Regardng PES 6 I always believed that you can't determine the participants for the European competitions in the first season. Well, I just tried to sort the teams in the team selection screen of Master League from best to worst and it worked. First two teams are directly qualified for the group stage, the following four teams play in the qualifying group stage. I tested this three times by always creating a new game to be absolutely sure and for each of the four leagues. I don't know if this is common knowledge but I needed 14 years to realize that this works perfectly fine. But: you can't make your own team a participant of the European Championship in the first season by placing yourself into one of the first six spots.
Interesting, I expect it is the same for PES 5 as well, though I've never tested it. Certainly the teams that appear in Europe when you are in that first Div 2 season seem arbitrarily chosen, with unexpected teams often featuring. This would explain it.
2013
They'll remember this one for years- they are the champions!
Yes, I did it. After nine seasons, eight of them in D1, I won the league. I still have a game to go, but I beat Chelsea in the penultimate game when already four points ahead. They needed the win to stand a chance of retaining the title they had won for the past seven years, but a 44th minute goal from Ordaz gave me the three points. Ximilez sent a slightly curving hard ground pass through the defence, Ordaz rolled his marker and was suddenly inside him; one touch took it to the edge of the box, the second fired it low and hard just to the side of Cech.
Chelsea dropped a few points this season, Man Utd doing me a great service as one of the few to have defeated them. Drogba doesn't seem to have featured as much, perhaps that explains Chelsea's slightly less impressive performance. For my own part, I've been a bit more consistent and resilient, not losing as many games when I've gone behind. I also had a fair bit of luck- I often moan about outrageous refereeing decisions against me, but in the third match from the end against Villa I secured the victory with a solitary goal late on. A ball was played along the ground, with Takahashi, Ordaz and a Villa defender going for it, but Ordaz bumped into the defender, knocking him off the ball, leaving the mercurial Japanese free to place it expertly past the keeper. A few games earlier I had faced Newcastle, and at 1-0 up they lost Babayaro to a relatively innocuous challenge. He slid in on Burchet as the Aussie threatened to overtake him, catching his heels but not fully arresting his progress. He might have been considered the last man, but I have seen far, far heavier challenges not even punished with a yellow. In fact I cannot remember even seeing the computer team get a straight red in this playthrough! I don't think it was pivotal in that match since I had already scored and went on to win by the same 4-0 margin as I had against them earlier in the season (their attacking was a bit poor in both games), but it is typical of how things have been going my way late this season.
I did in fact do the treble this year- Chelsea stubbornly scraped through to the finals of the D1 and CL cups, tediously reducing the variety for me. I won the D1 cup 2-1. An early goal by Gazza, laid on by Argentine superstar Orellano, was quite soon equalled by Robben firing low into the corner after Essien found him with a 30 yard pass. In extra time though, my pacey Orellano came up trumps with the silver goal. It hadn't been a great performance by Chelsea, and they were even less impressive in the CL, which I won 4-0! Out of the four times I met Chelsea this season, I only failed to beat them once, when we drew in our first league encounter.
The Uefa Cup was won by Juve, narrowly beating Arsenal 2-1. The Gunners are bound to finish fourth in the league, behind Man Utd who still stand a chance of taking second despite losing to lowly Blackburn. As for scoring, I have again slightly improved on my previous year's tally in the league, scoring 61 with a game left (ended with 59 last year). I also achieved a few more points than ever before. Ordaz has 16 league goals with a game to go, Orellano 19, but the Spaniard has been prolific in the cups and finished as top scorer in both with 8 in each competition! This puts his goals in all competitions for the season at 32, and that doesn't count any goals scored in the CL qualifying stage. Gazza has scored more than ever before for me, netting 8 times in the league and a few in the cups, and though Burchet hasn't scored many this year he has been invaluable with assists (so too Ximilez). All in all, a stupendously successful season, a nice way to potentially end this playthrough as I intend to patch the game to freshen things up.