The beginning of the end? 3
2017 has been a great season so far. After several seasons of struggle and then a weird period of outright mediocrity, I seem to have turned the corner. I’m far from comfortable yet, and a long way from expecting to win every match. But I’ve started scoring more goals and winning more matches. Close to the middle of the season, I’m top of the league and looking good for the title. Which is almost scary. After all this time—my longest in any Master League without even challenging for the title, never mind looking like winning it—I don’t want to blow it.

The screenshot is blurry, but it does its job well enough. You can clearly see the long row of victories (each signified by a big fat O), punctuated by occasional draws (triangles). There’s just one solitary defeat (X) showing—the one I suffered way back in the second match of the season.

It’s an impressive and unexpected sudden appearance of form. If it keeps up, I will win the title. Finally.
I think I’ve discovered the secret of goal-scoring in PES2009. It’s taken me a long time. But, as I always insist, I am only an average PES-player—always have been, and probably always will be. Last season I was scoring roughly 1.5 goals every two matches, which isn’t nearly good enough. This season, however, things are different.
I’ve discovered what most seasoned PES veterans probably discovered months ago. PES2009’s much-derided eight-way directional movement is the key to unlocking the opposition defences. Running diagonally with the ball, simply initiating a 90-degree direction-change to the other diagonal—north-east to south-east, and so on—whilst not pressing the R1 sprint button—beats the CPU defenders almost every time. Mostly they just stop and stand there while you sprint off into space.
This is probably not a good thing, really. I have an awful, gnawing feeling that PES2009’s lifespan has shrunk by several months. I have found myself scoring goals almost at will, at times. It feels uncomfortably like PES2008 when that happens. In ‘next-gen PES2008′ (remember when that phrase was the repository of all our hopes, pre-October 2007?), if I wanted to score a goal, I almost always could. That’s why it was such an abysmal video game overall and such a terrible, epoch-ending excuse for a PES game. Any hint of this in PES2009 is bound to cause me worry. I’ll be keeping a close watch on how this develops.
I’ve started doing well not just in the League. There’s also the Division 1 Cup. I’ve still not won a major trophy in PES2009. For all my talk of the game suddenly seeming easier, the trophy cupboard is conspicuously bare.
In the Cup quarter-final I was up against it in the second leg. I’d won the first leg 1-0 at home, but was 0-2 down in the second leg away from home. All I needed was one goal—an away goal—to go through. I pounded away at the opposition but it seemed the goal just wouldn’t come. Then I had a corner, and this happened—a classic ‘DMF moment’ for me:
In the mid-season negotiations I picked up two new players. I’ve felt a bit light in defence and midfield at times this season. I’ve built up a nice stash of cash after a few negotiation periods without spending anything. So I went hunting for quality, and found it. I tried for CANNAVARO to bolster my defence, but his club just wouldn’t negotiate.
However, I did sign NEDVED and SHAW. Both of them are exciting, skilful AMFs who can also play up front if necessary. I think these two players are the final pieces of the puzzle for me. A League and Cup double is mine for the taking in the second half of this season—and then, next season, the Treble. I hope these aren’t (in)famous last words…


