Here in season 2020 of my Master League career on the PSP/PS2 version of PES2008, I’ve just won the league title with several games to spare. I’m in the Division 1 Cup final and the European Cup semi-final. The Treble is very much on.

After winning the Treble last year, I badly want to win it again this year. It’s only natural. For me, winning back-to-back Trebles would be the ultimate confirmation that I’ve mastered PES2008 in terms of its gameplay. I’ve won a few Trebles in the past in this career, but never consecutively. In PES4 and PES6 I was capable of winning back-to-back Trebles without much effort. I found those two PESes pretty easy overall, so it’d be a yardstick for PES2008 if I could replicate my achievements now.

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As well as the general goal of a Treble, I had two bonus targets: to navigate through to the end of the league season unbeaten, and concede less than 20 goals while doing so. For a long time this season, it looked as if I would succeed on both fronts. And then I stupidly let my newfound confidence get the better of me. I lost a game to Valencia, my long-standing divisional rivals.

That hurt, but at least I was keeping the goals-against column down to respectable levels. As I’m remarked previously, it seems a lot harder to stop the CPU from scoring goals in this version of the game than in any previous versions.

In PES5, for example, it was customary for me to concede around 10-15 goals per season. Here in PES2008, especially in the early seasons of this ML, I was shipping an average of 30 goals per season. I’ve complained to high heaven about the CPU apparently waltzing the ball into the net with my players either rendered immobile or ludicrously unable to put in a routine challenge (or challenges) to stop the attack. In other words, I was asserting that most of the goals scored against me were scripted.

Scripting is a serious topic for football game fans, and for PES fans in particular. If scripting is real, and if it’s as bad as we sometimes think it is, then what would be the point of playing any football game? Wouldn’t we be complete fools simply to press buttons whilst watching an interactive script unfold before our eyes? Yes, we would be complete fools.

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Wanting to concede less goals than normal is my own little way of challenging myself, and of testing the sturdiness of the alleged behind-the-scenes script. I wanted to see if it really was true that half the CPU goals were inevitable and unstoppable, or if it was just me not concentrating properly, being reckless, being too attack-minded—in short, defending badly.

It might be too early, but I’m pleased to report that the answer would seem to be that it was all my fault. This season so far I’ve conceded 12 goals. With three league games left, unless I suffer a compete catastrophe in a game or two, I think I’m going to meet my target. We’ll see.

None of which means that scripting per se isn’t true. Scripting in PES is very much true. It’s real and it’s annoying and it doesn’t belong in a mature, serious football game. In my opinion. All that my little mini-experiment with defending shows is that with concentration you can drastically cut the number of goals you concede. I’d still say that 75% of the goals I have conceded were predestined and frankly unstoppable.

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In league game 28 I actually lost another game—my second of the season. Real Zaragoza beat me 2-1. I was actually more bothered about conceding those two goals than I was about the defeat.

It was very like the 2-1 defeat I took from Valencia earlier this season. The same scoreline and pretty much the same reason for it—over-confidence bordering on arrogance from me. When you head out onto the virtual pitch assuming you have a right to win the game, a lot of the time it’ll work out for you—if you’ve got enough experience in the game to back up your belief. But when you’re at 1-1 and the CPU is plainly up for a fight, and you ignore all the warning signs and push on regardless, looking for a winner that the game is in no mood to let you have, well, that’s a mistake. Best to shut up shop, accept that the game is a draw, and see if you can’t snatch a cheeky winner on the break toward the end. That’s what I’ve done countless times already this season to great effect and it’s what I should have done on this occasion. But I didn’t.

Like I said, conceding two goals was the most hurtful side of it. That’s 14 goals against me all season. I should still make it to the end with less than 20 conceded, but it’s looking like being a lot closer than it could—and should—have been.

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Happily, in Europe there was better news. I met Lazio in the semi-final of the game’s Champions League equivalent. It’s the third or fourth time, in total, that Lazio and I have faced off in European competitions over the seasons. They beat me in a European Champioship final a few seasons ago. I’ve generally found them to be alarmingly tough opponents, almost on a par with my domestic nemesis Valencia.

On this occasion, though, Lazio were pussycats. I won the first leg 1-2 at their place. With those two away goals to my name, I regarded the second leg as pretty much a formality—a dangerous thing to do, yes, but I got away with it. I won that second leg by the mammoth scoreline of 6-1. The only dowside was conceding that solitary goal, but that was near the end when the game was over anyway.

All of which leaves me having to win just the two Cup finals to win the Treble. My second Treble in a row, hopefully. And I have to try not to concede another 6 goals in my remaining three league games. I think I am going to do it on all fronts.

Things are getting pretty serious in season 2020 of my ongoing career in Master League on PES2008. That’s the PS2/PSP version of PES2008—I always like to reiterate this fact in case any new visitors read that I’m playing PES2008 and assume that I mean the so-called next-gen version. I definitely don’t mean that version. I wouldn’t play that version ever again if it was literally the last football game on earth.

In my opinion, Pro Evolution Soccer jumped the shark (or nuked the fridge) with the PS3/360/PC version of PES2008. Whether the version was a genuine mistake—rushed out prematurely due to commercial pressures—or a deliberate, fateful foray into the ‘yoof’ market, remains to be seen. I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see a great version of PES on the next-gen consoles for another year or two, but I’m just an old cynic.

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In the mid-season negotiations I picked up a third goalkeeper from the Youth list. I got Petr Cech as a 17-year-old Regen, for a nominal yearly salary. Partway through this current season, Frederiksson was called up for international duty, leaving me with just Buffon to play in every game. In a couple of games I had to play him with half of his stamina bar gone. Then Frederiksson returned with half of his stamina bar gone, so it was an awkward situation all round. I conceded a couple of bad goals during this fiasco.

Having a third goalkeeper in my squad would have resolved the problem, but I didn’t have one. Well, I’ve got one now—and what a good one. Cech should be the top keeper in the game when he gets to his mid-20s. I’ve bought him specifically to fill in whenever my senior keepers have to do international duty, but I’ll play him for the odd game here and there anyway.

My squad is starting to feel a little bloated again. A few seasons ago I trimmed it down to 26 players, but it’s started creeping up once more. I’ll be having a long hard look at several of my squad in the off-season, and doing some pruning.

Along with going for the usual Treble of League, Cup, European Cup, I’m also trying for a couple of other lofty targets. I want to remain unbeaten in the League, and I want to concede less than 20 goals whilst doing so.

I’ve come close for the past few seasons, but this season I feel it’s ON. I’m way, way out in front at the top of the league with 17 games played. I’m still in both Cup competitons. All of that is important, but I’ll confess to having been caught up by the excitement of maintaining my unbeaten run, and of conceding as few goals as possible.

There was some business to take care of in Europe. I made the crass mistake of taking an early game in my European Cup qualifying group lightly, which I lost, thus endangering my qualification for the knockout stages. It was Galatasaray whom I took lightly, back in game 2. When will I ever learn? Nearly 10 years I’ve been playing PES/ISS, and I still get caught out by the CPU when I least expect it. This is a good thing, I think.

Happily I beat Galatasaray 2-0 in our return fixture to make my qualification assured. It’s a relief and a great weight off my mind. As every seasoned Master League player who’s going for a Treble knows all too well, the European qualifying groups can be a minefield. It can be so, so easy to lose a game and get eliminated too early. All’s well that ends well, though.

I was cheered up, briefly. Sadly, what happened next was one of the single most disappointing things that has ever happened to me in almost a decade of playing PES/ISS games. I am not exaggerating.

I lost game 17 in the League. Valencia wielded the knife and plunged it in. They beat me 2-1. It hurt.

I was actually more disappointed by this than I have been about any single game in this Master League so far. I can’t even blame scripting, really. It was my own stupid fault. My grasp exceeded my reach. My eyes were bigger than my belly. Worse things really did happen at sea…

I knew it was a dangerous fixture before it started. Valencia have consistently been my most dangerous opponents for just about all of this ML career. (I almost cannot wait for the probable emergence of another great team in the seasons to come. My money’s on it being Barcelona. Real Madid are actually getting worse, season after season. This year they’re down in mid-table.)

Against Valencia I went 1-0 up and thought: Ah-ha, that’s it… I got complacent, and conceded a dumb equaliser whilst pushing for a second killer goal. A Valencia striker broke through my defence a long way out. I charged my keeper towards him, and the Valencia player simply lobbed me from 25 yards. It was a great goal of the kind you rarely see from the CPU.

1-1, and in retrospect I should have just settled for that, shut up shop, maybe grabbed a winner for myself on the break. But no, I carried on attacking. I was full of myself, thinking I was invincible, that all I had to do was want to score a winner enough for it to become reality. The success of my season so far made me think I’m a much better player than I really am.

Valencia broke through on my goal again. This time I wasn’t risking it, and cynically chopped down their striker with Roberto Carlos. It was a justified straight red card. Even then I still could, and should, have held on for the draw, and preserved my unbeaten record.

I should have subbed one of my three CFs and brought on Chivu to slot in at left back, and gone to a 4-3-2. But instead of doing the logical thing, I had a moment of madness. I believed I could win the game with 10 men using a 3-3-3 formation. I was asking for trouble, and got it.

I started attacking, and had some good possession but couldn’t get through. I’d left myself wide open for a sucker-punch, which wasn’t long in coming. Valencia seemed to gleefully walk the ball through what remained of my defence, and into the net. 1-2 down with several minutes left, I could see the unbeaten record flashing before my eyes. How could I have been so careless?

I really tried everything to get the goal back that would have secured an undeserved draw. But it wasn’t to be. When the final whistle went I was - what was I? What’s the word? GUTTED. That’s the word.

At 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.

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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…