PES Chronicles

Season number 6 in Master League PES2009 is my first in Division 1. I was interested to see the composition of the division. Unlike previous PESes, the leagues are not organised along national lines. Thus my Division 1 contains Inter Milan and Manchester United, Zenit St Petersburg and Blackburn. 

This kind of mixing up is all fine by me. I don’t play Master League for its realism. Never have done. As I’ve remarked before, to all intents and purposes this blog might as well be called Master League Chronicles. This game I’m playing might as well be called Master League 2009.

I won my first game in Division 1 3-0 and my immediate thought was: uh-oh. As I found out in pre-season, the change up to Top Player seemed (for now) to have peculiarly made the game seem easier. So I suspected, anyway. The only way to test this hypothesis was to play a full season.

Still, that league table after one game made for good viewing:

Even as I steadied my hand and snapped the above photo with my mobile phone, I had a feeling things wouldn’t stay this way for long and I’d better make the most of it.

Reality soon struck—and it struck hard. I went on a wretched run of four straight defeats that saw me plunge back down the table. I was rudely dumped out of the Cup. Then, somehow (don’t know how), I managed to start drawing games.

Top Player definitely isn’t easier than Professional, I think it’s safe to say. Maybe sometimes it can seem that way, because of the way the CPU teams push up and leave themselves light at the back. But overall it feels harder to carve out the kinds of chances on Top Player that I was creating on Professional at the back-end of last season. It feels so different, in fact, that I’m having to seek out new ways to create chances and score goals. I’m not finding many at the moment…

My little run of draws started when I clinched a 1-1 in the last minute of a game. The CPU team I was playing (I forget who) somehow contrived to deflect the ball into their own net from a corner. I cackled with glee. Perhaps this was a turning point?

My 8th League fixture, and tenth overall of the season, was against Lazio. I was delighted with the 2-0 win that I somehow got—my first since the opening game of the season. I really am an average player of this game. I was pretty comfortable throughout the Lazio match, actually—which is a slight cause for worry. It’s still too early to tell for sure, but once again in a PES game it seems that the top teams might be easier to play against than the rest of them.

One agreeable side-effect of giving your ML team a stupid name: the opportunity for lots of cheesy puns. Expect that to be the first of many.

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When choosing a formation for Singers FC, have I learned the lessons of my previous Master League career?

All those weeks ago, I started with a 4-3-3 for the Default squad and got my arse royally kicked for a couple of seasons. Ziggy Bashmore’s ML guide recommends playing a 4-4-2 or even a 4-5-1 with the Defaults, as the players just can’t cope with anything more attacking that leaves them exposed in midfield.

Have I learned my lesson? Have I hell.

It’s a 4-3-3 all the way, and I’ll take the consequences. I cannot play with any other formation on PES. I am sticking with my strategy button alt formations, though, so I’ll always have the emergency 5-4-1 to fall back on. I think I’ll be falling back on it a lot.

Here’s the formation and First XI that I’m going with this time around - for what it’s worth…

I’m playing this ML on Very Hard difficulty. The players’ stamina is even worse from game to game than it was last time – and it was shockingly bad last time. Thus the team selection in this First XI is ridiculously provisional. Indeed, there’s little point in having a First XI when the team selection is not all about “who do I want to play?” but “who can I play?”

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Here’s how my first five games went:

Singers FC 0-0 Real Zaragoza

A game that I could and should have won. I created good chances and had 65% of possession. I found the Default players to be a lot better than the first time around. They’re still rubbish, but my added experience with PES2008 now enables me to make the most of what ability they do have.

Torino 1-0 Singers FC

Ouch. Another game where I dominated possession but conceded a soft goal and never got a look-in afterwards. Again, the Default players handled pretty well. I was worried that I’d try to play with them as if they were Schwarz et al, but for the moment I’m being very patient and disciplined.We’ll see how long that lasts.

Singers FC 3-1 Spartak Moscow

A great game, where I went 0-1 down but stormed back in the second half, scoring three without reply. Here’s my first two goals scored with Singers FC in this Master League:

Hardly classics. In fact, typical bread and butter goals – and typical PES2008 goals, also, with the Spartak keeper at glaring fault on both occasions. Hmmm. Where’s my copy of PES5 again? Oh, okay. There it is, safe and sound.

Singers FC 1-1 Espanyol

A hard game with an exhausted team against one of the league’s early pace-setters. I was happy with the draw.

Singers FC 0-2 Celtic

It had to happen. Celtic thrashed me at home. I say thrashed because a thrashing is what it was. It could have ended 0-5, easily. This was despite me again having the lion’s share of possession: 63%.

All of which leaves me in a respectable 15th position. I say respectable only because I was fully expecting to be rock bottom about now. If I can hold my discipline and grind out results, and if I’m in or around the mid-table area when mid-season negotiations arrive, and if I can pick up a couple of good players – then, who knows, a promotion challenge in my first season might be on the cards.

Plenty of other PES gamers have claimed they got promoted in their first ML seasons on Top Player with the Default squad, but I always assumed they were lying. We’ll see.

Blurrily, it says: “Coventry City showing great form, extend their winning streak to 5!!” —

(That’s a very debatable comma.)

The next opponents – Dinamo Zagreb – spoiled the party a little. They broke my run of 5 straight wins, beating me 3-0 in one of the most frustrating games yet. I’ve heard it said that the game will simply break your streak when it wants to. It seemed to want to. Zagreb’s goals came from a corner, a penalty, and a free kick.

I couldn’t bear to look at the league table after the Zagreb result. I put that bump in the road behind me and got on with things.

I went straight on another winning run, scoring goals galore and occasionally running riot.

Coventry City 4-3 Hammarby
Celtic 2-4 Coventry City
Coventry City 2-1 Besiktas
Coventry City 5-1 Anderlecht

I’m currently 5th in the table, just 2 points off a promotion place. There are 10 games left to play. That’s a hell of a lot of wiggle room. I think I’m going to make it.

Something has just clicked - and it was no false dawn this time. I now feel almost completely comfortable with PES2008’s game mechanics. Shooting, passing, defending – it’s all come together, more or less. I still have odd games (e.g. the Zagreb game) where it’s as if I’ve never played any game before, never mind this one.

I’m getting good again at shooting from optimum distances outside the box. I’ve always been able to net those beggars on other PESes, so it’s a relief finally to be getting ‘em regularly on this one.

Here’s Shaw playing a nice one-two before scoring with a first-time shot. I love the run he makes, going off-camera only to reappear:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_kxgIEou9Q&rel=1]

And here is Shaw himself, looking happy immediately afterward:

Here’s Shimizu scoring yet another. This is from a game against the league-leaders, Sunderland. I took a 2-0 lead but lost 2-3 in the end:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICg0pWHomsM&rel=1]

Here’s Folan finishing strongly in another match that I won at a canter:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_30RvK5H2E&rel=1]

There’s plenty more where they came from, but I think I’ve tested your browser, your bandwidth, and your patience for long enough. If I’m not careful, this blog will become uncomfortably like being forced to look through somebody’s holiday photos.

The big wins I’ve had over the past nine or so games have made me slightly worried. What if I learn how to play like this in every game? What if the word on the PES street is correct, and PES2008 is too easy?

This isn’t the time to worry about something that I’m still a long way from being able to determine one way or the other.

I suspect that I might have stayed in Division 2 a season longer than I should have done. The players I have now might be a bit too good for the level of opposition down here. I don’t know. I haven’t even got out of the Division yet. I’m assuming that I will get promoted…

I’d better not mess this up.