1st season of my PES3 ML with Puerto is now over.
After the tactical change I spoke of in my previous update, which brought an amazing 3 wins in a row - as well as a 2nd place on the D2 standings -, we then drew no less than 5 matches in a row (!!) and ended up letting go of the dream of promotion to the D1.
Still, the interesting bit is that we finished with the best defensive record of the league! Our main issue was always our lack of ability to create chances up front; Castolo carried the team on his back, having scored more than half of Puerto's 12 goals, but Barota, Ximelez, Deco and Minanda were almost always harmless - yes, even Deco. The teamwork system in PES3 is ruthless: when you acquire a player, his teamwork attribute drops to excruciatingly low levels, and it'll take a while for him to recover. It definitely shows on the pitch: on the first few matches you'd believe Deco was a ML Default himself, such horrible were his performances, but bit by bit he began to showcase his skill and by the end of the season he was already controlling the midfield.
In the end, despite our decent first season, we will spend another one on the D2.
As for the D2 Cup, WL White eliminated us on the first round.
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The pre-season 2 is here and I was able to shake things up a bit.
Because of the lack of PES Points in the bank, I couldn't buy players so I had to rely on free agent transfers and trades. The first bunch rejected all of our offers, so trades it is. I was able to move Celnili, Ceciu and some other guy and got Peixe, Paredes and Ricardo Fernandes - all past Puerto players IRL, though most fans won't even remember they played here. So far, the blockbuster trade has been Castolo for Benfica's Miklos Feher - a risky one, as Puerto gives up his undisputed best player and top scorer for a reserve (with good stats though). You might know that Feher died while playing a match for Benfica just a season after PES3 was released, I was watching the broadcast of that game at the time...
Also got Jorge Andrade for Ostwaut.
I was reluctant but ended up acquiring a few on the "Growth Players" list, which features a few young newgens with horrible stats and names like Leibniz, Goya, Fahrenheit...cheeky Konami. Got Leibniz (GK), Hugo (CMF), Morais (SMF) as benchwarmers for me to be able to let go/sell/release/kick out/poison in their sleep the likes of Zamenhof, Stremer, Burchet and Huylens since no club wants them and they never play anyway. As soon as I'm able to get more IRL Puerto players I'll release them as well; for now, they might be useful as Yellow Card Slaves.
Espimas got two transfer offers (Constantii and Guadalquivir, I believe) after having been one of the solid elements of Puerto last season, playing as a RB. I let him go and am now able to actually acquire players. Have made an offer for Helder Postiga to play a Postiga-Feher duo up front and trade/release/"terminate" Barota, who was extremely disappointing last season and is one of our costliest contracts.
In parenthesis are the players who're next on the acquirable list:
GK: Ivarov (Ovchinnikov, Vitor Baia)
RB: Peixe
DC: Vornander, Dulic (Jorge Costa, Argel, J. M. Pinto)
LB: Jorge Andrade
DMF: Paredes
CMF: Deco
AMF: Minanda (Maniche, Alenitchev)
LMF: Ricardo Fernandes
ST: Feher, Barota (Postiga)
...and just like that, I'm getting closer to complete of the objectives of this save: to be able to field in an all-Puerto starting-11.