It finally happened. A bit sooner than I thought it would, but it happened.

100 league goals. After just 29 games of a 38-game season.

I don’t really feel any sense of achievement. In every PES since PES came into being, 100 goals in a Master League season was almost the stuff of fantasy - for me it was, anyway. I’ll say it again: I’m just an average player. I’m not a PES wunderkind.

I remember getting close to 100 goals in PES6. I was on 92 goals or thereabouts towards the end of one particularly successful ML season. I psyched myself up to get to the magic 100 mark in the last three or four matches - only for two of them to be 0-0 draws, and the other two to be 0-1 defeats. On 92 goals I stayed. But that was PES6.

There was no danger of missing out on 100 goals this season in PES2008. In fact it might even be harder not to score 100 goals, once you get bedded down in a Master League with a squad of good players.

The only thing left to aim for now on the goalscoring front is to get a final goal difference of +100 or more. Now that would be even more ridiculous. The frightening thing is, I’ll almost certainly do it.

At least I had a couple of thrilling matches in among all the goalfests. One match in particular stood out. It was against Portsmouth, away. They’ve been regular whipping boys for a few seasons now. I went into the game anticipating a straightforward 0-5 victory, or better.

It did not go according to plan.

Portsmouth got the early goal to go 1-0 up. Then I had Marchisio sent off. Then Portsmouth went 2-0 up.

I was distraught. Despite being ‘only’ 5 points ahead of Man Utd in the table, I’ve played PES for long enough to know what can happen in a League when results start getting a bit ’screwy’.

Muntari got me one back in the 80th minute. I was 2-1 down, with ten minutes left. I would settle for a point from this game. Could I do it?

Of course I could. I got the equaliser with Shimizu in the 85th minute. Then I got two more with Shimizu in the 89th and 90th minutes. I’d come from 2-0 down with ten men to win 2-4. It felt good, but…

Once the dust had settled, I felt less good about it. There was no way I should have been able to come back like that, even with the players in my squad.

Next I beat Helsingborgs 6-2. Two of my goals came from Guimaraes, my skilful Brazilian right-back. Both were fine finishes after mazy runs through the entire Helsingborgs team. Here’s the better of the two:

(At the point where the clip starts, Guimaraes had already gone past two Helsingborgs players by the halfway line.)

I’m never surprised to score goals like this in PES2008. I’ve said a lot about the difficulty level of this game. I’ve criticised it, carped about it, mumbled and grumbled about it. I won’t say any more now.

—————-

I’ve found out what comes after Team Popularity ‘A’ rank. I’ve gone up another level, to ‘S’.

That progress bar is still filling up after every game. Is there another level after this one? I wonder if I’ll have time to find out before this season and this Master League career both come to an end.

After the exhilaration of avoiding relegation in 2010, I had gone ahead and set up my 2011 pre-season friendlies before realising that it might be better to play, you know, someone rubbish in order to bump my ranking up a bit. I’d chosen to play the North American Stars in the fourth week of negotiations, and the South American Stars in the seventh week. Gulp.

As things turned out my ranking went from ‘D’ to ‘C’ anyway - I think I received a bonus after the end of the previous season. But still. It would have been nice to play a few teams who I wouldn’t have to struggle to beat (in theory).

I waited until the end of the pre-season period before settling on the new First XI. Hopefully I’d be able to test out all the new signings at some point during the two friendlies.

Not Andy Cole, though. He had a grey form arrow for both games. I never try to adjust grey arrows using the Regulate Condition feature - as noted by Ziggy Bashmore, you’re only ever going to move a player’s form arrow up by one level. There’s no point turning a grey arrow into a blue arrow.

A brief word about Andy Cole before we move on - just look at those stats! Most are only just above-average for a 20-year-old striker. But look at Body Balance and Response. His development curve shows he has a ways to go yet…

The other new signings were all fit and in form. In the first friendly against a selection of North American stars, I managed to play nearly all of them.

I put Delgado on the right of midfield, O’Shea in the centre of defence, Braafheid on the left, and Lekstrom went in goal. I kept Marcos on the bench, planning to bring him on for the second half. Too many new signings in a team makes for a lot of misplaced passes and general confusion - PES has always represented teamwork most excellently, in my opinion. Depending on their teamwork stat, your new players have to play for several games - with each other, as well as with your existing players - before they settle down.

I kicked off, passed the ball wide to Shaw, went on a little run, and scored:

A great start, and it seemed it was only going to get better. I knocked the ball around at the back like a pro, linking up with midfield, finding the strikers. I hit the bar twice in the same attack. I had several shots that flew just wide. O’Shea and Braafheid at the back were excellent. I noticed how useful Braafheid was down the wings. He seemed to have that extra yard of pace missing from Klavan and Van Steensel.

At half time I brought on Marcos for Shaw. Midway through the half, Felipe received the ball in his CB position, and I knocked the ball sideways to O’Shea - but for some reason O’Shea ‘tickled’ the ball rather than trapping it… A CPU player nipped in, took the loose ball, and scored past Lekstrom (who was excellent throughout the game, and blameless here).

This incident doesn’t mean that O’Shea is a poor player. I think it was the game representing a misunderstanding between new team-mates. O’Shea won’t be a First XI choice for me, but I saw enough of him in the pre-season games to know he’ll be a good CB to have up my sleeve when necessary.

The game ended 1-1 - a fair result in some ways, but in so many other ways an unfair result. I had 16 or so shots to the CPU’s 2 shots. I had 61% of possession. But hey, that’s PES for you. Frequently, results are not fair reflections of matches. There’s nothing unique to this year’s instalment on that front. We just accept it (grumpily, but we accept it) and move on.

The next pre-season friendly against the South American stars was absolutely torrid for me. I was hammered 2-0. I call it a hammering because once again the result did not reflect the match. The South American Stars had about 55% of possession, 11 shots to my 5 shots - and, well, they ran the proverbial rings around me at times. Ronaldo and Adriano were colossal up front for them. I was lucky to keep the score down low. Lekstrom pulled off some amazing saves. O’Shea, playing again, was strong. Marcos played the whole game and was anonymous. That was only minus-point - other than the match itself, of course.

Right on the cusp of starting season 2011 proper, I had to put together my First XI. This selection isn’t necessarily the team I would put out in every game. From match to match, the usual fitness and form considerations will always supersede the First XI. But it is a template, a statement of intent if you will.

In many ways the toughest decision was who to play as my regular goalkeeper. Friedel has been a loyal servant to the club, but both his youth and the last few seasons’ goals-against tallies count against him. The development chart shows that Friedel’s peak is still several seasons ahead of him. Deputising for Lekstrom at this stage won’t do him any harm at all. As for Kim U Don’t… I still have not forgiven him for that goal.

Guimaraes goes from strength to strength as an all-round right-back. I’m starting to find that I can sprint past anyone with him down the wing. He’s become a tough SB to get past as well. Mattsson and Felipe in the centre are a formidable duo. Mattsson - one of my first-season signings - has blossomed into a true presence as a CB.

I’m planning to lock up the midfield with Marcos, Muntari, and Delgado. Djiba will play when Delgado can’t. When Marcos is out, then I’ll play Shaw. Gone are the days of routinely playing two light-as-air show ponies in those AMF slots.

Also gone are the days of routinely playing youngsters up front. I was strongly tempted to go with Andy Cole as a right-sided CF, but after playing most of last season with Chiesa, another youngster, in that position, I’ve learned my lesson. In the end I gave the place to Shimizu. His pace and dribbling should get him plenty of goals (and assists) in the games to come.

And so we start all over again.