Hey,
i remember when i started playing Soulcalibur 4 online i sometimes tended to get really nervous when playing ranked. Later even more so, when i played people from ger-calibur, which i knew are very good. That could also lead to just blacking out sometimes, standing around just blocking the whole time and losing.
My personal solution would be to just play longer sets (10+ matches) against people i knew, or at least knew that i didn't bore them with my inferior skills back then xD
If you know that the other guy is having fun anyway you can focus on what you want to do, and also try "crazy" stuff, like not blocking and back-dashing but doing what you really feel is right. I felt that after 2-4 warm-up matches the nervousness subsides and you can just play...
This will carry over to fighting randoms after some getting used to.
I'm also from Europe, so if you're up for some matches or healthy longer sets just friend me! Possible on both consoles, though for xbox you could send a reminder here ^^"
Hazama and Lambda, though my Lambda-combos need more practice, but i think i can get the neutral game right at times