White Suburban Punk

Liverpool doomed Burnley to relegation Sunday with a 4-0 win, backed by two goals from Captain Steven Gerrard.  He has admitted that he hasn’t been at his best this year, but facing a desparate squad on the road, he came through in a big way.  You could tell he smelled blood in the first half, as he created and just missed three scoring chances in just a couple of minutes through sheer effort, something we definitely haven’t seen enough of this year.  Neither side was able to cash in any chances in an entertaining first half.

Burnley nearly took the lead in the first minute of the second when Pepe Reina and surprise starter 19 year old Daniel Ayala confused each other and nearly allowed a goal to Steven Fletcher.  It was a strange move by Rafa Benitez to leave Sotirios Kyrgiakos on the bench in favor of Ayala, who started just his second ever game, especially on the road (where Liverpool had not won in 2010) and against a team that was desperate to score goals.  Shortly after that near goal, Dirk Kuyt left the game with a calf injury, leaving Ryan Babel as the lone striker (David Ngog missed the game with a back injury).  Right when things started to look bleak and the team really needed to show some heart, up stepped Gerrard.  His first goal at 52 minutes came off a rather lucky deflection, but his second, seven minutes later, was a classic Gerrard power blast after he picked up a loose ball.  Two relatively innocuous plays, but it was 2-0.  At 72 minutes, Burnley proved it would not be their day (or season) when Fletcher knocked one off the post, and two minutes later Alberto Aquilani sent a beautiful pass to Maxi Rodriguez, who had a clinical finish and his well-earned first goal for Liverpool.  He has played fantastic lately, by the way.

Ryan Babel finished the scoring in extra time when he went in on a breakaway on which it didn’t look like he was onside, but Liverpool will take it, as goal differential could be important here at the end of the season. 

Liverpool host Atletico Madrid at Anfield Thursday in the second leg of the Europa League semifinals, trailing 1-0.  The final home game of the year will be Sunday against Chelsea, with Liverpool in the painful position of being able to help Manchester United in their title run.  Chelsea currently lead by one point.  Liverpool has not yet been eliminated from the top 4 – we’re not dead yet!  They obviously need to win their final two league games and hope that Aston Villa, Tottenham, and Manchester City drop points.  Incidentally, Liverpool currently lead all three of those teams on goal difference.

In ownership news, there is a Chinese businessman who is currently examining the books and says he wants Rafa Benitez to stay if he purchases the team.  He claims he is in fierce competition with Middle East interests for the club.  Some rumors have suggested that Bob Kraft might be interested, but I think he’s a better owner in a league with a salary cap than what is currently demanded at the top of European football, so hopefully he stays out.  Liverpool fans have had enough of American owners, anyway.

Photo from Liverpool Echo

The Red Sox managed to win two games with walkoffs against the Rangers before being shut out last night.  Clay Buchholz was excellent before tiring, however, so that’s a good sign.  New hero Darnell McDonald was finally kept hitless, although he did have a walk.  Tonight Jon Lester tries to straighten things out against Baltimore at Fenway.

The Bruins look to wrap up their surprising series with Buffalo tonight in Buffalo.  Where this team was all year, no one knows, but they have been an absolute joy to watch in this series.  Johnny Boychuk and Vladimir Sobotka are my new favorite players, and Tukka Rask has been fantastic.

The Celtics go on the road for game 3 of their series against the Heat after blowing them out in game 2.  Once again, I have no idea what will happen tonight, but it’s possible the C’s could put up another dominating performance.  They’ve been strong on the road all season, and now they have KG back.  Of course, with all signs pointing up, that probably means they’re due for a stinker.  Glen Davis has been awesome in the first two games of this series, while Rasheed Wallace only made the news for getting another fine by the league.

The Patriots ready for rounds 2 and 3 of the draft tonight, where they have three picks in the second and one in the third.  They went with a DB out of Rutgers in the first round, Devin McCourty, who Bill Belichick claims was who they wanted.  Today there are the usual overreactions from the media, stating that the secondary was the only area that didn’t need any help this offseason.  Belichick is apparently close with Rutgers coach Greg Schiano, which should provide him with added insight, but the experts in the Boston media know that Belichick hasn’t done anything here in New England to prove he has any idea what he’s doing, so they’re feeding off each other like maggots today.

After the two day trip to Madrid, Liverpool fell, 1-0, after an early goal by Diego Farlan for Atletico Madrid.  He was left completely unmarked in the box on the play.  It would’ve been terrible defending had there actually been any defending at all.  At 18 minutes, Yossi Benayoun appeared to tie the game, but he was ruled offside on a very questionable call.  Replays showed the refs blew it. Those were pretty much the only scoring chances, as Pepe Reina made a couple of quality second half saves, but for the most part, the game was pretty quiet and controlled.  Atletico defended well all game and Liverpool striker David Ngog was horrible — I don’t think he had one effective touch on the ball all game — and he was substituted by Ryan Babel early by Rafa’s standards, in the 64th minute.  As Rafa said after the game, it could’ve been better, but it also could’ve been worse.  The teams play the second leg at Anfield Thursday April 29.

The powers-that-be ruled that Portsmouth will not be allowed to play in the Europa League next season even if they win the FA Cup. This is a penalty for going into administration.  As a result, the seventh place Premiership team will now qualify for the Europa Cup along with fifth and sixth place.  Liverpool now sit in seventh, but they can also qualify by winning the competition this year.  In the other semifinal, Everton and Hamburg drew, 0-0, at Hamburg.  Coincidentally, the final is at Hamburg on May 12, so they will have the opportunity to play it in their home stadium.

Reports from Italy state that Rafa has agreed to become Juventus’ coach next year, but I’ve seen that reports from the Italian media are usually wrong.  Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini stated that he would bid for Fernando Torres if he is made available, and Rafa scoffed at that, stating that Torres is happy at Liverpool and has three years remaining on his contract.  No word yet on a sale of the club.

Photo from ESPN Soccernet

The Bruins are off a surprising 2-1 series lead after last night’s 2-1 win at the Garden.  Last night’s game was awesome, with the Bruins fans at their chanting, singing, raucous best.  The play has been great, too, with tons of hitting and the usual playoff intensity.  This series so far has been a great example for the people who say that the NHL playoffs are the best in sports.  The Bruins have shown great heart, especially in game 2.  They were down 1-0 in the series and 2-0 in the game, in Buffalo, with their backs against the wall, and came back and won the game.  Heart has been something that appeared to be lacking from the Bruins this year, but they went 8-3-1 in their last 12 games and are undoubtedly playing their best hockey of the season right now.  And Marc Savard has been symptom-free for a week and skated on his own yesterday, so he could conceivably come back if the Bruins advance.

The NFL draft is a multiday event starting Thursday.  The Patriots need to have a good draft, but I’ll see what they did when they’re done.  The massive industry that has developed around the NFL draft is insane.

The Celtics lead Miami, 1-0, with game 2 tonight in Boston.  They will play without KG, who was suspended for allegedly throwing an elbow during an altercation at the end of game 1.  All the talking heads seem to agree with the suspension, even though I don’t really see it on the replays.  It was unquestionably stupid of KG to let himself get into that situation that late in a game you’re going to win anyway, and now all the people that this edition of the Celtics has pissed off can come out of the woodwork (Joakim Noah?) saying that KG is a dirty player and that Paul Pierce is some kind of flopper or something.  Never mind that Pierce’s game is to put himself into position to get knocked down either by driving the lane or keeping possession of the ball in a foul situation.  Whatever.  This Celtics team is definitely hated, and I have to admit that it’s far from my favorite Celtics team, too.  I have no idea how they’ll react to this.  No one can figure this team out.  Several times this season they have shown no motivation just when you expect them to want to make a statement and we were hoping the playoffs would wake them up.  They awoke enough in the second half of game 1, so now what will KG’s suspension do to them?  Motivate them to step it up or give them an excuse to lose?  I have no idea.

Ah, now your 4-9 Boston Red Sox.  Jason Varitek, Dustin Pedroia, and Adrian Beltre — fine.  Everyone else — not so good.  In the starting rotation, John Lackey had two good starts before yesterday’s disaster.  Everyone else has not been good enough.  It’s a team-wide slump, not a team-wide bad team with little talent.  Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do about times like this in baseball, especially at the beginning of the year, although this is definitely the best time for something like this to happen.  Sure, there’s the worry that they’ll be in a big hole behind the Rays and yankees, but they’re going to end up where they belong after 162.  I don’t think Lester should be sent down to Pawtucket and I don’t think Jermaine Dye will turn this team into the ’04 Sox.  I am worried about David Ortiz, as it really does look like he’s done, and he’s certainly done as a huge force.  But the Sox have depth there, with Lowell and Jeremy Hermida.  JD Drew is not going to hit .132 this season, Youk won’t end up at .238, and Victor won’t end at .224, which is where they all are now.  Mike Cameron has been placed on the DL and may need surgery, but that doesn’t make it a bad signing.  You just gotta have faith that these are good players, they’re not bums, and they will start performing.  There’s literally nothing else to do.

Photo from Boston.com

Liverpool defeated West Ham United, 3-0, at Anfield yesterday to keep their slim hopes alive for a top 4 finish and Champions League football next year.  After starting out somewhat lackadaisically with some sloppy play, Yossi Benayoun got Liverpool on the scoreboard at 19 minutes when a Steven Gerrard free kick was steered by his midsection into the goal.  That turned out to be a typical play in the game.  The third goal, which was credited as an own goal by the West Ham keeper, was also a result of poor defending off a free kick, and Liverpool had other chances in similar circumstances.  The second goal was a thing of beauty, however, off lightning quick passing by Yossi Benayoun to Maxi Rodriguez to David Ngog.  Ngog finished nicely after badly blowing a chance early in the game.  The score actually could have been a lot worse, but the referee missed three West Ham hand balls in the penalty box during the game, as well as a couple of takedowns.  All in all, a comfortable win for Liverpool, who now sit in sixth place, five points behind fourth place Tottenham Hotspur. 

The truly great news for Liverpool fans this week was the announcement by owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett that they will sell the team.  Their three years of ownership have been close to disastrous, and the club is clearly heading in the wrong direction.  They promised and failed to deliver on a new stadium and they are universally reviled by the fans.  We should probably wait before being too happy, however, as a delusional Hicks stated in an interview that he believes the value of the club has tripled under his stewardship!  Bewildering.  If that’s his thinking, it could be some time before the Yanks are finally run out of town, even though time is of the essence.  This is a huge summer for the club.

All Liverpool good news this season has been tinged with bad news.  This time, the bitter dose is that Fernando Torres, El Nino, will be out for the rest of the season with knee surgery.  He is expected to be recovered to play for Spain in the World Cup, but even that could be in some jeopardy.

Liverpool’s next match is scheduled for Thursday in Spain against Atletico Madrid in the Europa League semifinals.  Given the flight restrictions in Europe, the team’s trip to this game will be epic.  It’s 2,600 miles, and the team plans to take a train to London and then the Eurostar train to Paris, where they will spend the night.  They will then take another train to Bordeaux and a bus to the airport, where they will jump on a short flight to Madrid, all taking more than 24 hours.  UEFA has dithered badly about whether or not to postpone the match, and the fans who wanted to travel to the game have been screwed as a result.

In the Premiership, this weekend’s games are huge for Liverpool.  They play at Burnley while fourth place Tottenham play at Manchester United and fifth place Manchester City play at Arsenal. 

In the League Championship, Newcastle has clinched the title and will be promoted, and it looks like West Bromwich Albion has also clinched promotion.  There will be four team playoff for the final spot, which right now would be between Nottingham Forest, Cardiff City, Leicester City, and Swansea City, with Blackpool lurking just two points back in seventh place.

Liverpool dominated the game against Fulham at Anfield, but were unable to score, finishing with a 0-0 tie that should just about extinguish any hope of a top 4 finish and Champions League football next season.

Fernando Torres missed the game with a knee injury, and Dirk Kuyt, Lucas, and Yossi Benayoun were all on the bench, although Kuyt and Benayoun came on as substitutes in the second half.  Alberto Aquilani, Ryan Babel, Maxi Rodriguez, and David Ngog got starts.  Babel had a couple of excellent chances, one very early in the game, while Aquilai had three chances of his own in the second half.  Fulham’s goalkeeper, Mark Schwarzer, played a great game and kept Fulham in it.

Liverpool have four games left and they have to depend heavily on the teams above them faltering down the stretch.  Manchester City, Tottenham, Liverpool, and Aston Villa are in 4th through 7th places, respectively.  5th and 6th places are automatic qualifying spots for next year’s Europa League, although Liverpool could also clinch a spot in that competition by winning it this year, since they are in the final four.  Man City and Tottenham both have tough games left, but the gap is probably too wide now.  The summer will be very, very interesting.  Rafa stated in an interview last week that the team needs to spend 60 million pounds this summer to be a legitimate title contender next year.  It’s frustrating, because they were so close last year.  But watching the Clasico Saturday between Barcelona and Real Madrid, I could see the vital role that Xabi Alonso now plays for Real Madrid and what a huge loss he was for Liverpool.

The next game for Liverpool is next Monday against 16th place West Ham United at Anfield on ESPN2.  Then Thursday they play the first leg of the Europa League semifinals at Atletico Madrid.

The Badgers played poorly and lost, 5-0, to BC in the national championship game at Ford Field.  They came out of the gate strong, but BC goalie John Muse made some good saves early and Wisconsin lost the momentum, allowing BC to take control.  BC scored a power play goal with 7:00 left in the first period, and UW clearly got discouraged after that and was lucky not to give up more.

Wisconsin fared much better in the second period, outshooting BC, but still couldn’t get one by Muse.  Wisconsin seemed to be victimized by the poor ice conditions much more than BC, best exemplified when Michael Davies fanned on a shot when he had a breakaway and the puck hopped over his stick.

BC got two quick goals at the start of the third period to put the game away.  BC’s speed was indeed too much for the Badgers, at least on this day.  It’s too bad — this game could have been great if both teams had been playing their best, and Wisconsin clearly did not have their best game.  The speed of the forwards hurt, but I thought it was more the BC defensive scheme that won the game for them.  Wisconsin beat teams this year by completely outshooting them, and they simply couldn’t get pucks through to the goalie, and when they did, he made good saves.  You could see Muse gaining confidence as the game wore on.

So congratulations to Jerry York for a terrific gameplan, and to BC, who deserved to win this game.  I feel like I need to mention, however, and yes, I am still very bitter, that BC players hit Hobey Baker winner Blake Geffrion low three times in the game (that I saw).  Each one was even mentioned by announcers Gary Thorne and Barry Melrose as an apparent intent to injure.  Finally, a penalty was called on BC when they did it again — with 2:08 left in the game and BC holding a 5-0 lead.  ESPN showed Jerry York screaming at his team after that one, so at least the coach seems to have some class.

Wisconsin steamrolled RIT and BC blew out Miami yesterday in the Frozen Four.

The Badgers wrecked RIT right from the start.  They scored their first goal 1:27 into the game before RIT had even advanced the puck past the red line.  The forechecking pressure from the Badgers was simply relentless, and RIT couldn’t contend with the size, speed, and skill of Wisconsin.  The game winning goal was scored 9:38 into the game and Wisconsin led 2-0 at the break.  After more relentless pressure and two five on three advantages, Wisconsin led 6-0.  They gave up a goal with 27 seconds left in the second period.

In the third, Wisconsin had clearly called off the dogs.  The forecheck was virtually nonexistent, completely abandoned in a move that Gary Thorne and Barry Melrose called “classy.”  There was no need to humiliate them any more.  Wisconsin scored two goals in the third period, with the last one coming against a goalie who was playing in his first collegiate game.

BC led 3-0 going into the third period and then gave up a goal five minutes in to make it 3-1.  They then scored three goals in 1:35 to put the game away, but they most certainly did not call off the dogs.  They continued pouring it on, scoring a seventh goal with 3:40 left and continuing their pressure game after that.  Miami even got an interference penalty with 2:30 left while trying to slow them down.  As a non-BC fan, this seemed like the typical arrogant, spoiled brat, front-running attitude that has made BC so beloved in New England.  Other regions get behind their big time college athletic teams, even if the people didn’t go to school there.  Boston isn’t into big time college sports because they don’t have any big time college sports teams.  BC is on an extremely impressive run in hockey, but unfortunately, college hockey doesn’t count as a big time sport anywhere (except North Dakota).  BC’s football and basketball programs simply do not engender admiration, despite what the delusional Gene DeFilippo thinks.  Doug Flutie’s popularity in the 1980s is the exception, but that was because he was from Natick, not out of any general love for BC.  And BC went back to being an afterthought as soon as Flutie left.  I think BC students and fans actually piss people off locally more than make them want to join in.

Anyway, the final has all the makings of a classic.  These are clearly the two best teams in the country, they’re both hot, and they both can score in bunches.  It should be damn entertaining.

Photo from Wisconsin State Journal

After losing the first leg in Lisbon, 2-1, Liverpool bounced back in a big way with a sound 4-1 thrashing of Benfica yesterday at Anfield.  Fernando Torres scored two goals, becoming the first Liverpool player to score two goals in four consecutive home games.  Here in the US, I was able to watch the game on Gol TV, who had an American announcer (who actually wasn’t that bad).

The game started out a bit ragged by Liverpool, but the crowd was in full throat and finally, at 28 minutes, Dirk Kuyt scored off a corner that was initially ruled offside, but fortunately the head referee correctly overruled the linesman.  Barely over five minutes later, Lucas went in alone after a tremendous pass by Steven Gerrard, and Liverpool led, 2-0.  However, the players knew that this lead was precarious, and Benfica reinforced the notion by nearly scoring before the end of the half.

Liverpool started the second half extremely aggressively, attacking at every opportunity.  At 59 minutes, goalie Pepe Reina gathered a corner kick and passed it to Javier Mascherano, who got the ball to Yossi Benayoun on a beautiful counterattack.  He passed to Dirk Kuyt, who then sent an incredible cross to Torres for the all important third goal.  Four passes up the length of the field - beautiful.  Of course, this started Benfica diving and hammering Liverpool players.  The color commentator on Gol TV even called one Benfica player “gutless” and said that he should be wearing a dress after a particularly egregious dive in the box.

At 70 minutes, Benfica was awarded an extremely questionable free kick and Oscar Cordozo scored through the wall (Gerrard moved) to make it 3-1. There was another scare soon after on another free kick, but Liverpool escaped that one and Benfica soon got caught too far up, with Torres ending it by going in alone and chipping the ball over the keeper.

It was a very solid performance after the disappointment at Birmingham and the controversy surrounding Torres’ subtitution in that game.  Liverpool will play Torres’ former team, Atletico Madrid, in the two leg semifinal starting in two weeks.  They play Fulham at home in the Premiership Sunday and then next week is when they can hope that Man City and Tottenham start dropping some points.  Tottenham plays Arsenal next Wednesday, Chelsea Saturday, and Man U the Saturday after that.  Man City plays Man U next Saturday and Arsenal in two weeks.

In other Liverpool news, goalie Pepe Reina signed a six year contract extension.  He is undoubtedly one of Rafa Benitez’s best signings, and will be going to South Africa with Spain.

Albert Riera, who was suspended by Liverpool after publicly criticizing Rafa and calling the club a “sinking ship,” had wanted a transfer to a Russian team, where is wife is from.  But the Spartak Moscow coach said that a deal fell through because of Riera’s outrageous salary demands.  What a colossal, delusional idiot.

Photo from Liverpool Echo

Welcome back, baseball.  Pedro threw out the first pitch and Posada allowed the game winning run on a passed ball.  Hip, hip, Jorge!

It was somewhat understandable that Sunday’s game was at night, but Tuesday and Wednesday are, too.  So no traditional daytime home game the whole first week.  The Sox brass blamed MLB for the home opener being at night, but all three games certainly aren’t MLB’s decision.

The vaunted yankee lineup looks a bit more vulnerable this year.  Granderson, Swisher, and Gardner is the bottom third of the order.  Hopefully they really miss Damon and Matsui. 

The yankee bullpen went 2 2/3 IP, 6 H, 2 BB, 4 R, 1 WP.  Sox bullpen: 4 1/3 IP, 4 H, 3 BB, 2 R.

Photo from Boston.com