The weather recently has been far to good to be stuck inside playing Fifa, but i have managed to get a few games in here and there. Racked up a second league win and progressed to the semi finals of the GFL Cup. Needless to say, I'm well chuffed. On Tuesday night i played Kingofslackerz in the cup. My Fenerbahce ran out 3-0 winners over his Rangers. It felt strange going into the game, a look at his league stats, Played 7 Won 0 drawn 1 lost 6 GD -11, made me feel pretty confident, but prior to the game i took a 5-0 thumping which knocked me a bit.
I managed to score early which helped settle me into the game and added a second shortly after which was slightly....... not unfair, just a bit of a nightmare for him. I was breaking into the box with my left winger, he rushed his keeper and made contact with my player and the ball at the exact moment i shot. The ball pinged off the keepers chest, back off of me, across the box and was heading out for a goal kick. One of his defenders was rushing back to cover the line and rather than let the ball run out of play, did one of those "brilliant" traps where they knock the ball 5 yards in front of themselves. Unfortunately for Kingofslackers the goal was only 3 yards away, so in it went. It felt a bit cheap, but what can you do, there was the prospect of virtual silverware at stake ;). Shortly before halftime he mistimed a tackle in the box, conceding a straight red and a penalty at the same time. He saved the penalty and we went into the break at 2-0.
Second half he gave me a lot more grief. he threw his team forward and penned me in, but with him being so light at the back, when i did break forward i looked very dangerous. It says a lot about my finishing that i was only able to add one more goal in the second half. You can read the tongue in cheek match report here.
Last night i played Wexicoish in our second league game. It was as usual a tight game. Probably.
Ill have to admit i was lightly pissed, so i cant actually remember much of the game, or my first goal, but i do remember i scored my second in the 90th minute.
So i still have three fixtures outstanding, to be completed by the weekend, and after 7 games i have Won 2, Drawn 3 and lost 2. Goal difference is back to 0 after the two goals i scored last night, i would prefer it was a positive number, but at least i am scoring as many as i am conceding. I am currently 5th in the league. You can view the tables here.
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Im sure everyone is aware that the Fifa10 NDA's have expired. i wasn't sure about what to expect to be honest. A lot of people on the forums were really hyped, almost like they were expecting a full feature list and full game details with release date. It was clear that this wasn't the case. The guys who went to the community day were pretty much only exposed to gameplay and it's a very early build.
Jesus that sounds so cynical, but what i mean is, i wasn't expecting too much info regarding game modes and new features. All reports claim the game is superb, which is great news as it is rumoured to only be about 60% complete. The main thing i want to get my hands on is 360 degree dribbling. I have mentioned many many times that manual controls freed the game up for me, and this can only improve things in my opinion. Running with the ball is supposed to feel a lot better now, with no more changing direction in increments, and the shooting physics have been touched up so hopefully no more balloon shots. Wepeelers "Fifa 10 - first look" thread is a great read and details what information the guys from the community day have well. All of the improvments seem to be subtle but needed, so hopefully the game will feel like a beautifully rounded Fifa09 with that something extra that will make it a truely epic title. Thats what im hoping for anyway.
Glen has mentioned that he brought the problem with manual short passing up directly with the right man to deal with it, and the guy listened, went away and came back with his ideas for resolution quickly. Very very pleased about that. I guess manual players will be resigned to relearning the controls come october, but its a small price to pay. I keep hearing rumours about a "whole new learning curve" to the game anyway, which i now assume is the 360 degree dribbling, so i guess everyone will be in the same boat.
Check me out, i have managed to write three paragraphs about a game thats no where near completion without ever playing it, with only other peoples opinions and 40 screenshots (many of which were duplicates) as reference points. Oh dear.
Tom