Soccer Thread

[~Nicole~]

I ended up coming from behind to beat Blackburn Rovers 3-1 with a Scott Sinclair hattrick! Next up Aston Villa and Manchester United ( if I win both I will be in second place 2 points off Chelsea ) so wish me luck guys!

[Zorocario]

Manchester United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[The Benmeister]

A 6-1 win for us Gooners yesterday, everything is falling in to place! Never worried about us, obviously we're still only four games into the season but the way so many people were writing us off, was embarassing. Cazorla and Podolski look like they're very much suited to Arsenal, Cazorla especially was great yesterday from what I hear. Even Gervinho bagged two goals! I hope he finds form, near the end of last season he was actually putting in lots of effort, maybe it will finally pay off.

Stupid fun fact, this time last season, our goal difference was -7, and this season it's +7.

Montpellier and Man City next for us!

What is up with Milan and Madrid? They both seem to be racking up bum results so far this season. I imagine they'll both bounce back but you never want to start a season badly. Speaking of Montpellier, their domestic start to season has not gone very well either. A one season wonder perhaps? Hope not personally.

[~Nicole~]

Anyone have FIFA 12 for PS3? My online ID is DcB1919, if you ever want to play, just PM me, coz I'm really bored.

[The Benmeister]

^ Would that I had a PS3, I would comply, but alas I do not.

Speaking of football games, I simulated the 2011/12 on Football Manager from the non-updated patch. Humorous results include Kenny Dalglish taking Liverpool to the Premier League and FA Cup double, Arsenal sacking Wenger midway through the season, replacing him with Ancelotti who then won them the Europa League. Bayern won the Champions League on home turf against Barcelona (so at least we know how it would have turned out!).

The bloody Spurs won today, ahh well. I had hoped I would not have needed to consider them a threat this season.

[~Nicole~]

Just because Bayern beat Barca in some football manager game doesn't mean it would have been like that if Chelsea hadn't cheat to get to the finals.

[The Benmeister]

The beauty is in never knowing.

[Ninjames]

*Waits for FIFA 13 demo to download*

[Ninjames]

My thoughts on the FIFA 13 demo.

    Spoiler:- An amateurish and late FIFA 13 demo review:

Show Spoiler

 
The first thing that I noticed were the graphics. In this demo the colours seem brighter, more vivid. They made the game look really really good. The crowd look marginally better, too; whereas in '12 they were jaggy and undetailed, there are some instances in '13 where they are fully animated and detailed (I noticed this change whilst taking part in a penalty shootout). There are times when the crowd looks just as it did in '12 (when the camera loads up a cutscene of the reaction of a player who's just conceded a throw-in, for example). Despite this I think EA have taken a step in the right direction.

The next thing I noticed was that I made less mistakes and the play overall is faster paced. The passes go where you want them to go more frequently than they may have done in '12. Player cutscenes look to have been improved (one that stands out in my mind is a stressed Joe Hart running his gloved hands through his hair after conceding a rather brilliant chip). I don't recall seeing that until now.

The change EA made with first touches isn't as noticeable and/or aggravating as I thought it would be. If it's a poor first touch I just accept it and get on with the game.

All in all, FIFA 13 looks like it will be a good game. 7/10.
 

[ShinyHaxorus]

My thoughts on the FIFA 13 demo.

    Spoiler:- An amateurish and late FIFA 13 demo review:

Show Spoiler

 
The first thing that I noticed were the graphics. In this demo the colours seem brighter, more vivid. They made the game look really really good. The crowd look marginally better, too; whereas in '12 they were jaggy and undetailed, there are some instances in '13 where they are fully animated and detailed (I noticed this change whilst taking part in a penalty shootout). There are times when the crowd looks just as it did in '12 (when the camera loads up a cutscene of the reaction of a player who's just conceded a throw-in, for example). Despite this I think EA have taken a step in the right direction.

The next thing I noticed was that I made less mistakes and the play overall is faster paced. The passes go where you want them to go more frequently than they may have done in '12. Player cutscenes look to have been improved (one that stands out in my mind is a stressed Joe Hart running his gloved hands through his hair after conceding a rather brilliant chip). I don't recall seeing that until now.

The change EA made with first touches isn't as noticeable and/or aggravating as I thought it would be. If it's a poor first touch I just accept it and get on with the game.

All in all, FIFA 13 looks like it will be a good game. 7/10.
 

Gotta agree with your review, I noticed the game seem faster paced and passing was much better, I also didn't really notice the first touch changes as much as I thought I would ( you can tell when you're playing with the likes of Aguero on your team, although I hate playing as citeh I felt I had to after playing as Arsenal, Dortmund and Milan :P)
the main thing is I found the defending a little hard to get used to at first after horrible defending system (IMO) in 12 FIFA 13's seems to flow a little more which while making the defending less agrivating I found myself trying to play how I would on 12, I'm sure after a few more games I'll get used to the system in 13 and I'll love it.

[RevengeHitokage]

Not buying Fifa this year after buying Fifas 10-12. I'm thinking about selling my xbox [not been on it since March], but knowing me I'll give in and put it on the christmas list

[~Nicole~]

The AI seem much harder than on '12 too, World Class looks like it's gonna be a little more of a challenge this year.

I'm on a really bad run in my CM now with City, beat Stoke and Norwich 3-2 and 2-0 respectively then I ended up drawing 2-2 with Manchester United, drawing 1-1 with QPR, drawing 0-0 with Liverpool ( Liverpool had like 40 shots 2 on target lol ) lost 3-1 to Chelsea, drew 1-1 with Arsenal and drew 0-0 with West Brom. However I'm still only 5 points off the top. God I really have to improve my away form if I want to win the Premier League

[abrar14]

Fifa 13 looks good judging by the Demo. Cant wait for this and WWE 13 to come out so i can dig into the 2 sports games i still buy

Is football manager any good? It looks interesting and i do like to think of myself as a master tactician :3

[~Nicole~]

For anyone that want's to add me my Online ID on PSN is DcB1919, you can add me and when I'm online a little later we can play.

[The Benmeister]

Is football manager any good? It looks interesting and i do like to think of myself as a master tactician :3

I'd say it is, I've spent much time on it, though it's still got some problems. You don't need to be particularly great to at least somewhat succeed at it.

[~Nicole~]

Can someone please tell me about Football Manager and things like if you control the players, if you can manage any team or just crap teams etc. etc. Thanks in advance!

[TheSirPeras]

Can someone please tell me about Football Manager and things like if you control the players, if you can manage any team or just crap teams etc. etc. Thanks in advance!

In Football manager you pretty much do everything the coach does. You buy/sell the players, you watch the game, you can train any team you want as long as you chose the league at the beginning. There's all the tournaments, you go to interviews, you make the team (of course lol), you get to interact with the direction, like if you want more money you can ask them but they may say no. You can also put a player in a special training program, which you can also create. If you want a defender to start playing as a striker, you can put him training as a striker in the training, etc. You'll eventually get used to all of this. You can also train more teams at once, and national teams (although that's kinda boring cuz you only play games every now and then, unlike actual teams where u basically play every week). If you win the CL, you'll get a lot of money, etc all that stuff.
You do not control the players though, you just tell your team what to do. You can tell them "You should win today" or "Do this for the fans" before the match starts (there are more options). If you want your team to do something specific you can, per example if you want your team to play more in the middle of the field, you can choose that option. There are tons of options.
Can't remember anything else at the moment
Per example:

1. Choose the Spanish League.
2. Choose any Spanish Team.
3. Wa la


I think it's a really cool game xD I have one game file at the moment with Juventus, but it's not really advanced, but I think I am second or first

[The Benmeister]

^ You summed it up quite nicely. But you didn't mention the crippling amount of annoying unpreventable injuries! =P

I'm definitely a lower league player, I'm currently on a save at Gateshead FC trying to adapt to their new life in League Two.


Currently watching Everton against Newcastle, first contentious goal-line technology incident of the season, great.

[TheSirPeras]

^ You summed it up quite nicely. But you didn't mention the crippling amount of annoying unpreventable injuries! =P

I don't remember with what team but one friendly match right before the league started, TWO of my main team players got injured for like 2 months, I was so annoyed xD

[The Benmeister]

I just hate it when players get injured in training due to some stupid thing you can't do anything about.

Prediction stuff!

AC Milan 2-2 Anderlecht
Borussia Dortmund 2-1 Ajax
Din Zagreb 1-3 FC Porto
Malaga 1-1 Zenit St P'sbg
Montpellier 1-2 Arsenal
Olympiakos 0-2 Schalke 04
Paris SG 3-1 Dynamo Kiev
Real Madrid 2-2 Man City

Barcelona 4-1 Spartak Moscow
Bayern Munich 1-1 Valencia
Braga 1-1 CFR Cluj-Napoca
Celtic 0-0 Benfica
Chelsea 3-2 Juventus
Lille 2-1 BATE Borisov
Man Utd 2-0 Galatasaray
Shakhtar Donetsk 4-1 FC Nordsjaelland