Played two, won two.

Yes, that really is my Coventry City, blurrily riding high in the #1 spot.

I won both games 1-0, playing well and scoring with Schwarz (he’s 19 now - they grow up so fast these days…) in the first game, and, crucially, Frutos in the second game. It’s reassuring to play with a solid striker at last.

Frutos’ goal was nothing special - a snapshot finish during a melee on the edge of the area. I scored it early in the first half of the second game, and spent the rest of the match defending for my life. My new CB, Rami, played in this match (Suzuki was unfit). Rami was immense. He seemed to head everything away from my goal. A commanding presence in the centre of defence is what I’ve been lacking.

I also played a first round game in the Division 2 Cup. I played Hammarby away. (I always seem to play Hammarby in the first round.)

They went 2-0 up before half-time. Both of their goals were among the worst of the worse goals I have conceded in PES2008. Here we go again, I thought.

I decided that I needed an away goal at the very least to take into the home leg and give me a chance. Shortly before full time, Macco came on as a substitute and I switched my formation to Strategy Plan B - the ultra-attacking 1-2-4-3 formation.

I got my reward in the 90th minute. It was a rare kind of goal for me. A sliding tackle on the right wing broke my way for once, and I passed inside to Macco, then jinked past a couple of defenders. After going on a rare dribble and getting in on goal I usually panic and blast it high and/or wide. But I kept my focus and executed a nice dinked finish past the Hammarby keeper.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuHRtfiHVH8&rel=1]

The game ended 2-1 to the hosts. I think I’ll turn them over back at my place.

The cup is a nice bonus - a way to earn extra spending points and experience for certain players, and it would be nice to win the D2 Cup before I hopefully leave the Division forever. But the league is the priority.

The league table right now means nothing. I won’t be taking my eye off the ball. Promotion is the ball. And I’m not taking my eye off it.

Season 2008 is over.

Final Position: 18th (36 points)
Won:9 Drew:9 Lost:20
Goals scored:29 Goals conceded:57 Goal difference:-28
Yellow cards:41 Red cards:24

Third from bottom is better than rock bottom. Bring on the next season.

My transfer market activity was a little subdued by a deficit in my points. To avoid a Game Over I had to make up the difference somehow before I could even think about doing anything else. I put all of my remaining Default players on the market and advanced to the next week.

Thankfully, another club offered to buy Fouque. They were welcome to him. I got about 2600 points, which put me back in the black by about 1500 points. I could have trimmed the wages bill by releasing a couple of the Default stiffs, but as trade-in fodder they’re more useful to me alive than dead…

So my dreams of going on a spending spree were dashed. I could afford to bid for maybe one good player (with a trade-in). Any other players I got would have to be out-of-contract ones, or youths.

Here’s who I got in the end:

RAMI - CB, age 23. Out of contract. I offered a deal, and he accepted. Looks like a good solid CB with pretty good stamina and heading abilities.

CAFU - SB, age 17. I couldn’t resist snapping up the semi-legendary Brazilian right back when I saw him pop up in the Youth list. He already has great stats, but as ever his fitness will hold him back for a couple of seasons.

SHAW - SMF/WF, age 17. Another simply irresistible discovery in the Youth list. The legendary PES6 player returns to my Master League side anew. The value of this player throughout his 20s is incalculable. I could have filled two PS2 memory cards with his memorable PES6 goals alone. Alas, as with Cafu (and the other 9387 Youth players I’ve taken on), he’ll be a spectator for most games because of his fitness.

FRUTOS - CF, age 28. I traded a player for him (can’t remember who now - maybe it was Ceciu). Frutos is just the ticket: an experienced, reliable striker to play up front and allow Shimizu to move back to midfield.

(I know, that’s two more Youth players to add to the acne-scarred list. But Cafu and Shaw are special, as Schwarz and Shimizu were and are. And the other youngsters are all getting on a bit now.)

I’ve gone with this First XI for the imminent start of the 2009 season:

Only Frutos is new on the teamsheet. I’ve moved Folan over to the right and put Shimizu in his natural right-sided AMF slot. I’m still leaving a lot of pretty good players out of this diagram, but as ever it’s all academic. It’s a rare match when the First XI is the team that actually plays.

Here’s my complete squad right now:

There’s still a lot of dead wood to clear out. Among the remaining Default players, only Macco still plays well for me - the others are all headed out of the door as soon as possible. Among them, sadly, will be Rommedahl. I had such high hopes when I got him from the Out of Contract list last season, but he has done nothing of note.

I’m not going into 2009 - my third season - with any grand plans. I’m not aiming for targets. I’m going to adopt a common football mantra, and just take each game as it comes.

The pressure is certainly on, though. If I don’t achieve promotion to Division 1 in the 2009 season, it’ll be my worst-ever Master League start on a PES game. I can’t shake the feeling that with the players I had last season I should have done a lot better. I worry that I might have lost my Pro Evo mojo. Or perhaps PES2008’s Master League is actually, you know, challenging…