There are two Winning Eleven 7 Internationals - one for the US/North American market; the other for the Japanese market. They are not the same games.
WE7I for the US is basically a port of PES3, which is the slightly updated European version of WE7. Release dates are as follows:
WE7 - August 2003 (Japan)
PES3 - November 2003 (Europe)
WE7I - January 2004 (Japan)
WE7I - February 2004 (US/Americas)
Even though WE7I for Japan was released before the US version, it's the best game available right now. It is an improved version of WE7 & PES3, now with many of the bugs worked out and a few additional features. Konami used to call this version WE_ "Final Evolution," but they've stopped using that title. For some reason they have decided to release two entirely different games with the same title, albeit for different markets. It only serves to confuse things...
There are currently patches out for WE7, PES3, and WE7I for Japan. There are no patches out for the WE7I for the US version. Unless someone decides to develop a rip kit, there probably won't be any, either.
We're talking about the PS2 games here, btw. I think all of the games out for the PC have patches...although I don't really follow the PC scene.