Originally posted 22-05-2009
Title says it all. Just played my last league game of the week. Prepare for excuses and venting, There is a bottle of wine inside me.
I played honome. His league results thus far have been pretty bad, but playing all manual i know that games can go either way so i expected nothing more than a game of football. i didnt get one. I lost. 2-0. Im not even annoyed that i lost, i have played 5, lost 3 and won 2 tonight. Im annoyed at the way he played. I joined this league to get away from stupid formations and lobbed through balls, but it seems they are present here too. The weird thing is, i cant fault his goals, they werent exactly well worked, both defensive balls ups and shocking AI knock ons but they were well taken and i cant take anything away from that considering the control settings.
I just cant believe i lost, he had this weird jammed formation, it looked a bit like a loop on the radar, it meant he had 5 in the box whenever i was attacking, and he was using B to pull a second player in for the whole game meaning i was always up against six if not seven players at the back. Fair enough, its part of the game, but i couldnt get my head around it.
In my last post i mentioned my new formation, within 30 minutes of the game i had switched back to my old 4-4-2 because i couldnt make any moves through the defense, turns out it wasnt my formation that was the problem, it was his. Maybe i should have spotted it sooner. I have grown accustomed to checking peoples formations before commiting to a ranked match online, but i didnt expect to see it in a manual league game. I guess i should have dealt with it better, and can kind of appreciate the defensive mentality considering the shocking start he has had, but still, im amazed.
I usually play a few games before playing a league game to make sure im "warmed up". i didnt tonight. i doubt that played any part of it, but who knows.
There was a lot of space for me in the middle, but his box was always PACKED with players and he seemed to only have 2 isolated players up front at all times. Queue plenty of lobbed balls to the front men. Thankfully it wasnt so similar to a QRM that every single ball was picked up by a striker, with manual there are always going to be errors, and there wasnt a closet **** portuguese playboy in sight, but it did feel like i was constantly clearing up the chipped passes and then trying to make my way through a sea of defenders only to lose the ball and start the process all over again.
I may be being harsh, but please dont read it as bitterness. Thats not my style at all. i am the first person to send a message and say good game, win or lose, i pride myself on that. ive never been interested in stats really, i just love playing football, and i love playing fifa. i have taken enough spankings to realise they mean nothing. But what gets me, is that its the first manual game i have ever played that i didnt enjoy. Which saddens me. Every other game i have played has been enjoyable even if i lose 3-0, 4-0, or whatever.
I played a game against Wexi straight after. he seems to like just going to a random league and grabbing random teams, and i love it. we have had some great games against each other. tonight he chose the Austrian league, why not eh? We were both 2 1/2* teams, and it was a fantastic game. I think i needed to play a game like that to raise my spirits again. it didnt matter if i won or lost, it felt like football again. we both had that little bit more time on the ball that manual gives you, the play wasnt hurried, it was well thought out and very very enjoyable to play. I won 1-0, but as usual Wexi gave me tonnes of grief and had his fair share of chances. i really like games with him. he is a top player and i reckon he might surprise some people in the league. im not saying people think he isnt good, but he had a very similar start to me, and i have now slid right down the table, i reckon by the end he will still be in the top 3.
Other than those 2 games i played a few QRM, lost 2, both as fenerbahce to aston villa strangely. i got done in by pace and inch perfect shooting. by the time i had sussed the guys out and stopped them playing the football they wanted to play it was too late, they were winning by then and i never really looked like getting back into the game.in some ways it was nice because i was able to forget everything and just use it as some practice for defending and playing on the break.
Won 1. again against villa, and i have to say fair play to the guy i beat, he played some lovely football, and scuffed a few chances, whereas i had 1 chance all game and tucked it away. I was really pleased with that. usually i create 3 or 4 chances and if im lucky stick 1 or 2 in. but to create one clear cut chance, score AND have it make the difference in the result was a huge confidence boost. Its hard as a manual player looking back on results sometimes because you remember all the chances you had to swing the game into your favour, and if you arent taking those chances frequently it can get to you a bit.
Anyway. i have my 6 year old brother in laws birthday party to go to tomorrow, no doubt i will spend the afternoon being slapped and smothered in cake, so i need to try and negate this inevitable hangover before it kicks in.
Thanks for reading.
Tom