I had a good start to European competition in the group phase. I beat AC Milan 2-1 in a very testing game that had looked as though it was heading for 0-0 until the last 15 minutes.

Game 2 of the group was against one of my old PES adversaries, Galatasaray. They’ve tripped me up in so many ways in so many guises over the past three or four PESes that I always head out onto the pitch against them with some trepidation.

And this game justified my fears. They scored with their first attack of the game, in something like the 3rd minute. That’s how it stayed thereafter—the game ended 0-1 to them. I spent the entire match after they scored mounting the most insanely attacking spell of continuous pressure that I think I’ve ever mounted in PES2008 so far. But it just wasn’t to be. All my shots went wide or over, or the keeper saved them, or a defender got that annoying last-gasp blocking leg in the way… It’s a familiar story.

Back in the league I took on Barcelona for the first time this season and beat them 5-1. I was disappointed to concede that one goal—Rooney got it for them near the end. It was certainly 1 goal more than they deserved. It was a comprehensive rout and I could have had 10 goals.

Rooney is still running around up front for Barca at the age of 92, or whatever he is now. It all makes me feel impatient for the day when he finally retires and reappears as a 17-year-old Regen. I’ll sign him immediately when that happens, along with a few others—Torres and Gerrard to name just two.

In my mind’s eye I can see these glorious Regenned superstars, all in their early- to mid-twenties, playing in my team circa 2030 or so. It will happen.

I should just have time to get to season 2030 in this career before FIFA09 and PES2009 come along. At the moment I’m getting through a season roughly every week or ten days. I’ll be playing this ML career until at least the release of the full FIFA09, which will probably be in late September now. Assuming I maintain the same speed, and assuming that FIFA09 comes out on September 19 (for example), I could feasibly make it to 2030 just as the shrink-wrapping slides off my fresh-smelling new copy of FIFA09.

If FIFA09 is any good (and something tells me that it will be), it’ll be my sole game until the release of PES2009. If PES2009 is any good (and something tells me that it, ah, might be), I will continue playing both games for the whole 2008/9 season—although if FIFA09 is very, very good, I might play it as much as (or more) than PES2009, and the blog’s formula might have to change to reflect that.

My first game of the new Master League season was against Galatasaray, one of last season’s high-fliers.

I was playing at home, but - as happens around 7 times out of 10 when I play at home - the damn game forced me to play in my Away kit. Putting my team in its Away kit is actually the wrong decision by the game 90% of the time - at home and away grounds. My Coventry City team plays in an entirely sky blue kit - naturally - and there’d actually be no clash with any of the other teams’ kits. It’s just stupid.

I cannot believe that kit selection’s omission from all but Exhibition mode in PES2008 was anything other than a careless oversight. There are rumours that the forthcoming patch from Konami will be an attempt to fix lots of things about the game, not just the framerate. Here’s hoping for the rumours to have some truth to them - and, if so, for pre-game kit selection to make a welcome comeback in all modes

(The patch! Already there is more hope being placed in the forthcoming patch than there is in the Second Coming of Christ.)

Getting down off my soapbox and back to the game, things went a bit wrong even before kick-off when two of my six new faces turned up for match day with the dreaded blue arrows next to their names. Suzuki and Rommedahl were the culprits. No matter. I put Jaric in at DMF. Rommedahl wasn’t in the First XI anyway. I’d miss having him as a supersub, though.

I hope the match wasn’t a taste of things to come this season. I conceded a goal within the first 30 seconds. I tried to pass the ball out wide to Mao Molina, but it didn’t reach him. A Galatasaray player intercepted, zig-zagged his way right through my defence as if they were not even there, and scored.

I had a small amount of pressure but couldn’t keep the ball for long before the CPU team was attacking again. They scored just before halftime with a header from a corner. I am finding it very tough to defend ‘blind’ corners in PES2008. These are the corners that are taken from the far side of the pitch where you can’t see your six-yard box.

Goal number three for the Turks arrived midway through the second half. I was actually mounting some consistent pressure and carving out opportunities. I hit the post with a speculative long-range shot from De Ridder. I was enjoying the new freedom that the new players were bringing me. I could rely on being able to stop and turn with them without the CPU team automatically nipping in to take the ball away. Being only 0-2 down, I was really going for it.

Then the worst happened. And I meant the absolute worst - one of those quintessential PES moments that makes you groan.

Mao Molina received the ball on the left wing from Klavan. But something strange happened. Mao Molina didn’t collect the ball properly. It seemed to bounce back off his legs a few yards into space. Either I had tried to turn and run with the ball too quickly, or the game was modelling the fact that this was the first time both players had played together, or it was just some random effect.

So there was the ball rolling in open space midway between Klavan and Mao Molina. Klavan was best-placed to collect it, but I was still controlling Mao Molina. I pressed L1 to switch to Klavan, but I pressed a split-second after the cursor had already auto-switched to him… Meaning that I actually re-selected Mao Molina, and in the time all this faffing about was going on a Galatasary attacker scooped up the ball and raced clear toward my goal.

I brought out Zamenhof, but the CPU player took it around the keeper and slotted it home. 0-3. So much for the brave new world.