Manual Stimulation.

Firstly, never written a blog before, so this should be interesting, im just going to open my brain and see what comes out. i also wanted to kinda keep tabs on my manual progress.

My interest in manual peaked after i had been suffering a poor run of form with QR matches and needed to breathe some life into the game. I play for a club but the guys i play with are missing presumed dead. XBL shows them as being offline for 28 days now. i think its safe to say that my club days are over. i very much doubt i would find another club with such unselfish players and blatent disregard for results, we just had a laugh playing, which is what its all about right?

well i think so, which is why QR matches had been getting me down. im not going to go over all the gripes. we all read the forums. we all know what they are, but i still enjoy fifa, and still want to play fifa, so i needed a way to avoid the titboxes i constantly found myself paired against online.

Enter DOA Kappa Tango. i have to say a MASSIVE thank you to Kappa for all of the effort he has put into the site, its well built, and there are some nice touches.

So i signed up to the manual league, and after a false start and a few political issues we are up and running again.

In the first run of the league, i was playing as sevilla, my first game was against Kappa. It ended 0-0, it was a pretty open game, passing was good, chance creation was good, the finishing wasnt. at 90 minutes the game was 0-0 and by league rules it got entered as a draw. not bad for my first league game i thought, especially as Kappa has more experience playing manual than i do. Kappa suggested playing the ET out for a bit more practise. so we did. he scored almost straight away. i bet he was gutted. i would have been. after 120 minutes it ended 1-0.

my second game was against Wexicosh. He's a decent manual player, moves the ball about well, pretty handy with the trick stick, and gave me quite a bit of trouble handling his wingers. As with my first game, i created chances, but couldnt finish any (keep reading, there is a theme developing). It ended 2-0 to Wexicosh.

we only played 2 games before things went a bit south, mainly people disagreeing with the bonus points sceme that was in place. So after a bit of chatter on the forums and a rethink new procedures were put in place.
instead of the original league of 20, it was split into 2 leagues of 10. A Platinum league and a Gold league, with promotion and relegation. This time round there were to be no bonus points in place. But a limit in that no teams over 4* were to be used. i had a little scoot about the game, and after having missed out on a few of the prime choices i chose Fenerbache. Not sure why as i had only used them once before on fifa, but did remember that they had a pretty nifty fella on the left wing. After the draw i found myself in the gold league, so the only way was up!

Or not as it would turn out. my first game was against Socalibrphenom's LA Galaxy. The game started pretty slowly, with each of us trying to sound the other out as we hadnt played before. Beckham caused me trouble down the right, but i found fairly early on that i could get my strikers behind his back line quite easily, a combination of the pace advantage i had and the fact that with manual controls, if you concentrate, the ball goes where you want it to .

I missed a few sitters in the first half. i can only blame myself. my finishing has really let me down so far. i need more practise, and having played with assisted controls for so long, its easy to forget that direction AND power is down to you. Couple that with a striker under pressure and its very easy to hit the chubby guy in row Z.

LA Galaxy obviously got a rocket up their arses at halftime because they came out all guns blazing in the second half, and i found myself stuck in my own half for 10 minutes but I managed to soak up the pressure and start getting forward again.

It was a really open and fast game and really really enjoyable to play (remember that breath of life i mentioned earlier?) so it was also a shame that it was decided the way it was. Beckham once again caused a bit of fuss down the wing, managed to lift the ball into the box, one goalmouth scramble later its in the net. Around the 80th minute. leaving me Rueing all the missed chances and ten minutes to level it out. I put plenty of pressure on but never really looked like equalising. So after one game of the new league im 0-0-1. thankfully having just checked the tables, celtic beat leeds 2-0 so im not bottom through goal difference .

My next game is against Wexicosh again. im going to try and play him tonight, but im not sure whether to go for revenge, or to play safe as i know what he can do? ill work out some sort of strategy on the train home i think.

So. Thats pretty much a summary of my experience of the manual league so far. ive played a few really good games against Liverpool_fifa and a few with Kappa too.

i hope it doesnt take too long to find my shooting boots. because if it does i will find myself in a position i cant get out of. i really need to get some points on the board early on.

A mid table finish is my target if im honest. anything less will be a bit dissapointing, and anything more seems unlikely at the moment unless i find a way to convert my chances. creating isnt, and hasnt ever been, a problem. its putting the ball in the net thats not happening. in 3 league games i havent scored which is a bit worrying. but i guess thats part of the learning curve with manual controls. i picked up the passing really easily, and defending is ok too, but shooting on manual really seperates the men from the boys. Ill let you know once i hit puberty.

Cheers for reading.

Tom