down, went all-out for goals, and got them.

Barcelona are not very good in my Master League. They’ve still got a quite-good—albeit ageing—Rooney and Torres pairing up front. Those two can still torment me every now and then, and they did so in this game with a goal each. But overall? I worry more about playing the likes of Zaragoza. I came back to beat Barca 3-2 with surprising ease. I’m 3rd in the league, level on points with the current leaders (Deportivo) but with an inferior goal difference. For now…