BRAZIL NATIONAL TEAM GUIDE PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 3 - TEAMS GUIDE version 2.0 - wowwow (chu_chu00@hotmail.com) CONTENTS: 1. WHAT'S NEW 2. ABOUT THIS GUIDE 3. WHY USING BRAZIL? 4. NATIONAL SQUAD SELECTION 5. FORMATION 6. STRATEGY, TIPS, AND SCORING THE GOALS 7. FREE KICK AND CORNER KICK 8. SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES. 9. QUESTIONS 10. CREDITS ################### ## 1. WHAT'S NEW ## ################### January 14, 2004: - Fixed some grammar errors - To make "National Team Selection" appears in Register Player, read "QUESTIONS" section - Free Kick Section is now complete. January 19, 2004: - Removed some useless and repetitive words. - Fixed the free kick section... ######################### ## 2. ABOUT THIS GUIDE ## ######################### Most people always complain that Brazil is weak because it is vulnerable to counterattack and crossed ball. It's also hard to decide which formation and strategy are suitable for Brazil. And that's why I decide to write a Guide for Brazil. With my guide, i will encourage every Brazil's lover to play without ever thinking about their defensive line. In other words, This guide will show you that the true defense is offense :) ########################## ## 3. WHY USING BRAZIL? ## ########################## In real life, Brazil has the worst defense as a world class team. And in this game, Brazil is the same Brazil as we know. When you play Brazil you don't want to focus on defense. What you want is try to keep your opponent in their half as much as you can. Brazil is probably the best choice if you can't find any team that can entertain you with a goal. Brazil has many best strikers like Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, and others. Brazil also has two restless players, Roberto Carlos and Cafu. There are many other good things that Brazil has. And finally Brazil is the team that won last world cup... Cool!!! ################################# ## 4. NATIONAL SQUAD SELECTION ## ################################# Go to edit mode > edit player > register player > national team selection Choose any player as you see fit for your squad. My Dream Team is like this: ################ ## GOALKEEPER ## ################ Marcos - Good goalkeeper. Your primary goalkeeper. Dida - Average goalkeeper. ################ ## DEFENDER ## ################ Lucio - Great defense. Your only bet when it comes to defense. He can also help the attack. R. Carlos - This man is restless. He can run anywhere on the pitch just to help his teammate. He can return to his position when needed by the team. This man is unbelievable. Good at corner kick and free kick. Luizao - Great defense. But unfortunately he is slow and has low response. Juan - Good defense. Slow R. Junior - Good defense and high response. He is slow. Edmilson - Good defense. Slow, low response, and many bad things about his skills. Use him as a substitute player. Ze Maria - Good stamina, response, speed, and passing. He is a average player. ################ ## MIDFIELDER ## ################ Cafu - Another restless player. Good dribbling skills. Can scores goals!!! He has good header too... Unbelievable!! Rivaldo - Great dribbling, shooting accuracy, speed, etc. IMHO, He is the best left-footed player in the world. One of the best playmakers in the game. Ze Roberto - He is one of the best left-footed player in the game. Good instinct in scoring, too. A great substitute player. Dede - OMG, Another left-footed player. He is almost as good as Cafu. But I use him as Carlos's replacement. Juninho - Good passing and dribbling. He has low response. Use him as a substitute. Emerson - Great stamina, good defense and dribbling skills. Has good passing skills. Gilberto Silva - Good stamina, defense, and dribbling skills. He is almost as good as Emerson. He can scores goals. Kleberson - Another Emerson. ############# ## FORWARD ## ############# Ronaldo - Your primary goal machine. Great dribbling, shooting, positioning, speed, etc. One of the best strikers in the world. Ronaldinho - He is your key player. Great dribbling, shooting technique, heading, and many things. One of the best midfielder in the game. Adriano - He is also your primary goal machine. Great heading, dribbling, speed, etc. He is tall. Brazil's Vieri. Elber - Great speed and header. Good response. If Adriano is Brazil's Vieri, then Elber is Brazil's Inzaghi with better dribbling skills :) Amoroso - He has great dribbling skills, good speed, heading, and passing. He is almost as good as Ronaldo. In reality he is one of my favorite footballers Denilson - To me, He has the best dribbling skill in the world. Unfortunately he has no scoring ability. But he is the best you can find for a substitute player. ################## ## 5. FORMATION ## ################## When you play soccer, you always want to possess the ball as much as you can. Ball possession is the key to win every game. To possess the ball more than your opponent, your players need good teamwork skill. Why teamwork is that important? Teamwork is affecting the ball possession. Without high ball possession, a beginner player could only score against 5 stars AI if he/she is lucky. Unfortunately, Brazil, as most people know, has almost no players with that skill. Most of them are individual players. They don't really care about feeding their teammate with pass. All they care is playing football by showing off their skills. They would try to score themselves, even if there is a teammate who is in good position to score. Now, how can you win by using Brazil in this game? Before we start. Practice some individual skills, especially dribbling skills. Trust me it helps you a lot. Brazil has many good dribblers, including its defenders!!! Why need a good dribbling skill? A careless pass can be fatal to any team. You can't pass a ball easily like you use France or Argentine. With France, your teammate will come to assist you if you are pressed, so you can just pass the ball to them without trying to find them. In Brazil, it's totally different. To find your available teammate, you need to dribble around. You can't just stay in one location with the ball and wait for your teammate to pick that ball. And also your opponent will try to steal the ball anytime it is in your possession. In simple words, you need to dribble a lot if you want to win with Brazil!! You need to make every player playing 'individually'. I can't say I'm a good Brazil's player, but I always manage to score at least 2 goals if I play against Level 5 AI or my friends. (not too often) Now which formation should you use? A recommended formation is 3-5-2B. Brazil has 2 speedy wingers. With this formation, you will be able to fully utilise them. Another good formation for Brazil is 3-4-3C. It is better for attacking formation but it's hard to intercept the ball in the middle. Below is how my formation looks like: (3-5-2B) GK: Marcos DF: R. Junior Luizao Lucio MF: Emerson Gilberto Silva Cafu R. Carlos Ronaldinho FW: Ronaldo Adriano (Swap Ronaldo with Adriano if you play against someone/AI who use 4-4-2C formation) ################################# ## ATTACK AND DEFENSE ATTITUDE ## ################################# - Set the attack attitude of the defenders (Luizao, R. Junior, Lucio) to be more defensive (Arrows face back) - Set the attack attitude of the strikers (Adriano, Ronaldo) to be more aggresive (Arrows face forward) - Set the attack attitude of the two wings (Carlos and Cafu) to be more agrressive (Arrows face forward). - Set the defensive attitude for the strikers to LOW and the other players' defensive attitude to NORMAL You can set the attack and defense attitudes in Formation > Player > Attack (or Defense) ############################################## ## 6. STRATEGY, TIPS, AND SCORING THE GOALS ## ############################################## ############## ## STRATEGY ## ############## I usually use center attack, right attack, and left attack, plus center back overlap or Formation A. In formation A, I create another defensive formation which is good to intercept opponent's ball to waste their opportunities. You can set this in Strategy. Set the team's defensive-line, counter-attack, and zone-press to B. Leave back-line to A. This, at least, will help you to possess the ball more than your opponent. You can set this in Formation > Team > List Settings If you play against your friend, You might also try to set the Teams Attack/Defense to Auto Attack. It might not help if you play with AI. Formation > Team > Attack/Defense ########## ## TIPS ## ########## Hey, no Rivaldo in the starting line-ups? You might think I'm crazy :) But trust me Rivaldo is good only as a striker. Compare to Ronaldo as a striker, He is nothing. Now you might wonder why I put Adriano in the starting eleven. Adriano's stats is worst than Rivaldo. It's true that Adriano can't match Rivaldo in scoring ability. But Adriano is the only tall player you have. He also has great header. If you look the stats, Rivaldo is also a good playmaker. Unfortunately, if you put him as a playmaker, it's hard to control the play. He is too fast!! He could easily intercepted by a defender. And this is not good. Well in the right hands he could be a dangerous player. But how many of you can dribble well in this game? My suggestion: use him as a substitute for Ronaldo. Ronaldinho: As you can see, my recommended starting eleven doesn't include any playmaker. That doesn't mean Brazil doesn't have one. There are Rivaldo and Juninho. Instead, I put Ronaldinho. Ronaldinho is special. He has outstanding dribbling skills. He has good passing. He can easily switch position to a striker or a wing. The speed he possesses is one of the bests. He is also a good goal getter. You won't find any player like him who is better than him. For example, Paul Scholes of England has better stats than Ronaldinho. But Scholes can't beat Ronaldinho in ball possession. Scholes can't beat Ronaldinho in dribbling. Scholes can't beat Ronaldinho in speed. Scholes can't beat Ronaldinho in any term of individual skills. That doesn't mean Scholes is not good. Just the way they play are totally different (BTW, Scholes is one of the bests in the game). You need a man like Ronaldinho to fit in Brazil's play. Without him, it is hard to control the game and scoring. He is good in intercepting opponents and setting up a counterattack. He can steal the ball easily. He is one of the best late runners. You see him running into the box, feed him with a pass and shoot!! If Carlos or Cafu is well guarded. Make Ronaldinho run to the wing because he has a great speed to match the side back. And the final reason why you should use Ronaldinho, he is a great multi-positions player. Play one-two with Ronaldo, Cafu, or Carlos also helps Ronaldinho to find more spaces and chances to score. He has a good positioning skill, even if there is no star on his positioning skill. If you can't find more space, pass the ball to your DMF, Wing, or the strikers. Emerson and Gilberto Silva: A combo of Emerson and Gilberto Silva is truly a threat to your opponent. They can easily neutralise a playmaker like Zidane, Pires, and others. If Ronaldinho is tight-marked, this is where you'll find them useful. Pass the ball to any of them. Try to dribble more spaces. If you can't, just pass the ball to the wing or striker. If you see a unmarked striker in a well position, you can try to send an air through ball to him. (But don't do this too often because it's easy for your opponent to read your play) You can use them to set up a one-two as well. Emerson and Gilberto Silva are also good late runners. Always ready to feed any of them with a pass!! To make your opponent more confuse, try to play one-two and fake one-two with your wing and Ronaldinho. You can even try it with your striker. Never do a one-two with Adriano. He sucks in passing. They are average speedy players with tons of stamina. It's easy for them to guard any critical area in the pitch including the wing. Carlos and Cafu: They are the other key players you have. Learn to side-step and faking your move. You only want to cross the ball if they are not pressed (to make their pass become more accurate). Carlos is one of the fastest players in the game. So you'll probably won't find it hard to attack from the left wing. But to use Carlos everytime is not good. It's easy to for an average player to guard him well. If your Carlos is guarded, use your right wing. Cafu is slower than Carlos but he has better dribbling skills than Carlos. Play a cross ball between them is a great idea if one of them is well- guarded. One-two pass is also a good choice to escape from any defender. But if you can't find any space on the two sides, try to pass the ball to your midfielders or you can try an early cross to the strikers. It is better to use the air long pass to cross the ball to the striker. Another great idea when you use them is to dribble close to the throw-in line. Your opponent will find it's harder to tackle them!! Cafu can replace Ronaldo and Adriano if they are well guarded. If you see him running to the empty spot, send him a through ball (or air thru) and do a solo run to the goal area. This is why Cafu is useful. Carlos is also ready to replace any of your striker. But his dribble is not as good as Cafu. If you play Carlos in 1-1 situation, just shoot the ball from far. Hopefully, the goalkeeper reflects it to your strikers :) If you are confident with your dribble.. try to dribble to the penalty area from the wing and send a through ball to the player in the middle of the box. Ronaldo and Adriano: My dream Ultimate Duo!!! Think them as Kobe and Shaq. It works the same. That's just a joke. Ronaldo is probably the second fastest striker in the game. (The first is Henry. You can say there is Owen to beat them. But Owen sucks in the game. Not many beginner players can use him. BTW, I haven't try Sheva but I don't think Sheva has better agility and dribbling skills than those two) And because he is fast, any pass he collect on an empty spot is extremely fatal to your opponent. He has great shooting accuracy, speed, dribbling, jump, positioning, etc. He is also hard to marked by the defender. The problem when using him is it's hard to feed him with a pass because your opponent will tight-guard him. This is why, I told you to learn dribbling. When you use a good dribbler, you always want to make the defender busy by dribbling around the penalty area. BTW, he is the best sharpshooter in the game. He can easily torn the net from outside. Never afraid to shoot from far if you can't dribble into the center area. He is also a good player to set a one-two pass. Unfortunately, Ronaldo is injury prone :( Adriano is not better than Rivaldo in term of striker's abilities. But he is taller than Rivaldo. He is also fast. He has great header and jump. He has some scoring techniques you might want to see. Adriano sucks in passing. But he is a good bridge to pass a ball from corner or wing to the other players. (by using his header) Play one-two with Cafu, Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho also helps him to create scoring chances. (Hey, I smell too many one-two strategies :) Air ball recovery is slightly better with him on the pitch. BTW, never attempt to shoot from outside with him. He usually miss the target. Lucio, R. Junior, and Luizao: Always and always clear the ball whenever anyone from this trio hold the ball unless they recover the ball close to your opponent's half. Lucio is awesome. If you select him on CB Overlapping strategy, he will help Adriano to win the ball in the air. Lucio is very fast. He is also a good dribbler. He is one of the best defender in this game. If you use CB Overlapping, always use your wing or DMF to cover his position in counterattack. Recommended substitution: Denilson, Rivaldo, Amoroso -> Ronaldo Elber -> Adriano Edmilson, Juan -> R. Junior, Lucio, Luizao Ze Maria, Juninho -> Cafu Dede, Ze Roberto -> R. Carlos Juninho, Kleberson -> Emerson, Gilberto Silva Amoroso, Juninho, Rivaldo -> Ronaldinho IMHO, Amoroso is the best choice if you need to replace Ronaldinho. ####################### ## SCORING THE GOALS ## ####################### You might wonder how I usually score the goals. Many of the goals I did is came from the counterattack. if your defender successfully steal the ball from the opponent, clear the ball by send it to the strikers using an early pass. Heading is a good way to score. Adriano is one of the players who has the most accurate header in the game. The crossed ball served by Cafu, R. Carlos, Emerson, Silva, and Ronaldinho is his favorite. Another trick is to dribble some spaces then shoot from outside of the box. Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, and Emerson are your best sharpshooters. Don't do this too often because your opponent will notice your tactic. A fake one-two might be useful to create confusion in the opponent's defensive line, which sometimes could create an opening for you to run through the defenders or shoot from outside. If you can't break through the defense, never ever send the ball back to the defender. Why? Because the back-line in the formation settings was set to A. That means your defender will help you in ball possession by patrolling in your opponent's half. It could be dangerous if you pass the ball back to defender, especially if they guard a speedy striker like Owen who can easily intercept the ball. A better and recommended way is try to send an air through ball or early pass to your strikers from anywhere outside the box (The range between you and the striker must not too far) or cross the ball from wing. With CB Overlapping strategy, you could ask Lucio for help. Always try to use your wing as a way to serve the ball to the strikers on a counterattack. You may also try to penetrate the defensive line from the wing by dribbling into the box. Ronaldo is unbeatable in solo run and 1-1. He has good balance as well!!! A small tap of SQUARE is good enough for him to score. To be honest, This is my usual way to score. The other way is via Adriano's header :) Once, I did the most beautiful goal with Ronaldo by dribbling from my half to AI penalty area, right after the kick-off!!! (in 5 level difficulty) Can you see how good he is in dribbling? BTW, I was lucky. if you can't score a goal by header, try to pass a ball from corner or wing to your other players Don't worry about the height of your players. Cafu and Carlos has insane jump. They could help Adriano in the air. 4-4-2C formation is hard to crack. Wingers are easily intercepted. Put Adriano as a target player will make him ineffective. Try to swap Adriano with Ronaldo. ########### ## FACTS ## ########### This part is about what are usually happen when I play Brazil. The opener is usually scored by Ronaldinho, Adriano, and Ronaldo Players who love to score with this formation and strategy: - Ronaldo - Adriano - Ronaldinho - Carlos - Cafu - Emerson - Lucio - Rivaldo - Amoroso - Ze Maria - Elber (he always scores a hattrick when i play against my friends ^_^) When I win a match, my minimum goals is 2. (Not too often) My average ball possession is 55%-57% when playing with anyone including 5 stars AI. Total shooting attempts on goal is between 7-15 per game. My worst is 3 when I play against my big bro. Too many one on one situations between my strikers and opponent's goalkeeper. The hardest team to beat when I play against human player is Italy!! The hardest team to beat when I play against AI is Ireland!! (Hope this section helps you.) ################################## ## 7. FREE KICK AND CORNER KICK ## ################################## ############### ## FREE KICK ## ############### Free kick is hard to score in the game. This section will show you some free kick tricks that I use everytime I play. If there is any part doesn't work... swap the free kick taker. ################## ## CURLING BALL ## ################## Hold R2 and down, then press square to shoot, and immediately hold analog stick (L3) to the right or left to curl the ball. If you are lucky, the goalkeeper might be stunned by your free kick and does nothing to intercept the ball. Half of the bar is enough. It might turned into a deadly pass. This curling ball trick only works with a player who has low shoot power. ################################## ## PASSING TRICK (range <= 20m) ## ################################## Aim near the right/left hand post, between players' shoulders. Then hold UP-Button and tap circle (Do not charge your power bar!!!). Has possibility of 9/10 to score!! Try to practice it a lot!! Use player with low passing speed like Del Piero. Even a goalkeeper like Toldo has no difficulty to score a goal with this trick!!! Some players will automatically curl the ball a bit. Note: You can replace the UP-button with DOWN-button too... ###################### ## DIRECT FREE KICK ## ###################### To score a direct Free kick easily, Hold R2 and up, press Square until you reach about half of the bar. ############################ ## GROUND LONG PASS TRICK ## ############################ If you are on the left wing or right wing of the goal area, use ground long pass to create confusion in the goal area. And use any player who accepts the ball to shoot. This can be done by holding DOWN-button and press circle until you reach the maximum length of the bar. Use player like Beckham. -----------------------------End of Free Kick------------------------- ################# ## CORNER KICK ## ################# On corner kick, I usually use R. Carlos on the left and Cafu on the right. Half of the bar is good enough. ############################## ## 8. SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES ## ############################## Actually some skills are provided in the manual, but it's hard to find which one is the best. ########### ## SHOOT ## ########### Chip Shot 1: Press [] and immediately press R1. This is my favorite style of scoring. Timing is hard. Do the practice, because this is very useful. Only use this when the goalkeeper is close to you. Can be done inside the box. Cool!!! Chip Shot 2: Hold L1 and press []. This is good for 1-1 if the goalkeeper is running towards you. But don't do this inside the box or you will waste the opportunity. ############### ## DRIBBLING ## ############### Side step: While dribbling using R2, press right or left of the direction the footballer is facing. This is the most useful move for wing player and playmaker. Good for 1-1. Fake shot: Press [], and immediately press X and any direction you want to move to. Good for 1-1. You may find side step is much better for 1-1 and easier to execute. Pivot: While dribbling (without L1/R1/R2), rotate your right analog stick (R3) 360 degrees. This is another coolest skill. Timing is extremely hard. Once you master, you can escape from any defender easily. Extremely useful for a wing player. ############# ## PASSING ## ############# Air Thru' Ball: Hold L1 and press TRIANGLE To most players, this is useless, hard to timing, etc. To tell you the truth, this is the most deadliest passing skill in the game. Use it to center the ball when you control a wing player. The foot the player use is important. For example, Roberto Carlos is a left-footed player. If you put him on the right flank, you don't want to use this technique, because it won't be accurate, except he has BOTH FOOT FEINT skill. (I think) With this, It is easier to volley the ball and doing a scissor kick :) Early pass: Hold L1 and press CIRCLE early pass is a pass from anywhere on the pitch that always targeted to the most closest player to your opponent goal area. Use this in counter attack. If your defender recover a ball in the goal area send it to your DMF (Emerson and Gilberto Silva), then do the early pass. (try to find some space before you do an early pass) Early Crossing Lv 2: Hold L1 and press CIRCLE twice. Have you ever see Ronaldo score a header? Once I scored 5 goals from his header. Insane!! Use it only in counter attack. ################## ## 9. QUESTIONS ## ################## Q: Where is the "National Team Selection". A: To have the "National Team Selection" listed under "Register Player" in Edit Mode, you need to get "Free Transfer" bonus from PES3 Shop in PES3 Option. It costs you 10,000 PES points. ################# ## 10. CREDITS ## ################# GameFAQS - for posting my Guide :) And you.