Whoah, as they say. It’ll be February tomorrow. Where did that come from?

It seems like only a few days ago we were hunkering down to get through the Christmas and New Year revelries. And now here we are, munching through at least two Cadbury’s Creme Eggs per day (well, I am) and noticing that the days are getting longer and milder.

At this rate you could almost stretch out your arm and snap your fingers - click - and it’ll be October, and we’ll be salivating at the approach of PES2009.

By now, there’ll almost certainly be an almost-complete version of the game running somewhere at Team Seabass HQ, and tentative plans for PES2010 will have been drawn up. I almost don’t like to think about it. Perhaps living in the future is as bad as living in the past.

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So, I played the first leg of the D2 Cup semi final, against Spartak Moscow, one of the division’s weaker sides.

I played a very good game despite the CPU being predictably supercharged throughout. I had to bide my time, pass the ball, keep possession, and defend with discipline, but I got there. I won 3-1. I was not happy about conceding the away goal but I believe I have done enough to make things comfortable in the second leg. Altintop and Caracciolo started together for the first time (I think) and scored all three of my goals, with Altintop bagging the brace.

Next it was back to the League, which is a wash-out for me this season. But still, you have to keep going. There’s transfer points to be won if nothing else.

I took on AEK Athens at home and won a hard-earned draw after conceding a late goal. Lots of times in PES, you can take almost as much—or more—satisfaction from a bread and butter goal than from a picture-book goal. I loved scoring this one (Altintop again):

Torino turned up in the next game and beat me 0-1 at home, which I was not happy about. It was almost a carbon copy of the Athens game, except without the late equaliser.

Things were righted in the next match. Earlier this season Real Zaragoza beat me 1-6 at home in my heaviest defeat in a PES Master League game ever. Elcherino, my former star player, got four of their goals. Ouch, and ouch again.

But the times are changing. Over this season I have shed more and more of my bad habits, and acquired more and more discipline. I think I’m more or less back where I was (the zone, I think they call it) when I was tearing up trees with my Coventry City team the first time around.

I went to Zaragoza’s ground and absolutely trounced them. 1-5 to me. Sweet, sweet revenge. (Elcherino wasn’t playing for them in this game, which probably helped…)

All five of my goals are in the clip. Altintop got a hat trick.

My favourite moment came during the build-up to the second goal. I started a breakaway after a Zaragoza attack, played a perfectly-weighted through ball with Camacho to Altintop, and finished the move with aplomb. Camacho had yet another great game but I got him sent off in the second half when I was chasing the sixth goal and trying too hard to get the ball back.

I met Blackburn in the league and lost 2-1. I was 2-0 down at one point and battled back well to come within one goal, but it wasn’t going to happen. It was a frustrating game in which I had Valeny sent off.

My red cards are becoming a problem. 19 dismissals in 25 games is a poor, poor record. In real life my club would have been up before the FA. I have to calm down…

After spending a week or two just playing next-gen FIFA08, I’ve more or less completely readjusted to PES2008 in all respects but this one. In FIFA08 I got into the habit of deliberately fouling CPU players to break up attacks, taking the inevitable (and realistic) yellow card, and just getting on with it.

In PES2008, tackles that should be punished with yellow cards - or even just by the award of a free kick and nothing else - are frequently punished by red cards. I’m slowly learning (again) to restrain my instincts, but until I get completely back on board it’s costing me.

One bright spot in the Blackburn game: a nice goal from Altintop. He’s come on strong recently and is starting to dominate the forward line in much the same way that Schwarz used to back in my first ML career. He’s currently third in the top scorer’s table with 14 goals (Elcherino is way out in front on 44 goals).

Turkey called up Altintop immediately after this game, so I was without him for the next, against Celtic.

I find that Celtic in PES2008 are either very easy to beat or ridiculously hard. They’re one of those teams that occupies no middle ground. I included them in this Superleague for a couple of reasons. Mainly because I love their kit. There’s something about a hooped football shirt that is evocative of the game itself. When I was about 5 years old I supported QPR solely because of their hooped shirts. This instinctive affection for the design has never worn off.

The game itself against Celtic was a minor classic. I went 0-1 down to a soft goal that I could and should have cleared upfield. But no, I had to try to pass my way out of trouble. Gatti hesitated on the ball when receiving the pass and a Celtic striker nicked the ball off him. Seconds later it was in the back of my net.

I was playing this game in my black away kit, despite being at home. That was fine with me. My equaliser came early in the second half, and it was one of my most favourite goals on the game so far.

It’s not only hooped football shirts that I have a weakness for. As anyone who has watched any of my PES5 compilation movies will testify, I do like to have a long-range shot…

Here’s Camacho, he of the fabled Middle Shooting ability and the callow youth, dispatching a screamer across the goalkeeper and in off the far post:

I scored the winner pretty quickly after that, but I forget who with, or what type of goal it was.

For the rest of the football game year I will be spending half my time on PES2008 and the other half on FIFA08. In years past I spent all my time on PES and none of my time on FIFA. Curse you Seabass...

The plan is subject to change at any time. The PSP version of PES2008 could waltz in and take over the blog. I might get myself an Xbox360 and discover the delights of Sensible Soccer (nb: not rediscover, but discover. I missed out on SWOS the first time around. The 1990s was a gap decade for me and gaming).

There’s one other big football game definitely on the horizon. I intend to get myself a new PC sometime this year - probably in March or April. If/when I do get that new PC, I will be getting myself a copy of Football Manager 2008, and diving back into the deep, deep depths of a franchise that I last played a couple of years ago.

I’m hilariously bad at Football Manager. I lack the patience to spend enough time tinkering with my team and tactics. I got myself sacked in all but one of my dozen-or-so attempts to lead Coventry City to glory. Even in the one attempt when I did get them into the Premiership, and had tempted the likes of Iniesta and Sol Campbell to the club, I did terribly and was on the verge of being sacked when I had to abandon the game due to PC hardware issues. Whew.

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Back to my second season with Singers FC.

Singers 1-2 Villarreal

I went 1-0 up and was cruising before Villarreal bludgeoned me late in the second half and came back to win. In the last few minutes I got frustrated at the CPU’s keep-ball routine, and had Recoba sent off for a savage sliding tackle from behind.

I was seeded for the D2 Cup again - a great relief, as I want to get off to a flier this season and could do without the energy-sapping cup matches in between the league matches.

Singers FC 3-2 Spartak Moscow

An amazing game for several reasons. The #1 reason by a long way was… the Spartak goalkeeper was sent off for a foul in the box. I’ll say that again, because it’s worth repeating: the Spartak goalkeeper was sent off for fouling me in the box. I couldn’t believe it either. And I got a penalty.

In complete shock, I missed the penalty with Altintop. But he went on to score two of my three goals in a fine win. I was a little disappointed to allow the CPU’s 10 men to get two goals back, but hey. That’s football.

Here’s one of the goals that Altintop got for me in the Spartak game:

I was tempted just to let rip with Morfeo and go for a spectacular goal as he ran down the left, but I restrained myself and went for the safe option. I tapped triangle whilst pointing the analogue stick toward Altintop in the middle. I love the smoothness of that through-ball from Morfeo. If you do the simple things well in PES2008, then the bread and butter goals will come. And then you earn yourself the breathing space to try the extravagant stuff.

Ajax 3-0 Singers FC

Thumped. There’s no other word for it. Ajax were sheer class. I have no complaints about scripting in this one. They were just too good for me and I failed to contain them.

Bad old habits resurfaced for me as I tried to get the ball back from the Dutch artists. I lost my discipline again and started trying to hack my way back into the game. Macco and Lagutz were sent off.

Three very different but very good games (mostly) leave me in 7th place after four games.

Disappointing in some ways, but overall I’m happy with how my players feel. I need to slow myself down more and play within their current limits.