2005-06 Review (II): What is Linkage?

Player linkage/partnership has always been a confusing topic in WCCF.

A number of managers think that better linkages lead to better pass distributing and receiving, but often find exceptions to this during games.

I have read an experienced player's blog entry claiming that a team's linkages simply refer to the attacking mode and the passing routes/preferences of the team. While this definition does appropriately incorporate a team-oriented analysis, it still does not present the whole picture.

So, what is linkage?!
My definition of linkage is actually very simple, probably too simple.
LINKAGE = COMMUNICATION

Some of you are probably more confused than ever right now. How do I tell when my players are communicating? Well, this is exactly where the KEY PLAYER SYSTEM comes in.

A target man would call for balls to be played to him, and calls for teammates to come up for support.
This is communication.
A playmaker would call for teammates to make forward runs when holding the ball.
This is communication.
A line leader would call for teammates to line up properly and run together for making offsides.
This is communication.

So, now that we understand LINKAGE = COMMUNICATION, what does that imply about how linkages work in WCCF?

(Here I assume you understand the 5-level 12-group linkage system, and how WCCF linkages are automatically increased to a "wall" level where only friendly-game upgrades will get the linkage improved)

The following are my personal observations between friendly-game linkage upgrades:

1. Linkage upgrades tend not to occur between key men of the same types.
Players competing for the same role in the team are often found difficult to coexist. This effect is probably more visible between two Target Men, two Playmakers or two Line Leaders.

2. Linkage upgrades tend not to occur between a covering DF and a line leader.
This is similar to point #1, in that a covering DF seems to be in conflict to a line leader. A covering DF mostly exist in a stopper-sweeper type defence while a line leader prefers a line-defence formation.

3. Linkage upgrades tend to occur between key men types who cooperate with each other.
Personally I believe that the following key-man combos seem to cooperate with each other more frequently:
ANCHORMAN - COVERING DF
(both filling in spaces of the formation)
COVERING DF - MARKING DF
(especially in a stopper-sweeper defence)
MARKING DF - LINE LEADER
(as a centerback combo in a line defence)
LINE LEADER - OFFENSIVE GK
(e.g. the GK may command for a higher line)

In essence, linkage upgrades tend to occur between partnerships who cooperate frequently. For example, a target man would cooperate frequently with his FW partners and runners from MF.

Am I starting to sound like an advocate of the Enneagram?! *_^ Is it just a mere coincidence that there are 9 types of key men I have listed?! Anyway, I sincerely hope this article gives you an added perspective of WCCF as a management game.

2005-06 Review (I): Key Player System

Your probably have all heard about the all-new World Club Champion Football Intercontinental Clubs 2006-2007 by now. ^_^

(In case you have not, check these out:

Japanese with video clips and photos
http://am-net.xtr.jp/game/profile.cgi?_v=1178716134
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/games/articles/0705/11/news062.html
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/juveneko/5829008.html
English:
http://arcadeheroes.com/2007/05/12/wccf-06-07-info-pictures/
)

At this point, I would refrain myself from all the fun spectulations on the new WCCF teams, rare cards, etc. Instead I take note that, during an interview, the producer of WCCF emphasised on the 2006-2007 introduction of a key player system as well as strengthening of player communications. Here I continue my typically technical, boring *_^ way and provide you with a 05-06 review and 06-07 headstart into WCCF's key player roles as well as the linkage system.

KEY PLAYER SYSTEM

In my opinion, WCCF has always had a Key Player System embedded, especially in the complete versions of 2002-03 and 2005-06 (versus the "beta versions of 2001-02 and 2004-05). Tactics buttons (aka left-hand-side buttons), regardless of how skilful you are at using them, are being applied to the team's 11 players as a whole. A key player system presents a framework for personalising the tendencies and preferred movements of various important players, and allowing different ways that a team can be constructed.

The following list of key player roles comes from months of WCCF 05-06 experiments by my friends and myself. However, I must also state that much of the list is "stolen" from ideas in other football games such as WE/PES or FM/CM. Any football game requires a player system to program player tendencies that cannot be manually controlled. WCCF does indeed implement the most "automatic" system because it neither allows "truly"-manual controls nor overly-complicated individual player settings. ^_^

TARGET MAN
A target man is someone who will look to bring others into play via flick-ons or holding up the ball. Personally I also like to call him the "control tower at the front line".

-- requires strength, jumping, and sometimes good first touch and creativity
-- most passes to the front line will go to the target man first
-- good at holding up the ball, e.g. a "sticky dribble"
-- rare forward runs
-- bring others (especially runners from MF) into play

Examples: KLUIVERT, SHEARER, KONE

PLAYMAKER
A playmaker is someone who will generally forgo defensive duties to get himself into positions to recieve the ball and create goal-scoring oppurtunities. Also sometimes called a conductor, a regista (Italian) or the brain/CPU of the team.

-- requires top passing ability and vision
-- during game-making at MF, most passes will go to the playmaker
-- when holding ball, other players make better reactionary forward runs
-- best under low closing down (non-press)/FREE role
-- forward runs only occasional

Examples: XABI ALONSO, PIRLO, RIQUELME

MIDFIELD RUNNER
A midfield runner is someone who create goal-scoring opportunities by making forward runs from midfield. Here a run refers to both a ball-carrying dribble or an off-the-ball run into space. Both a playmaker and a midfield runner may be called a "general" or a commander at midfield.

-- requires good dribbling and understanding of forward movements
-- like a playmaker, receive many passes at midfield
-- make tactical dribbles -- long winding dribbles
-- keep possession and bring overlapping players into play
-- most common type of command tower

Examples: DECO, KAKA, SEEDORF

MIDFIELD ANCHORMAN
A midfield anchorman may also be called a Volante (Portugese) or a Pivote (Spanish). A midfield anchorman is a defensive midfielder whose main responsibility is to restrain the opposition's midfield commanders and provide added protection for the defensive line. He must also possess good sense of game balance and fill in the spaces of the formation.

-- requires good stamina and decision-making
-- mark / close down opposing playmaker / midfield runner
-- fill in space, especially in the defensive-half
-- uses short link-up passes to start transition, tends not to risk losing possession by dribbling

Examples: GILBERTO, MAKELELE, ALBELDA

COVERING DF
A covering DF is a key player who ensures that there are no "holes" in the defensive line. Whenever a DF runs out of position for a tackle, intercept or overlap, the covering DF would fill in the hole and cover for the teammate. A covering DF key man is often ideal to play at the sweeper position.

-- requires good covering and anticipation abilities
-- prefers free (non-marking) role
-- strongly prefers not to mark/tackle (i.e. very small area of tackling responsibility)

Example: LE COSTACURTA

MARKING DF
A marking DF is a key player who ensures that opposing strikers are marked properly. Also called an ace-killer. This key man will command his partners so that all opposing attackers are marked within a suitable range. (Note that this does not mean the marking DF himself must be marking someone all the time!)

-- requires top marking, tackling abilities as well as good physical play
-- Stay at back of defence, never overlapping for attack

Example: CORDOBA, BOUMSONG, CRIS

LINE DF
A line leader is a crucial player in a line-defence scheme. This key man helps maintain the defensive shape as a line and commands for making offisdes. Sometimes a line leader is also referred to as a libero.

-- requires wonderful decision-making ability
-- commands offside
-- maintains defensive shape for line defence
-- occasional overlaps for interception and subsequent playmaking

Example: MARQUEZ, LEGROTTAGLIE, DEHU

OFFENSIVE GK
A goalkeeper who posses this key man ability tends to be active as a 11th field player of the team. This key man not only acts as an extra "watchman behind the defence", but also helps organising the attack as the starting point from backfield.

-- requires good footwork, fielding and good passing sense
-- acts as a second sweeper and commands for balls to be played by GK
-- makes short hand passes to the backfield more often

Example: BARTHEZ, VICTOR VALDES

CHARISMATIC KEY MAN
This is a special type of key man that can exist on any position. The key man possesses good mentality abilities and more-often-than-not a visibly unique style which can encourage surrounding players and bring out other players' abilities.

Example: Spider-man LE KAVIEDES, Wonderboy LE AMOROSO

Some reference materials:
WE/PES9 Player Attributes
SAKA 04 play-styles (Japanese+Chinese)
FM/CM Target Man
FM/CM Playmaker

WCCF: 05-06 Update! -- Commentary (III)

Linkage

Linkages in 05-06 work under a similar system as before.
Group links continue to consist of 5 levels, the best being an "auto white" link.
Special links also continue to exist with minor additions.

However, a big change has occurred with the inter-group relationships!
The following lists the new group-link table for 05-06:

The changes can be summarised as follows:

1. Spider-web thick-white teams have been made impossible.
   (A-A, B-B, C-C, D-D and E-E have all been downgraded to A)
   
2. The 12 link groups have been put into 6 "best-combo" pairs.
   namely: A-F, B-C, D-J, E-H, G-I, K-L
   
3. On the reverse, many poor group-to-group relationships have been upgraded
   The following has been upgraded into an auto-thin-link:
   A-C, D-E, D-I, F-L, G-K, G-L, H-K, J-J, L-L

I see the change as a positive move to reinforce the essence of the game.
Managers should not only have to think which players play well together,
but also think carefully *where* good player combinations should exist with your team's formation / style!

Special Styles

Based on my own impression, it seems special styles have been discussed more and more on the Japanese bulletin boards. When I played my games under various special styles in Japan, I did not feel much of a handicap in favour of special styles. However, one thing to be sure, the effect of special styles on the real-time simulation seems evident. Player movements and combination plays seem much more style-specific.

Let me say that even if special styles aren't effective, they are at least interesting and entertaining. ^_^

WCCF: 05-06 Update! -- Commentary (II)

Simulation

The main difference between 05-06 is the much improved simulation.
Moves are now more visible, and more style-specific.

• Technical players will be able to make more feints/turns.
  
• Tough die-hard forwards will slide and poke at loose balls.
  
• Rock-solid defenders will get to clear aerial attacks more often.

I would also like to emphasize on the increased number of combination plays.
For example, the following is a screenshot of a team I played in Japan under the Q.H. style. The forwards are Adriano on the left, Bergkamp on the right. RMF is Valeron, Right Side-back is Cafu.


And here are 2 of the combination plays I managed to come across during my short stay:

1. Valeron --> Cafu --> Adriano
Valeron, playing as a RMF, receives a breakout pass at about 45 yards out on the right side. Rather than attempting the normal advance towards the right baseline, he keeps possession, dribbles slowly towards the middle, and draws 2 defenders. Valeron turns and gives a diagonal pass towards the right wing ahead of oncoming wingback Cafu, Cafu one-timed a cross and Adriano heads it home.

2. Bergkamp --> Cafu --> Valeron
A similar play to begin with, except Bergkamp was the recipient at the right side with most players forced backfield under pressure. With 2 defenders in front, Bergkamp slows down and dribbles towards the middle, waiting for support. Wingback Cafu was first to arrive, and Bergkamp makes a similar diagonal pass. As Cafu was ready to receive the ball, Valeron had already overlapped Bergkamp into the edge of the area. Cafu made an instant short pass and Valeron one-timed it home.

Team Formation / System

I believe it is safe to say that most WCCF players employ a 4-DF system.
Likewise most CPU teams as well as the real teams they model after do employ a 4-DF system.

However, it may be surprising for many to know that:
3-5-2 used to be the most common system in WCCF 01-02!
Back then, about 50% of the teams in Seria A employed a 3-5-2 system with a pair of wingbacks who are each wholly responsible for one side of the field.
Examples of wingback combos:
Grosso -- Ze Maria (Perugia)
Kozminski -- Schopp (Brescia)
Seric -- Oddo (Verona)
Junior -- Diana (Parma)

So, what is the common formation of teams in WCCF 05-06?
Obviously, 4-DF system are common in football nowadays, and the same applies to WCCF 05-06.
In fact, some might argue that most recent teams tend to have a flavour towards a 4-1-2-3 or 4-2-1-3 Total Football style.
e.g. Arsenal, Barcelona, the Eredivisie (Netherlands) teams, and to a lesser degree Lyon and Chelsea.

However, there are some obvious exceptions:
1. Udinese, who has continued to employ a 3-5-2 system with success!
2. Marseille and Real Betis, who seem to employ a variant of 3-6-1 system.
3. Newcastle, who goes with a very visible Power style (e.g. BOUMSONG + BRAMBLE combo).

Understanding the team formations / styles may help you understand the player cards much much more!

WCCF: 05-06 Update! -- Commentary (I)

I would like to offer fellow WCCF players a more in-depth, opiniated look into the new version of WCCF.

In early-September I visited Japan and managed a few hours of WCCF.
It is to my delight that Sega has managed to significantly improve the gameplay without changing the basic principles of the game.

Unchanged:
-- Communication screens (e.g. captains, jersey numbers) work similarly
-- Player Styles (e.g. stopper/sweeper/libero) are evident under similar settings.
-- Team Styles (e.g. Super Eagles, Total Football) exist under similar hexagon conditions.
-- Linkage continues to work under a 5-level 12-group system.
-- All players (except 2) follow the same link group as before.

Changed:
-- Simulation is much improved, more realistic.
-- The linkage system has been modified such that there are no spider-web teams, and players should be matched up pair-by-pair carefully for the team to be effective. In my opinion, the real essence of the game is reinforced.
(A new linkage table can be found at WCCF-Hurry, I may write more on my Data Site later)

I now go into specific aspects of the game in more detail:

Cards

There seems to be a renewed focus of the new cards on combination and style.

New combinations:
The Devilish Trio (Valencia CF: VILLA, VICENTE, AIMAR)
The Mysterious Trio (FC Barcelona: RONALDINHO, ETO'O, DECO)
The Lionheart Duo (Chelsea: LAMPARD, J.COLE)
The Defensive Trap Duo (AC Milan: MALDINI, NESTA)

Also, some cards also seem to be quite "extreme" and arguably stylish.
e.g.
Physical Defenders: BOUMSONG + BRAMBLE
Goal Poacher: INZAGHI
Technical attackers: PAULETA, RIQUELME, FIGO

It is also worth noting that 2 of new cards have modified link groups..... intentionally or not. :P
BERGKAMP L --> C
FARFAN G --> C

Could it be pure coincidence that I would personally call Bergkamp the most fantastic striker in the game and Farfan the most fantastic regular-card striker in the game? Hm......

WCCF: 05-06 Update! -- Introduction

The new 05-06 updates will be here very soon!

Player cards come from 21 different club teams in 6 top leagues:

• Barclays Premiership (UK):
  Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Newcastle United
  
• Lique 1 (France):
  Olympique Lyonnais, Olympique de Marseille, Paris Saint-Germain FC
  
• The Bundesliga (Germany):
  FC Bayern Munich
  
• The Eredivisie (Netherlands):
  Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV
  
• Serie A (Italy):
  Inter, Juventus, AC Milan, AS Roma, Udinese
  
• La Liga (Spain):
  FC Barcelona, Real Betis, Valencia CF, Villareal CF

8 sets of 5 special shiny cards

• WGK -- World-Class Goalkeeper
  
• WDF -- World-Class Defender
  
• WMF -- World-Class Midfielder
  
• WWF -- World-Class Wide Forward
  
• WFW -- World-Class Forward
  
• CRA -- Crack
  
• YGS -- Young Star
  
• BAN -- Bandiera

Europe MVP and World MVP Ronaldinho
Plus 10 rare European Club Legends!
For a total of 21x16 + 8x5 + 2 + 10 = 388 new player cards for you to collect, play and trade!

You may take a look at the following Excel file for details of these 388 new cards.
http://puckman.kelvintang.ca/WCCF/WCCF_Team_List_0506.xls

Other improvements of the 05-06 Update include:

• Much-improved game simulation and controls
  
• Addition of new CPU teams including Serie A teams (Livorno, Messina, Treviso, Ascoli), other club teams (Tottenham Hotspurs, Mallorca, Werder Bremen) as well as past Japan Championship winners
  
• Modified linkage system

Example: the above is a previous Japan Championship winner, and is differnt from the CPU French National Team! ^_^
WCCF 05-06, GAME ON!

Welcome to Mr.P's Matrix

What is real?