After shaking off the glee of winning the Division 1 Cup in style, it was back to the main business: surviving the drop back down to Division 2.

The feeling going into the last three games was uncomfortably like the feeling I used to have in April and May of every year when the real Coventry City were in the old English Division 1/Premier League. Every year we flirted with disaster, but somehow miraculously survived. It was an annual game of Russian Roulette that we eventually lost.

Was history about to reproduce itself in my PES2008 Master League? If so, how would I handle it? Could I even accept it? As this is a video game, I wouldn’t have to accept it.

I’ll make a confession here. If I got relegated, I could always reload an earlier save and play the game(s) again. I gave serious thought to how I would feel about that. There’d be nothing to stop me. I never play with the anti-cheat autosave function switched on - I usually don’t need to, as I never reload under any circumstances (system crashes and freezes excepted, of course; I’ve yet to have one on the PS3).

I’m the kind of gamer who thinks there’s no point in playing a game unless you can accept the outcome, whatever it is. Reloading in any game smacks to me of cheating - you’re just cheating yourself out of the whole experience. If gaming is to be more like life, then do-overs are not allowed. No one would ever know if I reloaded. But I would know, and that knowledge would be enough to spoil my entire ML career.

So I decided that I had to simply take the results, whatever happened. I took a deep breath and got down to business.

I don’t think I have ever been more focused on any match in PES than I was for the first of the three fixtures. It was against Bolton Wanderers. I was able to select most of the new improved First XI. Reyes was unfit, so I brought in Frutos and stuck him in the middle. Schwarz moved left. Bramble was also unfit for the game and was replaced by Mattsson, who has slowly matured into a really, really useful, and above all strong CB.

After kick-off, somehow I knew that I was going to be all right. PES is like that sometimes. Within a few seconds of the opening, you know from the way the CPU players are playing, and how your own players are playing, whether this game is likely to go your way or not. Call it PES paranoia, but that feeling most often steals over you when the game seems destined to go against you. When you get the opposite feeling, well, suddenly it’s like being Brazil.

Only ten minutes or so into the game, Schwarz and Frutos linked up:

A flood of relief. The way the league table was looking pre-game, I knew that winning this one could make me mathematically safe.

I played on, doing well just as in the Cup Final, snuffing out everything in the centre with Muntari and Felipe and Mattsson, and probing dangerously with my midfield and front threes. Djiba was immense. He really has been a revelation over the last couple of matches.

Just after half-time I scored another, making it 2-0 to me. Felipe got it from a corner. The game went on, with Bolton suddenly in God Mode. They didn’t get past me, but they were threatening to… My spider sense tingled. A CPU goal was in the wind. It’s the usual PES2008 scenario, unfortunately. The game just loves to set up an ‘exciting’ last ten minutes. The game’s programmers must think that last-minute equalisers and winners are the norm in football rather than the exception.

I needed a third goal to really kill off the game. Then I got it. I went on a mazy run with Djiba(!), but lost the ball in the penalty box as the keeper advanced. Chiesa, on as a substitute, picked up the loose ball. The keeper was off his line…

3-0 to me. How sweet it was. After the final whistle I hurried to check the league table.

I was almost safe. At the very bottom, Celtic and then Copenhagen were a long way behind - both teams were relegated a long time ago. Manchester City in 18th were on 33 points. I was on 38 points. I would have to lose both remaining games, and Man City would have to win theirs, to be relegated now. Not very likely, but you never knew.

Next up in the penultimate game of the season was Sunderland - my bogey team for the past four seasons. I’ve never beaten them or even had a good game against them. This time was no different. I went behind early on as Sunderland once again walked the ball through my defence. In trying my utmost to get back into the game, I went back to my bad old ways. I had Bramble and Traore sent off. The game finished 3-0 to Sunderland. I was furious - with myself, with Sunderland, with life.

But when I checked the table, I saw that Manchester City had lost. I was still 5 points clear of the dropzone. There was only one game left in the season. I was safe.

The final game of the season against Tottneham was anything but meaningless. Thanks to the Cup run I’ve seen my Team Ranking go from just-about-D to nearly-C… This affects what kinds of players you can bid for in negotiations. After the defeat to Sunderland it had slipped back a notch, but not too much. One more win, I thought…

I did win it. I won 2-0, and scored this goal with Djiba:

That was his first for the team. He’s the man of the moment all right.

My Team Ranking increased another notch, but is frustratingly still a hair’s-breadth short of the threshold leading to a ‘C’ rating. I’ve set up a couple of pre-season friendlies that will hopefully carry me over the line and make negotiations slightly easier.

So that was the end of the season. I finished in a reasonably healthy 14th position in the end. I survived to fight in Division 1 another day, but it was close for a long time there.

Season 2011 will be different, I think. Battling relegation has been intense and very Coventry City-like, but actually being relegated would have been no fun at all. And it could have happened.

They say (whoever they are) that you should never say ‘never again’. But I’ll say it anyway: never again.

Final Position: 14th (41 points)
Won: 10 Drew: 11 Lost: 17
Goals scored: 38 Goals conceded: 51 Goal difference: -13
Yellow Cards: 43 Red Cards: 31 (!)

Ahhh… I found that missing screenshot of my league position. It shows the state of play going into the last three games. It was tucked away in a sub-sub-folder on my PC along with photos of my best friend’s wedding two years ago. Go figure, as they say.

I’m 3 points clear of the relegation zone with three games to play. My goal difference has come down to a workable level. (See Celtic on the bottom with just three wins all season? Guess who they got two of those wins against. Go on, guess.)

This morning I played the critical last few games of the Division 1 League season and the Division 1 Cup Final. It was a very interesting session of play. I’ll post about the League separately later today. For now I want to concentrate on the Cup.

Last night I overcame Manchester United in the semis after a 0-0 draw at my ground and a 1-0 win at theirs. The goal I scored was notable for a couple of reasons. Here it is:

That’s the first goal of its kind that I have ever scored in any PES game. Really. I meant it when I said that I’m not a dribbler. The people who are complaining about these kinds of goals being too easy in next-gen PES2008 might have a point.

I’m still not capable (or really willing) to play like that all the time, so hopefully it won’t become a universal get-out-of-jail card for me. But it is a worry. If I can do it, I can only imagine what players who routinely used to do this in previous PES games must be doing. No wonder so many have said they’ve traded in their copies of PES2008 for FIFA08, or gone back to PES5 or PES6. Hmmm.

So it was Liverpool in the Final. Before starting the game, there was one important thing I had to do. I had to change my First XI. When I started this blog I was naive and never dreamed that it would attract commenters, or that those comments and suggestions would influence my decisions in playing the game. But I also never dreamed I would struggle with PES2008 to the extent that I have.

A consensus seemed to emerge over the past several days. Shore up the defence. Pick midfielders with better strength and body balance. Concentrate more on defending - you don’t have to go charging in. And lots more along those lines. Thanks, all.

I moved the defence upfield a notch or two, and brought the AMFs back a similar distance. By playing the defence deep and the AMFs too far ahead of the DMF, I was inviting the almost constant pressure I came under in most games.

Suzuki had to go from the CB position. Thinking back now I have no idea why I continued to play him while Felipe was sitting on the bench. Pride? Almost certainly.

After careful deliberation I decided I could afford no more than one show pony in the AMF slots. It had to be Shaw on the left. Djiba - poor, neglected Djiba with his high stamina and body balance (high compared to Shimizu, anyway) - came in on the right.

And as for the DMF slot… well, it finally had to be done: Donadel is retired to the bench and Muntari takes his place. Forgive me, Donadel. Don’t look at me like that. Cheer up - look what happened to you:

Up front, Chiesa on the right is another player I’ve probably stuck with for too long due to misplaced pride. Schwarz was relatively blunted out on the left, which is a position more suited to a nippy striker who can do a passable impression of a winger when called for. Poor old Schwarz lumbering down the wing… Let’s not dwell on the past, eh.

So, with my all-new, all-improved First XI, how was I going to get on - in the Cup Final first of all? An instant heavy defeat - requiring more work on the drawing board - or instant success?

Gulp. I won the D1 Cup Final, hammering Liverpool 4-0!

Look at those stats! Liverpool’s world-class stars barely had a kick of the ball. I think Kewell might have had a glancing header at one point. (When I was distracted by a car horn in the street outside. Otherwise it would never have happened.)

My players were like a team at last - a team with a proper spine: Felipe, Muntari, Djiba, Schwarz…

None of my goals were ‘all that’ - each one was crafted, though, with passing and movement (pass and move is how I like to play - no, how I love to play - PES). A header and a snapshot and a scramble and a deft finish from the edge of the box - those kinds of goals. Reyes, Schwarz, Djiba(!), and Reyes again were the scorers. (Leading me to ask myself yet more soul-searching questions about why I’ve left Reyes on the bench most of the season.)

And not a single yellow card.

After the game I was very, very happy to see my Team Ranking progress bar shoot up almost to the end. I’m about this far >-< from going up to rank C. Another couple of wins will do it.

It’d be great to get those wins in the final league games of the season. The Cup is all well and good, and the performance was amazing, but I’ve had these kinds of moments in PES2008 before. I’ve always got up only to fall down again. Would that happen this time? Only one way to find out…

A quick paragraph of ‘previously on Pro Evolution Soccer: The Chronicles’-type stuff is called for, I think. So. I’m in my first season in Division 1 on Master League in PES2008. I’m playing on Top Player difficulty. And it’s been a disaster so far. I’m 5th from bottom of the league with eight games to go. In eight long, happy years of PES gaming, I have never been in this kind of situation before. Not even remotely close to it. This definitely isn’t Kansas anymore.

There are four or five teams above me within 3 points. But two of the four teams below me are within 2 points. Only the bottom team, Celtic (who’ve had one win all season - against me), are guaranteed to be relegated right now. Everyone else can still escape the dropzone. No one is safe.

A run of results was needed to boost me away from the danger area.

I started with an epic 0-0 draw against Liverpool that I could and should have won comfortably. I was all over them for most of the game. I had 61% of possession. I had 16 shots on target to their 5. I hit the post twice during one attack. I hit the bar with a 40-yard shot from Guimaraes, who is suddenly developing into an accomplished all-round full-back in the Roberto Carlos mode. Albeit on the right, of course. It’s still early days for him yet, so we’ll see.

After Liverpool I played West Ham away. With the Hammers hovering not too far above me I knew that this was a big game - a six-pointer. I took the lead and held it until the 85th minute. (What is it with PES2008 and the 85th minute?) They had a corner that I knew they would score from no matter what I did. They scored. Self-fulfilling prophecy? Perhaps. That would seem to have been that. I kicked off in the 90th minute and raced downfield with Shaw, hoping for a dramatic last-minute winner. I shot, but it hit a defender and deflected wide… for a corner.

Two can play at the CPU’s sneaky game. I get lots of headed goals from corners in PES2008. I swung it over, high and hard. There was Mattsson, my second-choice CB, to head home from the edge of the six-yard box.

The final whistle went almost straight after the Hammers’ kickoff. A precious 2-1 victory for me.

Next up was a league game against Manchester United. I’ll be playing them three times within a few games, as they’re my semi-final opponents in the Division 1 Cup. But the Cup can go hang right now for all I care. I’d take 3 points here and now in the league. I have been struggling to pick up results against the poor teams in Division 1, never mind against the big boys. I was worried. That relegation zone has looked like a yawning chasm below me pretty much all season so far.

Pre-game I spent a minute or two in the Regulate Condition screen. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find it more effective at adjusting players’ form arrows (and less punishing on their stamina) than it was the last time I used it a couple of PESes ago. All thanks are due to Ziggy Bashmore’s excellent Master League guide for pointing me back in this direction.

So it was that I went out onto the pitch against Man Yoo with a team packed by red-arrowed supermen. Apparently…

I kicked off, knocked the ball back to my defence, played it around at the back for a bit, then passed through to Shimizu up front. Shimizu lost the ball. It skated clear to Ferdinand, who moved upfield. I gave chase with Shimizu and put in a sliding tackle that clipped Ferdinand’s heels, bringing him down for a free kick. Oh, and Shimizu got a straight red card, of course.

Shimizu headed for the dressing room, and I fumed. For the thousandth time, I’d had a red card for an offence that wouldn’t even be a yellow card most of the time in real life, anywhere in the world.

Never mind, I thought. I’ve ground out results with 10 men plenty of times in PES2008. A draw would be a good result from this game. I’d just have to tighten up and hang on for dear life. I didn’t make any substitutions. I moved Chiesa back to Shimizu’s position, and dragged the other two CFs into the centre, Schwarz slightly behind and to the left of Boyd (who was playing in place of the unfit Frutos).

Not very much more time had passed when Tevez burst through my centre, evaded several attempted challenges, and coolly slotted the ball past Friedel. Damn. Damn them all to hell. The maniacs…

I would be lucky to avoid a sound thrashing now, I thought. I got hold of the ball and kept it at the back for a bit, knocking it around. Wasting a bit of time, and seeing if the CPU would come out a bit, leaving a nice gap or two…

I played a hopeful L1+Triangle punt over Evra, looking for Chiesa in behind him. The ball didn’t get past Evra’s head - but the rebound did drop back to Guimaraes. I passed it first time, long, to Boyd standing about 30 yards out. I jinked past a defender, to my amazement. (I rarely jink. Jinking is just not me.) I found myself on the edge of the area, clean in on goal.

Instead of trying to blast it past the keeper, I did no more than tap the shoot button. The ball went under Van der Sar’s body into the net.

1-1, and I would have settled for that. But Man Utd were still a force in the game, and the best form of defence is attack, so… I attacked as much as I could. Playing with 10 men so often has made me pretty good at keep-ball.

So, after keeping the ball at the back for a few minutes, I rapidly passed upfield, and once again found Boyd more or less where he was before - standing just outside the box with the ball at his feet and the Man Utd goal in front of him. Another careful shot, and another goal for Boyd and for me. 2-1! This was amazing. (I should play with 11 men the way I play with 10 men. I see that now.)

But there was one problem. I had 10 men, I was playing Manchester United, and there were 40 minutes left to play in the match… Factor in the CPU’s notorious onslaught mode (or God mode, or aggro mode, or whatever name you call it), and I was in for some serious testing, right here, right now.

The onslaught started immediately from Man Utd’s kickoff, and lo, it was terrible. I survived through luck, of course, and some skill. Well-timed last-ditch sliding tackles (for once) and - most importantly - positional discipline. Every one of my players had to stay within 10 yards of their position. No dragging them across the pitch to chase down CPU players with the ball glued to their feet. I’d tap L1 and switch to another player nearby when that happened. It seemed to be working. It is especially important to keep your side-backs in their position, I have noticed. It’s too easy to let them wander up to the halfway line, or across to the CB positions.

Manchester United couldn’t get past me. But I knew by now that it was really only a matter a time before they did, even if it took a corner or free kick.

Then I conceded a corner. It was the 75th minute. This is it, I thought. This is the Man Utd goal. They are going to score, right now. I was already resigned to it.

However, I think I might have discovered how to defend PES2008 corners more effectively. Instead of positioning a defender at some notional sweet spot on the corner of the six-yard box (it always worked in PES5 and PES6), this time round it’s best to position your defenders in and around the opposition players, wherever they happen to be. You have to stand around them, crowd them out.

It takes some doing, as the game will only let you control at most two defenders before the corner comes in - and most often they’re the wrong defenders. But you can usually drag one or both of them into the box and stand them right on the toes of the other team’s key players. Using this method I have found that my corners/goals conceded ratio has come way down. But it is still a problem. The CPU still has a knack of getting that vital goal from corners when it needs it. Hence my worry right now in this big game.

But I needn’t have worried. Over came the corner. It was a high, vicious in-swinger. I got a head on it, and the ball dropped outside my area to Shaw. Every outfield player I had was behind Shaw. I had to go off on a run:

That was pretty satisfying, believe me.

One of the things that PES2008 has got right is that pacy players like Shaw can now outstrip other, slower players. I’d never have made it so far forward with Shaw in PES6 - the defenders would have simply caught up with me, regardless of the stats.

The game ended a few minutes later. Having played with 10 men for 85 minutes and been 0-1 down, it was one of my best performances ever.

Now I’ve just got to reproduce it in every game and I’ll be laughing.

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NB: A word for all those wanting to see either the usual grainy mobile phone photo of the current league table or (preferably) a clear text reproduction of it…

I was certain I took a photo of the league table right after the above Man Utd game, but as a certain wizened sci-fi character might say: Find it I cannot.

After playing a sequence of games - or an entire session - that I think will make a good blog post, I usually just jot down a quick note or two. The note I made after the above three games, for example, reads: 15th p32 w8 d10 l13 f30 a43 d-13 yell31 red21. And I use that to update the information in the sidebar. I also usually take a screenshot of the table, but on this occasion either I didn’t, or I’ve misplaced it somewhere somehow, or I’ve deleted it to make room for more on my phone.

However, I do have photos (plural) of the league tables taken after the even more critical games to follow, and will post them up in due course.

From season 2011 I think I’ll make a new section in the sidebar specifically for the league table. It’s a bit of an oversight not to have already done that, but I play PES first and blog about it second, and don’t ever want it to be the other way around.