Away goals on the grassy knoll
Posted by: not-Greg in Treble, defending, league table, tags: defending, league table, TrebleAt the mid-season stage I’m still winning, and winning well. The difference between my performances this season and my performances in the last two seasons is that I’m defending with greater concentration and seriousness.
I rarely concede goals now, compared to times past. I stand off, I harry, I snuff out dangerous moves. I refrain from practising my old vice of diving in all over the place, conceding free kicks, getting yellow and red cards, and often simply enabling the CPU players to evade my clumsy tackles and race through on goal.
As a result of all this disciplined defending, my league record at the moment is great, almost as good as it possibly could be. Played 15, won 14, drawn 1, lost 0. For me, that’s pretty damn good. I’m unbeaten and I’ve only conceded 7 goals. True perfection would be to win every game and concede no goals, but that could never happen. I don’t think it could, anyway.
No doubt there are some out there who are good enough, potentially, to deny the CPU teams any goals throughout an entire league season. But I believe there are some goals that can never be prevented. Over the course of a season the game itself makes sure that at least a few goals are conceded and at least a few points are dropped.
————
Just before the mid-season negotiations I played the first leg of the Division 1 Cup quarter-final. There’s no such thing as a routine game for me while I’m still going for my major target of a Treble (League, Cup, European Cup).
My opponents were Heracles Almelo. At times they’re a tricky team to play against; at other times I’ve found them easy prey. How they would be in this game depended very much, I suspected, on whatever algorithms deep in the bowels of PES2008’s programming code are responsible for the character of the CPU teams from game to game.
Unfortunately for me, Heracles were in TRICKY mode. I was at home, so my primary strategy lay in not conceding any goals. Any goals I scored myself would be a bonus. As bad luck would have it I spent the whole game defending against a very spirited, very attack-minded opposition.
How my goal survived intact I’ll never know. The game finished 0-0. Come the away leg I’ll be the strong favourite, as I’ll only have to score once and the tie will effectively be over.
(Incidentally, it has struck me for several years now that the away goals rule in football is far, far too overpowered. It produces horrendously skewed games and results. Too many times a mediocre away team will fluke a goal and effectively win the tie with it. I think the footballing argument for the away goals rule is false. I have a conspiracy theory about the away goals rule. It was introduced by the authorities at a time when television was just starting to show big interest—and hence BIG $$$—in screening live football matches. Now, one thing that television cannot abide is any disruption to its schedules, and games that run into extra time are notorious for doing this (leading to The 10 O’clock News coming on at midnight, for example). The away goals rule effectively reduced by about 90% the amount of two-legged matches whose second legs went into extra time. I’ve just plucked that % figure out of the air, so I have no idea how accurate it is, but it certainly feels accurate.)
Here in the exact middle of the season I’m 13 points clear in the League. I’m nicely positioned in the two Cups. I believe that the Treble is a strong possibility (due to the ‘one bad game’ factor in the Cups, the Treble can never be a certainty). I’m unbeaten, and I’ve only conceded 7 goals. This is all looking good. No getting sloppy, now…
Entries (RSS)