FIFA 09 is sick in terms of graphics, animations, and player movement. But don't get me wrong, I'm a die hard PES fan. I started playing ISS on PS1 (best soccer game ever). The gameplay from PES 2009 is much better than FIFA 09, though the player movement and AI movement is much more fluid and realistic in FIFA 09. In PES the player shifts from one direction to the next with jerks movements (again, I'm comparing it to FIFA). Yeah, the lack of rosters/sponsors/licenses in PES is a big problem for most people (thank god for option files); it's not a big problem, but hopefully this will soon change.
What I would like to see in PES (comparing it FIFA 09) is this:
1. Custom celebrations - some of them in FIFA 09 are cool, but I still want to keep the 99 available in PES
2. More tricks - FIFA 09's are not that useful, but they are fun
3. More fluid movements - player and AI
4. Ball physics (the swerve in FIFA 09 is crazy) - the reason I say this is because rarely do I see outside of the foot goals with nice swerve (or maybe it's just me)
5. Better stadiums and fans - FIFA 09 blows PES out of the water
6. More leagues/teams - but this ties back into the licenses issue
I heard that for the next title, PES wants to use FIFA as a benchmark, so hopefully we will see FIFA's graphic appeal coupled with PES' gameplay in PES 2010.