Streaking to the finish
The driving sentiment behind Friday’s negative-sounding post still applies. I am on a downer with PES2009 at the moment.
But I don’t think this means the end for me and the game. PES2009, for all its (many) faults, is certainly no PES2008. I ended up despising PES2008 and everything it represented (i.e. betrayal, disappointment, the bitter taste of ashes…). But PES2009 will probably end up occupying roughly the same level as PES4 or PES6 in my personal pantheon of PES games. PES4 and PES6 were not strong favourites of mine. But they were still very playable, classic PESes, and I remember them both fondly. In years to come I hope I’ll recall PES2009 in the same way.
Before I take a break from PES2009 (for its sake, and my sanity’s), there’s some unfinished business to take care of. I’m almost at the end of my 11th season in Master League. I’ve been closing in on my first Treble all season. It’s closer now than ever.
I put together a 10-match winning streak that carried me back to the top of the table and opened up a nice lead. A picture paints a thousand words—looking at this one still makes me smile:
It’s my best winning streak in PES2009 so far. I sailed through to the finals of the D1 Cup and the European Cup. Man Utd gave me no trouble in the D1 Cup semi-final. In Europe, Benfica were slightly trickier. I was 3-0 up at Benfica’s place, and the tie was all but over—then I mysteriously conceded two late goals. I took the lead in the second leg at my place, but they pulled it back to 1-2—making it 4-4 on aggregate—by literally walking the ball into my net, twice.
Lapses of concentration on my part or scripting shenanigans? I call shenanigans, naturally. I hope I’m honest enough to know when I’ve lost focus and sloppily allowed the CPU back into a match, and when Seabass’s celebrated ‘momentum’ has started to exert itself. This was ‘momentum’, I am certain of it. Still, I was through on away goals. I will play Göteborg in the D1 Cup final, and Real Madrid in the European Cup final.
The two Cup finals are the big matches as far as the Treble is concerned. That winning streak has seen me start to pull away at the top of the League table with only a handful of matches left. I’ve hit serious form at just the right time. I have absolutely no idea why the below screenshot is blurry. Could my mobile phone camera’s lens have needed a wipe?
4 points clear with superior goal difference and only a handful of matches left is a great position to be in. I’m going to risk it and call the League title as mine. If I lose it from here, I don’t deserve to win anything at all in this game, ever. So the Treble will all come down to the Cups, I think.
Nice work, looks like it’s all yours to lose from this point on. Will you put up the player stats at the end of the season, i’ve always been a bit nerdy with stats!
I finally gave BAL mode a break and went back to some long overdue master league action. Got promoted at the end of season 2 with Okaka and Ortega doing most of the damage. Also helped by the mid season signing of kaiser. Looking forward to my first division one season. Have added the new Larsson and old Crespo as squad players.
That photo with all those circles sure does look appetizing – the best I’ve done so far in PES2009 is NOT loosing 11 games in a row – 4 draws interspersed between the 7 wins.
Good luck with the Treble, following your exploits it’s almost like my own Option file being updated. I guess I’ll actually have to play more PES when you take your time-out
Liam - it’s really been mine to lose from the start of the season, but with this being PES anything can still happen. All will be revealed tomorrow.
diego - It gets a lot easier in later seasons with the better players, but it’s still a notable achievement to have a long winning streak in ML, and like I said I do love looking at that picture!
My time-out will only (I think) be a case of not updating every day. I’m already playing football games again (FIFA09) and will be updating the blog regularly with my progress.