I was looking forward to the Scottish Cup, if I am being honest, it’s my only genuine chance of silverware in my debut season in FIFA 08 Manager Mode with Celtic. Rangers hold a 7 point lead in the league, I won 7 matches on the spin, only to be matched by Rangers. They will need a massive slip up, could they do a similar thing virtually, which they did in real-life this season? Is FIFA scripted like PES in this way?
I gave myself a morale boosting 3-0 win against Motherwell going into the Quarter Final against Aberdeen. The highlight being a piece of skill similar to the opening credits on FIFA 08 when Ronaldhino chests the ball past the defender. Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink chested the ball across the defenders path and volleyed from close range past the keeper. The first time I have achieved this piece of skill, it’s more to do with timing than skill, but it looked good. I wish I had saved the replay.
The Quarter Final against Aberdeen was a nail biting match, 120 computer minutes with no goals. I headed into my first FIFA 08 penalty shootout, although I do have an undefeated record in EURO 2008. I prefer using the finesse shot when taking penalties, it is more accurate, and the spin of the ball looks great, I also like the chip shot down the middle using L1 and shoot. Penalties are great on FIFA, unlike PES where they are a disaster.
I held my nerve and won 5-4 and will now play Hearts in the Semi Final.
The now defunct Gretna have put a spanner in the works of my title challenge, I dropped 2 valuable points which I could come to regret at the end of the season. I defeated Falkirk and St Mirren 2-1 and 1-0 respectively.
EA have made another blunder or my Board of Directors are smoking something they shouldn’t be. Check out the picture below, which I received after the St Mirren victory. It obviously should be Rangers, that’s Canadians for you 
SHOOTING
I made a change prior to these set of fixtures, I have changed from assisted to semi. I have been using semi on EURO 2008 for a few days and I feel you have more control of the direction of shots. This may sound crazy but I have found using assisted actually makes it harder to score. Using semi auto shooting, it definitely has improved my scoring chances, especially on angles and long range efforts, where you can apply curl, which is shown in the video at the bottom of post.
Scottish Cup Semi Final
I would say this is my best performance in FIFA 08, I totally blew Hearts away in the 1st half. I raced into a 2-0 lead with excellent goals, a free kick from Shunsuke NAKAMURA and a long rage shot from Scott BROWN, NAKAMURA came close from another free kick which smashed off the crossbar. I hit my free kicks using the finesse shot (L1 and shoot) and very little power, it seems to work (the goals are shown in video below). Hearts grabbed a goal back early in 2nd half, after a horrendous AI mistake, my player was unresponsive and the ball hit his chest, the Hearts player ran in and slotted home. I was never in any danger of losing another, and ran out worthy winners 2-1.
I now play Hibernian who defeated Rangers 4-3 in the other semi-final. I haven’t beaten Hibernian in the 2 league games we have played this season.
Rangers are faltering, the lead is now only 2 points with 5 league games remaining.
heraldo - your posts are starting to show evidence of you really getting into FIFA08! It just seems like you’re really enjoying it.
The St Mirren thing looks crass but might not be what it seems… When you set up your profile on FIFA08, did it get you to choose your favourite club, and your club’s main rivals? If so, did you choose Celtic/Rangers? I’m vaguely remembering having to do the same thing with Coventry/Aston Villa back in September last year. If you did do this and the game is still fingering St Mirren as your rival, then there’ll be something wrong in the code somewhere. In lots of ways FIFA08 shows many signs of being a rushed game. (Albeit one of the best rushed games I’ve ever seen.)
Greg
I am indeed enjoying FIFA, it gets better every time I play it. I will have no problem playing it until new versions of FIFA and PES.
Started a MM career with Yeovil and has brought a new realism in terms of budget, player skill and staff upgrades.
Yes, I set Rangers as my rivals. When I go into exhibition mode these are two sides at team selection. I had a right laugh when seen the St Mirren message.
Played my 1st night game the other night against Millwall, it looked incredible.
Enjoyed your FIFA article, got my thoughts on FIFA and EURO scheduled for Tuesday
Have St Mirren been on a good run in the league, or against Celtic directly? That’s the only other reason I can think of why the game might suddenly designate them a long-standing rival. Strange one, that. Still, it’s yet another aspect where the usual EA polish could make FIFA09 so flawless we should be able to see our faces in it.
re. the WENB podcasts, they’re releasing a special at midnight tonight with some exclusive news. They’ve got some information that’s obviously been embargoed by Konami until 23 June. I think the news will be an earlier-than-usual release date for PES2009 of late Sep/early Oct. Just my guess.
No, St Mirren finished 3rd bottom I think. Obviously a flaw in game, I should offer my services and do their Scottish player database for them. They gave me a laugh, no harm done.
I am playing my Yeovil MM as I type, I have played 3 night matches in about 9 games. looks great.
I listened to Adam’s podcast this morning. He left EvoWeb on Monday I think it was, few of the guys were giving him stick about his info last year being wrong. He said that WENB have learnt from their mistakes last year and now they have inside knowledge. Last year was speculation and rumours. His parting shot was that they would be coming to WENB shortly as that will be the first with any news.
I honestly think tonight will be the first NDA, the start of the news. He said last week to listen to the clues in podcast.
Here’s hoping
ps podcast been cancelled tonight, but they will still have some news, oh I can’t wait