Hello, I tried your patch and I must say that in general the patch is very good. I have a few small requests in case you plan a third version of the patch.
1) One thing I don't like about Fifa 09 is that the players can't seem to control the ball and remain on the spot they receive the ball. I mean, if you try to pass the ball to a player, as soon as he receives the ball he will start running towards the direction where the ball is coming from. That's not realistic at all. This happens especially in the midfield and it is really annoying because you usually have to correct this as this is usually not the direction you want to head to. There is some way to avoid this, by pressing the pace control button (or is it the other one where you perform all the tricks, i'm not sure what each button is called, i play with the keyboard and i have set my own custom keys?) as then the player turns around with the ball and immediately initiates a run towards the opposite side from the one he receives the ball, but this is not positive either cause that's usually where the defender stays (on your player's back when he receives the ball).
I mean even when the ball has gone outside, and i'm about to carry out a goal kick, if i just pass the ball to the defender and without pressing any other button the defender initiates a run towards my own goal as soon as he receives the ball which is stupid and unrealistic. So what I'm trying to say is that I would love it if you could fix this in one of your future patches by making the player just controlling the ball he receives without initiating a run by himself.
2) I used to be a fan of pro evolution soccer until pro 6, but after last year's flop i've given up on pro and this year i decided to try fifa instead. Although I do enjoy some aspects of this year's Fifa more than the latest pro, I do feel there's one aspect that pro is better than Fifa, and that is through passes. I was wondering if you could do anything about them. This is what I'm talking about:
In Fifa you can only make straight passes. Straight up, left, right, bottom, or diagonally. So if I were to depict this somehow using my keyboard that would be something like this (P1 is the player, the lines show the direction of the passes he can make, P2 is another teammate):
--P2
_\
_|
_/
__\|/
--P1--
__/|\
_/
_|
_\
Now that's ok, but say I want to pass to P2 and there's a defender standing between me and him (so the straight pass to the top is blocked) and if there is a defender some meters ahead of him the diagonal pass is also prohibited. Pro addresses this by introducing the through pass, that is if i point upwards with my keyboard i can either press the short pass (in which case the ball goes directly to my teammate upwards) or i can press a through pass and send it upwards but the ball would not go straight to my teammate, it would be passed somewhat ahead of the teammate I'm pointing to. So when you press the through pass the ball goes to the spot where the asterisk is in my (admiteddly crappy) diagram
--P2 *
_\
_|
_/
__\|/
--P1--
__/|\
_/
_|
_\
In Fifa however straight is the only way, and through passes, are not really through at all. If you could address this then this patch would be absolutely legendary
3) I know that you meant well when you increased the difficulty level of the keepers (I also like football games where the score is not 7-5 in 10 minutes) but now they are difficult to the extent that it is not realistic either. I mean no football team would not score at least 2 or 3 goals if they had 10 chances 1 vs 1 with the keeper. I'm all for low scores but because the defense really works hard and does not let me reach the area alone so easily and not because they have some goalie with superhuman abilities. So I'd prefer it if it was more difficult to create 1 vs 1 chances with the keeper but easier to finish them when these chances would occur (as it is in real football).
I'm looking forward to more patches from you in the future.