MLS best XI whooped Man Utd. yesterday

I hear that having the best players doesn't mean you have a good team. It is fun playing around with the line-ups and trying to find the best formation in FIFA 11. Also satisfying to put my player ranking model to the test in this way.

I put the team together just pulling from the top 50 from my player rating list. The line up in the image is the one that worked out best for me.

Biggest digital them surprise after playing a few games? How strong the defensive 4 are. Nice work Captain Marshall. The other surprise? Wondo in this game. He's good.UPDATE: MLS FIRST XI announced. Players with links on the right made that team. My understanding is that the final full team list will be released next Monday.

Players selected to First XI not in my top 50, Rank on left:

54:Chris Wondolowski
119:Tim Ream
196: Rafa Marquez

EPL Notes; Stoke Early Goal!

I'm writing as the game goes on which has become customary for me because FSC is not in HD where I am. If I watch from an angle sitting at my computer I can pretend it is. Watching it straight on is migraine inducing. I actually talked with a Time Warner rep about it on the phone (lack of HD for FSC not the migraine). She said she has no clue and she didn't even know about the TW iPhone app till the day it came out. So, if you are one of those trying to get info on when you are getting a specific channel? Don't waste your time.

Chelsea puring on the pressure against Stoke now.

In other news I found the Holy Grail Excel file for EA's FIFA 11. It has all 14,463 players and all info on each player (stats from start of the season). That's correct; fourteen thousand players and all traits, nationalities and ratings. Turns out that each player has 53 unique traits. I'm using it to create more depth to the career mode I'm deep into. Talk about a huge file and, needless to say, has a ton of fascinating info for me to dig into.

Ever wonder what percentage of players in the EPL are English born? 38% Lower then I expected. Add in the players from the British Isles and you get 52%. I checked out the Bundesliga for comparison; surprisingly almost exactly the same percentage of native born; 51.7%.

The EPL has players from 66 different countries across the globe. Bundesliga? 62. Remarkably similar.

And Chelsea levels. Booooo.

EPL has 10 US players, Bundesliga; 6.

The way I look at the similar nature between the two leagues comes in two forms:

1. Happened naturally.
2. Planned occurrence.

I can't think of what else it could be. Another surprising data point is that there are no, none, nil, zilch, English born players in the Bundesliga and Germans only have four in the EPL.

My own team in the fake world of FIFA 11 is mostly made up of foreign born players. I have added 3 from the US. Hesmer, Agudelo and a guy named Seb Harris who was part of the Cobblers when I started.

NHT Cobblers (the not real one)

In deep with the "Career Mode" for FIFA. I know reading about this sort of thing is about as exciting as reading about someones fantasy football league so I'll keep it short.

I committed to taking Northampton from nPower League 2 to the top, baby. I've already taken them out of League 2 by taking the top spot and am currently 7 games into League 1. At the top again right now with three pick ups from the Bundesliga (lower division). I pulled off the J. Paint Trophy my first season as well (lost bad in both the League Cup and FA).

"...the best RPGs"

Stumbled upon an article over at Kotaku the other day that started with "Sports games are really the best RPGs." The article itself wasn't about that topic but was an interesting one about a guy who took a no name team in the Finnish hockey league to the NHL and won the Stanley Cup.

EA is doing some great things with their soccer and hockey franchises. The inclusion of the rest of the world helps immensely. I'm currently trying to take a nPower League 2 team from the near bottom of English football to the top. It's great fun and very similar to grinding things out while playing an RPG. Not the new 'action RPG' type game like Mass Effect though. More like a Bard's Tale or Ultima IV. There is a similar rush there that you feel when something you've been working towards - happens.

EA's hands are tied with Madden. It needs more. More teams, more options, more variety.

MLB The Show is on board with the more teams the better as well. Although, I don't see it toppling my FIFA 11 career mode anytime soon.

Anyway, good stuff. And great improvements on home console career mode/dynasty mode things are happening the more they start syncing up with our home computers and z internets.

To quote the article:

"For those that think it's silly, clearly they have yet to play a dynasty in a video game."

Helltown vs. Helltown

Question is: was it the Growlers that beat the Brewmasters? or was it the Brewmasters v. Brewmasters? Growlers v. Growlers? Perhaps an existential battle in my own mind?? You'll never know. Just know that it was a battle!

If anyone is interested, you... yes YOU! can download the Helltown Brewmasters United and Hellown Growlers Football Club.

Just go to HERE. Sign in and go to the creation center. Once there... search teams with key word HELLTOWN. Download it and then go to the Creation Center on your XBox. I... I mean, the teams will be on your XBox.

A lil' Football History

I'm learninged myself on soccer's best players. Well, at least English/UK ones I find interesting. Combine that with FIFA 11's good creation editor and I'm having some fun.

The Helltown Brewmasters have been up and running for a month now and I'm still having a great time with them. Today the other Helltown team was created in the way of the Growlers. Skill wise they are a better team because, well, they have some of the most interesting players I have read about. And watched online.

Here are some of the players I've choosen:

Bobby Moore
George Moorhouse
Graeme Souness
Bobby Charlton
Jimmy Johnstone
Alan Shearer
George Best
Dixie Dean
Jimmy Greaves

Outside the UK I have:

Gerd Muller
Carlos Valderrama

Of course I have a few reserves from my treasure chest:

Gordon McGirt
Mathew Drain (aka, J. Smith for reasons only known to EA)
Audrea Poff
Chad Cole
Larkin Tysor
Matthew Madaries
Billy Schwarting

Out of all of them I think Valderrama and Best are the most intriguing. If you get a chance read and watch as much as you can on George Best.

It's only the beginning for the Growlers. As I learn more about the intricacies of soccer players my get more interesting.

Of course the Brewmasters and Growlers are available for download. Feel free to bring them into your home.

The Growlers play at "Lisa's Grounds". Do it.

of course I got my own soccer heroes here:

and here:

FIFA 11 Bad Guys

I looked at this with FIFA 10 and am asking myself the same question with 11. Who am I facing online most of the time? Well... 52% of the time you will be facing the following teams:

12% : Manchester City
12% : Real Madrid
10% : FC Barcelona
10% : Chelsea
10% : Milan

I have enough data points (42) to show that most choose the best teams in the world. It's understandable with the way online ranking is set up. I just wish I could see more of SL Benfica, where I had that one magical 6-0 win. Outside of that I've not scored more then 3 goals in a game. Nor have I ever had more then 3 scored on me. That's saying something I guess.

I'm off to play. And if you can figure anything on the lyrics on this song... your a better man then I. I love it.

Name This Player

It's almost criminal how much fun I am having with FIFA 11. It's like the create a player thing was made for me. I'm playing a league setup with Helltown pitted against MLS teams. Stats are actually believable. I'm not running the table in every category. I'm around 5th place with Doran my leading scorer after 12 games the only one in the top 20.

The Team is Up and On

Better titled as: How I spent all day Sunday. FIFAs online "Creation Zone" is really good. It was easy to create players and a team then pull it on to my XBox. In fact anyone can pull down the Helltown Brewmasters United.

Here is a Smitty goal:

http://www.ea.com/uk/football/videos/ugc/39981180

Full team list is as follows. I can create up to 50 players... and I will.

Name and Position
Daniel Hunter Defender
Geoff Wood Defender
James L Johnson Defender
Jay Smith Defender
Larkin Tysor Defender
Larry Johnson Defender
Ole Moses Defender
Brett Stone Forward
Chris Doran Forward
El Vez Forward
Francis Huntington Forward
Jeff Smith Forward
Mark Ragase Forward
Matt Stevens Forward
Cory Smith GK
Scott Bullard GK
Billy Sasquatch Midfielder
Dustin Kidd Midfielder
Mark McCracken Midfielder
Matt Wood Midfielder
Russell Murphy Midfielder

FIFA 11 is here

And all the angels said! Amen!

So far the experience has been pretty good but let me get the bad out of my system.

I'm not a big fan of having to pay for features that should be out of the box. Live league play for single player is $10 bucks (800 MS pts). Not sure I like that. You have to have a code that comes on the manual to get online. I'm ok with that, I guess. Just another hoop to jump through though. I've tried to play 3 games online... two of which locked up. First day, I know. I just get skittish with Xbox Live. I don't play a bunch of games online but I have played enough to know that Live can get hijacked and broken. Ah, well. We'll see.

Now for the good.

Game play is more natural. I can't pass the ball around like a pinball machine anymore. While I liked that, 11 feels more natural and real. Tackles are better and more fouls for aggressive play. Shots are down... way down. Thumbs up for that. More play in the midfield like a real game and through passes forward are more difficult to preform. Overall, I guess what I am trying to say, it's slower. Which is great!

Much improved gameplay. Game on!

FIFA 11 and you

One of the starkest differences between a game like FIFA 10 and Madden 11 is options. And number of teams. Number of teams maybe comes first. Also, the spectrum of good and bad teams that span the globe. There are many other things different betwixt the two. Both those are the biggest.

So what I'm thinking this year. September 28th, to be exact when FIFA 11 comes out. Is to try and get an online league going. Or at least join one.

It'll be XBOX 360 because I'm hoping my man Matt will be playing too.

Difficulty will be Professional. World Class seems fake. Sped up or something. Maybe I'm just not that good yet.

Game speed... will probably be "slow". Maybe normal. Slow limits goals but not difficulty. I can play as Stoke City and give Barcelona a run for it's money but with Northampton town, no matter how hard I play, I can't win.

Clubs involved will be open do discussion.

Created player is allowed. And in as much maybe the league will start a couple weeks after Sept 28th in order to train up.

Ball will be the Hummell .04 Concept.