Soccer Gaming Catch-All

Hey! Do you know who wants to sign for St. Pauli? Senegalese International (and Ligue 2 defender) Ibrahima Faye!

Know who else wants to play for us? NOONE OF MERIT.

Reputation of the club is probably pretty low after years in Bundesliga 2.

Bugger, now I'm considering another one of my futile attempts to get 1860 back into the big time...

Prederick wrote:

Hey! Do you know who wants to sign for St. Pauli? Senegalese International (and Ligue 2 defender) Ibrahima Faye!

Know who else wants to play for us? NOONE OF MERIT.

Wait, you have money?

No transfer budget, but i'm already pissing off the board as we've gone over the wage budget because we need these dudes. We did manage to attract some other persons of interest, including Dino Drpic and Iraqi international Nashat Akram.

Damn, I miss games in higher divisions where you come into club with absolutely no money to spend, but not in crisis. Last one like that for me was probably Cardiff in FM 2009 (2008?), just after they've moved to new stadium so over first three seasons I've been given something like 800k for transfers.

So i'm toying around with 4-5-1 variants (one DM, two DMs), although I have been sorely tempted to try a 4-2-3-1 approach with the various AMC's floating around St. Pauli, but I'm having two issues. One, my AMR finds himself frequently isolated and taken out of the game. I've tried having him cut inside, move into channels, but he ends up not having much effect on the game, with all of our offense concentrated down the left. I'm thinking of just turning him into a out-and-out winger, but my fear leads to issue two...

...lone striker play. I have no doubt it's partially indicative of the quality of players at my disposal (32-year-old Markus Ebbers is many things, but not impressive), but getting good lone striker play has been incredibly difficult so far. Short of finding someone with better Teamwork+Work Rate, any advice?

If most of your attacking moves are coming up the left side and you set your AMR to an attacking-minded winger he'll still drive into the box. He could get his fair share of scoring chances on crosses driven to the back of the box.

I'm trying out San Marino in Serie C2/B since I haven't been able to stick with anything lately. Luckily an assitant manager who can actually judge talent was willing to sign on which helped me find some quality players on trial. Highlights include a 43 year-old centreback (who isn't as slow as you would think) and this guy, an attacking midfielder who can't stay healthy.

Whenever I watch a match and he manages to not get injured I imagine a fat guy staying in the middle of the pitch attempting to pass the ball about. I have him set as an attacking-minded Advanced Playmaker and he does alright when he stays on the pitch. Thanks to two violent fouls we've had a dip in form with key players suspended for 3 matches but halfway through the season and San Marino are in a playoff spot. Finances are ugly as I released 50 useless players who wouldn't accept mutual terminations.

Pred, 4-5-1 = AMR+AML or MR+ML?

I use one winger for chance creation and other for making runs forward. So for example my AML is Alex Teixera set as supporting inside forward (cut inside, RWB and TB often), AMR is Alexis Sanchez playing with attacking duty with Move Into Channels (that's the essential setting here, I think). This leads to a lot of lateral through balls from left wing into Sanchez making a run into space on right.
That's a perfect setup for when you have typical right footed AMC (creative, not great finisher) and quick right winger. Just utilise former as AML.

Almost any ST can work with lone forward role. For me finishing is more important than with 4-4-2 strikers, though, because it means this lone guy will be on the end of all those 'just put a foot in' chances.
(For example check out Park Chu Young. He was main striker at Monaco when I came in, and he had *everything*, but after season I've sold him because his inconsistent finishing had me flipping out every other game.)
As for tactical instructions, there is not much to be done. I find setting up strikers much much harder with 4-4-2. With lone striker either dropping deep/holding ball or poaching work fine in my experience.

Roke wrote:

this guy, an attacking midfielder who can't stay healthy

This game should include player type description "dead dead ball specialist".

UCRC wrote:
Roke wrote:

this guy, an attacking midfielder who can't stay healthy

This game should include player type description "dead dead ball specialist".

He was fully fit for 1 match in my first season and I think he finished 5. Him and my striker missing out on the 2nd leg of the playoff semi-final

Thanks to the weekend, playing with only commentary, [size=8]having no life[/size], and vacationing between matches i got through my second season. Things went pretty well after a slow start: switched from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-1-2 and managed to battle to 2nd in the league. The playoffs were also going swimmingly until an insane referee handed out yellow cards like candy, resulting in three of my back-four being suspended for the home game. Disaster and sacking ensued.

I think I'm going to give it another shot, making sure I don't sign players I did in my first go round. Take things a little more leisurely, go with a narrow formation from the start, not sign an often-injured fat midfielder, and maybe things will go better.

Alright, completely random noob question. Other than Olympics and World Cup I haven't watched soccer more than maybe 10 hours total in my life. I played around when I was a kid but grew up playing the typical sports for small town America (basketball, football, baseball) and thus always attached to those video games. Feeling severely disappointed by NCAA 12 this year and curious about the sport after the last two World Cup Championships, I think I'd like to pick up the sport a little starring with a game. The question is, which one?

I played the demo of FIFA 11. Any reason not to start there. Will it teach me the basics in terms of ruled and strategy?

If you want to know about rules and strategy, it's not too bad - although the strategic element is probably more about tactics at team level, ie what formations to use etc. I'm not sure it will teach you about those things, but you will have some fun.

If you want to know about actual strategy (how do I put a team together etc), I would actually suggest Football Manager, but for someone just getting a taste of the sport, it is extremely dry (think of it as something like OOTP or Front Office Football). Be advised - it is not a graphical tour de force, and you will find yourself trawling discussion boards looking for cheap Brazilian 17-year-olds....which you may find difficult to explain when asked about

Oh, and FM is known as Worldwide Soccer Manager (I think) in the US.

No, I definitely want to "play" football to start with. I'm enjoying the FIFA 11 demo, so I suppose that's a good place to start.

EDIT: Picked up FIFA today. God help me but I'm playing Forza and FIFA and not playing NCAA Football or Madden. I'm not "going Euro", but I'm certainly board with the sports games offerings coming out of the US and intrigued by other sports.

FIFA is definitely the place to start DSGamer, hope you enjoy it. If I ever get a console FIFA would be one of the first games I buy.

I can't blame you for not wanting to jump into the Football Manager deep end but the game has its merits. I would say that (sadly) roughly half of my soccer knowledge comes from playing the game.

davet010 wrote:

Oh, and FM is known as Worldwide Soccer Manager (I think) in the US.

I don't know if the game is sold at retail over here anymore so I don't think they kept the split naming. Looking at the games I have, 2006 (boxed copy), 2007-08 (digital distribution from whatever service SI were using), and 2009 (Steam) were all referred to as Worldwide Soccer Manager. Since 2010 it's been 'Football manager' on Steam.

Roke wrote:

I can't blame you for not wanting to jump into the Football Manager deep end but the game has its merits. I would say that (sadly) roughly half of my soccer knowledge comes from playing the game.

I wouldn't say that's a bad thing. The primary reason i'm a soccer nut now, and a HUGE amount of my soccer knowledge (like that Litex Lovechs is a team, and a knowledge of the career path of Julius Aghahowa and Freddy Guarin) is entirely due to FM. If not for FM, I might not like soccer.

DS, FM is a great game, but it's only for you if you can imagine enjoying games like Out of the Park Baseball or Front Office Football. If you need that tactile sense, go with FIFA first, and them maybe rent PES sometime and compare and contrast. Six years ago I would've been screaming for you to buy PES, but at the moment they've lost a healthy chunk of my trust.

Prederick wrote:
Roke wrote:

I can't blame you for not wanting to jump into the Football Manager deep end but the game has its merits. I would say that (sadly) roughly half of my soccer knowledge comes from playing the game.

I wouldn't say that's a bad thing. The primary reason i'm a soccer nut now, and a HUGE amount of my soccer knowledge (like that Litex Lovechs is a team, and a knowledge of the career path of Julius Aghahowa and Freddy Guarin) is entirely due to FM. If not for FM, I might not like soccer.

I often get strange looks from my friends when I recall preferred foot or exact height of some player in some random football game we are watching.
Or even worse yet, I will comment on his attributes. I was watching Copa America a lot lately, so when I saw Arturo Vidal completely miss the goal from 30 meters my first reaction was "wait, he's usually pretty good with these situations". And then I realised I've never seen the guy. Which is probably something that all FM players have going on for them. Which is nice.

Hey, how about actually picking up PES6 instead of any of new ones? DSGamer, if I were you I'd just try FIFA11 for dozen of games and then look for Pro Evolution 6. It's five years old, but it's probably the most playable soccer game which you can find these days, I've played more than dozen of seasons (multiply by +50 games, multiply by 15-20 minutes per game) and didn't get bored. It had it's flaws but core gameplay elements like shooting, passing and running with the ball make even current FIFA look clumsy.

UCRC wrote:
Prederick wrote:
Roke wrote:

I can't blame you for not wanting to jump into the Football Manager deep end but the game has its merits. I would say that (sadly) roughly half of my soccer knowledge comes from playing the game.

I wouldn't say that's a bad thing. The primary reason i'm a soccer nut now, and a HUGE amount of my soccer knowledge (like that Litex Lovechs is a team, and a knowledge of the career path of Julius Aghahowa and Freddy Guarin) is entirely due to FM. If not for FM, I might not like soccer.

I often get strange looks from my friends when I recall preferred foot or exact height of some player in some random football game we are watching.
Or even worse yet, I will comment on his attributes. I was watching Copa America a lot lately, so when I saw Arturo Vidal completely miss the goal from 30 meters my first reaction was "wait, he's usually pretty good with these situations". And then I realised I've never seen the guy. Which is probably something that all FM players have going on for them. Which is nice.

This is true. When Canada hands an international cap to some random guy absolutely nobody has heard from it means it's time for me to load up FM and take a look at him. On the other hand, a friend of mine will never let me live down calling James Beattie my "new Alan Shearer" from my first FM2006 file.

Pred, I just saw "hrs played" next to FM 2011 on your Steam profile, and right now I'm wallowing on the floor, mumbling to myself.

UCRC wrote:

Pred, I just saw "hrs played" next to FM 2011 on your Steam profile, and right now I'm wallowing on the floor, mumbling to myself.

That's a grossly misleading number, as I have a habit of leaving FM running while i'm out of the house/asleep/playing XBOX. Probably something like 1/4 of that is realistic.

Prederick wrote:
UCRC wrote:

Pred, I just saw "hrs played" next to FM 2011 on your Steam profile, and right now I'm wallowing on the floor, mumbling to myself.

That's a grossly misleading number, as I have a habit of leaving FM running while i'm out of the house/asleep/playing XBOX. Probably something like 1/4 of that is realistic.

Oh, in that case you're perfectly normal.

So St. Pauli stayed up. Barely. How?

Final game of the year was against Koln. 1-1, headed into stoppage time. Marius Ebbers (who I mentioned previously for being f*cking useless) is starting because the good striker (Rouwen Hennings) did his ACL and is out until god knows when. Anyway, Ebbers chests down a free kick, turns his man, and absolutely crushes it...

...into the goalie's face. However, the ball ricochets off the goalie, onto the legs of a stunned defender, and rolls pitifully into the net. St. Pauli wins 2-1, and is saved from relegation by two points. I can't wait until next year, when our transfer budget is the same (nothing).

And that's why they are known as the 'Happy Fans'. That and the prodigious quantities of Jagermeister. And being near the Reeperbahn.

I didn't post any updates on AS Monaco, because it turned into the same old cycle of brining in CL prize money and thriving because of player wages in France being relatively small. So there is nothing particularly exciting to write about as it's the same challenge as in previous saves. I ended up as league winner and CL runner-up twice in a row.
Time to get back to the basics, I think.

In other news, FM 2012 got announced, but I don't see anything to get me excited so far.

So, a sudden uptick of interest in checking out a Sporting KC at Livestrong Sporting Park has driven some interest in seeing if there is a soccer game that is MLS centric? Does FIFA cover the MLS?

MLS centric? No. However the MLS is well represented in FIFA and FM.

Arise!

So I have two files ongoing. One is a Gateshead file which has been vacation-mode-tastic and I got the team to the Premier League after too many seasons. It's amazing how much easier things become when you have that Premier League cash to splash.

The other is a change-of-pace Spurs file because I don't like Redknapp all that much, they have a nice squad, and I like to wheel-and-deal on the transfer market. We actually had negative net-spend until Boxing Day injuries to Modric (out for 4 months) and van der Vaart (out for the entire 2nd-half) meant I had to spend some additional money, which was disapointing. I like to think that negative-net-spend is un-Harry like given the financial position of Southampton and Portsmouth shortly after he left.

Either Gareth Bale is incredibly overrated or I happened across a Wünder-tactic. Your basic 4-2-3-1 with wingers, a target-man (Crouch/Hulk), and either a long-shooting AMC (van der Vaart) or a Trequartista (Modric). I'm not explicitly using the corner exploit (mixed distribution though players are in set positions), it's not a narrow tactic like the one I had back in FM2010, and I can't think of anything crazy going on there.

Link because I can never get screenshots embedded:
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i189/Roke11/Bale.png

27 goals and 38 assists are hockey numbers. My strikers' totals are high... Crouch: 19 goals in 31 (7) ; Hulk 43 goals in 36 (9) but the rest of the squad is normal. I glanced at the Spurs Team Guide thread on the SI forums and of the few early-season Bale stats I saw they weren't outlandish.

Is this another case of me finding a match engine exploit (like in 2010 with narrow tactics) or is Bale just incredibly overrated?

I think i'd argue the reason FIFA is so good is that it has direct competition in PES. PES very much forced FIFA to change the way the game was played (for a long time, FIFA had the sales numbers, but all the world's most famous players were dedicated PES fans). Arguably, FIFA's the superior title now, but the lesson is the same. Competition is very, very good.

Jayhawker wrote:

So, a sudden uptick of interest in checking out a Sporting KC at Livestrong Sporting Park has driven some interest in seeing if there is a soccer game that is MLS centric? Does FIFA cover the MLS?

Like Prederick said. I abandoned football this year (might rent Madden) and took up futbol instead. I've enjoyed it immensely. I'm in my second season of a career with the Seattle Sounders. Going to grab FIFA 12 on day one to play with the Portland Timbers.

The last two world cups have gotten me interested in soccer and FIFA being a far superior game to EA's American football games sealed the deal. I went from being completely soccer ignorant to the beginnings of understanding it. I think part of why I enjoy it is because my favorite sport is basketball and soccer seems to flow in a similar way.

EDIT: My one disappointment is the lack of MLS stadiums. But otherwise it's well done.

Yeah. Competition is good. Unfortunately these days if you mention this in a Madden thread anywhere people lose it and tell you to get over it. Learn to love Madden or go away. I chose going away and I now predominantly play a video game of a sport I never saw until the world cups recently.

Roke wrote:

Link because I can never get screenshots embedded:
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i189/Roke11/Bale.png

27 goals and 38 assists are hockey numbers. My strikers' totals are high... Crouch: 19 goals in 31 (7) ; Hulk 43 goals in 36 (9) but the rest of the squad is normal. I glanced at the Spurs Team Guide thread on the SI forums and of the few early-season Bale stats I saw they weren't outlandish.

Is this another case of me finding a match engine exploit (like in 2010 with narrow tactics) or is Bale just incredibly overrated?

Did you set him to attacking winger? In my Monaco save I had Nicolas Gaitan as my AML for three season and I've noticed that he used to get those kinds of numbers (of goals and assists), although never in the same season - it depended on couple of personal instructions and especially on Crossing/Wide play setting. So one season he'd get 25 assists in league playing as winger, the other he'd move into channels in more central role and score 15 goals and same amount of assists.

@Pred: check out PES 2012 demo! Dribbling is great, as is attacking movement, but biggest improvement is opposition AI: my favourite situation so far is seeing Cavani and Maggio combining with one-two where former lays the ball off playing with his back to the goal for latter to try lobbing shot from 35 meters, seeing as my goalkeeper is out of his line.
edit: Hey, I forgot I recorded it with fraps: here you go. (Again, AI is attacking.)

UCRC wrote:
Roke wrote:

Link because I can never get screenshots embedded:
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i189/Roke11/Bale.png

27 goals and 38 assists are hockey numbers. My strikers' totals are high... Crouch: 19 goals in 31 (7) ; Hulk 43 goals in 36 (9) but the rest of the squad is normal. I glanced at the Spurs Team Guide thread on the SI forums and of the few early-season Bale stats I saw they weren't outlandish.

Is this another case of me finding a match engine exploit (like in 2010 with narrow tactics) or is Bale just incredibly overrated?

Did you set him to attacking winger? In my Monaco save I had Nicolas Gaitan as my AML for three season and I've noticed that he used to get those kinds of numbers (of goals and assists), although never in the same season - it depended on couple of personal instructions and especially on Crossing/Wide play setting. So one season he'd get 25 assists in league playing as winger, the other he'd move into channels in more central role and score 15 goals and same amount of assists.

That would be the issue. Attacking wingers on both sides, hug touchline (though they run inside a fair bit for some reason), crossing to the Target Man. Taking corners for half the season probably boosted his assists to an even higher total than it would have been.

That PES video makes me want to own a console. I haven't played FIFA in years.