White Suburban Punk

After a 0-0 draw with Stoke City at Anfield, Liverpool reached its lowest point in the new Kenny Daglish era with an embarrassing 3-1 loss at Bolton. Bolton, who sat in 19th place in the Premiership at the time. King Kenny’s latest reign is now one year old, and he was spot on in ripping the players publicly after the game. He said that the effort wasn’t there and looking ahead to matches with Man City and Man U was no excuse. Some in the media questioned whether Kenny’s time was up, claiming that the players had tuned the manager out. But the players responded with three fantastic performances.

Leading 1-0 after the first leg of the Carling Cup semifinal with Manchester City, Liverpool returned home and twice came back from one goal deficits to tie the Premiership leaders, 2-2, and advance to the final at Wembley against Cardiff on February 26. Liverpool played a great game overall, even though they were lucky to be awarded a penalty late in the first half, which Steven Gerrard converted to make it 1-1. Man City went ahead again in the second half on a bang bang goal from Edin Dzeko, but Craig Bellamy equalized against his former team and Liverpool hung on, ending a 16-year wait for a return to Wembley.

Four days later, Liverpool faced their arch rivals in the fourth round of the FA Cup at Anfield. In a wildly entertaining game in front of a raucous crowd, Dirk Kuyt sent the Reds through three minutes from time when he snuck behind a sleeping Patrice Evra of Mancester United. Evra, whose accusations against Luis Suarez for racism resulted in an eight game suspension, was booed every time he touched the ball, and it was extra sweet for the Liverpool faithful that he cost them the game. Both Manchester teams are now eliminated from both domestic cups. The FA Cup fifth round takes place the weekend of February 18. With 16 teams remaining, Liverpool will host Championship side Brighton and Hove Albion, a team Liverpool knocked out of the Carling Cup in September. Brighton advanced by upsetting Newcastle.

Three short days after the win against Man U, Liverpool went back on the road to face Wolverhampton in a Premier League match. In an inspired effort, they won 3-1 behind goals from Andy Carroll, Craig Bellamy, and Dirk Kuyt. Carroll played perhaps his best game in a Liverpool jersey, and the team look to have finally figured out how to play without Suarez. Fortunately, that was the last match of his suspension. He will return for Monday’s visit to Anfield from third place Tottenham.

Liverpool did nothing of note in the January transfer window, which closed yesterday. They apparently approached Manchester City about a swap of Andy Carroll for Carlos Tevez, but nothing came of it. Is it a coincidence that Carroll then played his best game in a year? Perhaps letting that story leak out was the most brilliant move they could’ve made.

From the lowest point to the highest in ten days. Such is Liverpool football. After the home game against Tottenham, they travel to Old Trafford to play Manchester United. It seems like every single game is massive.

Liverpool sit in seventh place in the Barclays Premier League as of today, with 35 points through 21 games. They trail Arsenal by one point for fifth and Chelsea by five points for fourth. They are in the Carling Cup semifinals and hold a 1-0 lead over Manchester City, with the return leg next Wednesday at Anfield. And in the FA Cup, they have reached the 4th Round (32 teams left) and will face Manchester United at Anfield on Saturday, January 28.

In the big picture, the results so far aren’t too bad, certainly better than where they were at this time last year. The Premiership results have been the most disappointing, obviously. They have conceded only 18 goals, second in the league behind Man City (16), but have scored just 24 goals, by far the lowest in the top seven. League leaders Man City have scored 57.

Andy Carroll has scored just two league goals this year, while Luis Suarez leads the team with five. However, Suarez is currently sitting out with an astounding eight game suspension for allegedly racist remarks made to Manchester United’s Patrice Evra earlier in the year.  I wonder what Suarez’s grandfather (who is black) thinks of that.

Injury-wise, they lost midfielder Lucas for the year on a devastating knee injury. He had been having a very good season. Jay Spearing has gotten a bit more playing time in his absence. On the bright side, Skipper Steven Gerrard is finally healthy. He ended up hardly playing at all in the 2011 calendar year, but he is back in the starting 11 and has made his presence felt.

Liverpool’s home form has been dreadful, with four wins and seven draws in 11 games. They have tied Sunderland, Man U, Norwich, Swansea, Man City, Blackburn, and Stoke at Anfield. There are rumors the club is on the hunt for another striker in the January transfer window, but it would really take a colossal signing to make a significant difference. With Suarez in the lineup, Liverpool seemed to lead the league in unfulfilled scoring chances, but in the last game at home against Stoke, the team failed to even do that. Suarez himself has seemed a bit erratic in his finishing this season, but maybe playing with Gerrard on a consistent basis will bring about an improvement once he returns. It can hardly get much worse.

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, the club have an excellent chance of winning hardware in the Carling Cup. They are in good shape against Man City, and in the other semifinal, Crystal Palace leads Cardiff, 1-0, so they wouldn’t have to face a huge club at Wembley. They have also been performing well in the FA Cup, and the match against Man U at Anfield will be massive. However, I honestly don’t hold out much hope for the Premiership. It seems like every time they start playing well and get close to the top four, they immediately stumble with another embarrassing draw at home. They’ve dropped so many points already that it seems unlikely they could get on the kind of sustained run of excellent football that would be required to get back into the race. There are 17 league games remaining, though, so they have a lot of time to make up ground.

I have heard exactly zero voices in support of the referee from the US/Slovenia match.  Not only did he disallow the winning goal, but he had several other calls against the US, including giving an erroneous yellow against Robbie Findley for a nonexistent hand ball that will cause him to miss the Algeria game.  This ref’s bank account needs to be closely audited — I wonder if FIFA does that.  Anyway, the US got the draw, and after England’s lackluster performance against Algeria ended in a 0-0 tie, the US and England will go through with wins in their last match.  A big if, however.  The games will be played simultaneously Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands continues to roll.

WSP staff did an analysis of the teams promoted and relegated to and from the English Premier League since the 2001-2002 season.  There are 20 teams in the Premiership and 24 in the League Championship.  Bizarrely, the third highest league is known as League 1, and it also has 24 clubs.  The bottom 3 in the Premiership, clubs finishing in 18th, 19th, and 20th places, are relegated to the League Championship for the next season.  The top 2 in the League Championship are promoted, and the clubs finishing in places 3, 4, 5, and 6 enter a playoff for the third promotion. 

From the 2001-2002 season to the 2007-2008 season (7 years), 21 teams were relegated and 21 promoted.  11 teams were relegated and promoted multiple times, accounting for 31 of the 42 moves.  So it is very common for teams to go constantly go up and down, and consequently it appears very difficult to stay in the Premiership once promoted.  In those 7 seasons, only 7 teams were promoted and remain in the Premiership today, and two of those were just promoted in 2008:

Manchester City (promoted 2002)

Portsmouth (promoted 2003)

Wigan (promoted 2005)

West Ham (promoted 2005)

Sunderland (promoted 2007)

Stoke (promoted 2008)

Hull (promoted 2008) 

6 teams were relegated in those 7 seasons and remain out of the Premiership:

Ipswich (relegated 2002, currently 19th in League Championship)

Leeds (relegated 2004, currently 1st in League 1)

Southampton (relegated 2005, currently 14th in League 1 – suffering from 10 point penalty due to club’s financial troubles)

Sheffield (relegated 2007, currently 7th in League Championship)

Charlton (relegated 2007, currently 3rd in League 1)

Watford (relegated 2007, currently 13th in League Championship)

There were 5 teams that were promoted to the Premiership and lasted more than 2 seasons there, while 11 teams were relegated and did not return for more than 2 seasons. 

Promoted, lasted more than 2 seasons (5):

Manchester City 2002 – present

Portsmouth 2003 – present

Wigan 2005 – present

West Ham 2005 – present

Sunderland 2007 – present

Relegated, lasted more than 2 seasons (11):

Leicester 2004 – present

Wolverhampton 2004 – 2009 (back in Premiership this year)

Ipswich 2002 – present

Derby County 2002 – 2007, relegated again after 2008

Leeds 2004 – present

Norwich 2005 – present

Crystal Palace 2005- present

Southampton 2005 – present

Sheffield 2007 – present

Charlton 2007 – present

Watford 2007 – present

11 teams were promoted and lasted 2 seasons or less: West Brom (3 times), Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Derby County, Leicester, Norwich, Sunderland, Crystal Palace, and Reading.

8 teams were relegated and were back in the Premiership after 2 seasons or less: West Brom (twice), Birmingham (twice), Leicester, West Ham, and Sunderland (twice).

Conclusion: Once promoted, it’s hard to stay in the Premiership, and once relegated, it’s difficult to get promoted again, but a lot of these teams just keep going up and down.  Only 18 teams accounted for all 42 promotions and relegations in the 7 seasons.

Currently, the Premiership standings have West Ham in 17th with 18 points, Bolton in 18th with 18 points, Hull in 19th with 18 points, and Portsmouth in 20th with 14 points.  Of those four, West Ham and Portsmouth were both involved in promotions and relegations in the last 7 years.  The League Championship standings show Newcastle in 1st with 51, West Brom 2nd with 45, Nottingham Forest 3rd with 43, Cardiff City 4th with 37, Leicester 5th with 37, and Swansea 6th with 37.  Just 3 of those teams were involved in promotions and relegations from the Premiership in the last 7 seasons, so maybe there will be a slight changing of the guard this year, as more teams join the fight to get into the top league.  But their chances of staying there are not good.

Here is the raw data by team:

Manchester City – promoted 2002

West Brom – promoted 2002, relegated 2003, promoted 2004, relegated 2006, promoted 2008, relegated 2009

Birmingham – promoted 2002, relegated 2006, promoted 2007, relegated 2008, promoted 2009

Ipswich – relegated 2002

Derby County – relegated 2002, promoted 2007, relegated 2008

Leicester – relegated 2002, promoted 2003, relegated 2004

Portsmouth – promoted 2003

Wolverhampton – promoted 2003, relegated 2004, promoted 2009

West Ham – relegated 2003, promoted 2005

Sunderland – relegated 2003, promoted 2005, relegated 2006, promoted 2007

Norwich – promoted 2004, relegated 2005

Crystal Palace – promoted 2004, relegated 2005

Leeds United – relegated 2004

Wigan – promoted 2005

Southampton – relegated 2005

Reading – promoted 2006, relegated 2008

Sheffield – relegated 2007

Charlton – relegated 2007

Watford – relegated 2007

Stoke City – promoted 2008

Hull - promoted 2008

Burnley – promoted 2009

Newcastle – relegated 2009

Middlesbrough – relegated 2009

The World Cup Draw went down today in Capetown, with Charlize Theron hosting.  Because she’s from South Africa.

Here are the groups, with each team’s FIFA world ranking.

Group A:                                                                 

South Africa 86

Mexico 15

Uruguay 19

France 7

Group B:

Argentina 8

Nigeria 22

South Korea 52                                                          

Greece 12

Group C:

England 9

USA 14

Algeria 28

Slovenia 33

Group D:

Germany 6

Australia 21                                                                   

Serbia 20

Ghana 37

Group E:

Netherlands 3

Denmark 26

Japan 43

Cameroon 11

Group F:

Italy 4

Paraguay 30

New Zealand 77

Slovakia 34

Group G:

Brazil 2

North Korea 84                                          

Ivory Coast 16

Portugal 5

Group H:

Spain 1

Switzerland 18

Honduras 38

Chile 17

Host South Africa will kick things off on June 11 v. Mexico. 

England is reportedly thrilled with their draw, and the US v. England game will be great to watch, the first game for each team, on June 12. 

Group G is clearly the Group of Death, with Brazil, Portugal, and Ivory Coast, three teams in the top 16 in the world. 

Italy looks to have the easiest road through of all the seeded teams. 

The top 2 in each group advance, so if the US can get second place, they would play first place in Group D, probably Germany, in round 2. 

But that’s getting a bit too far ahead of things.  188 days until the first match.

Despite a 1-0 win over Debrecen in Budapest, Liverpool was eliminated from the Champions League when Fiorentina beat Lyon by the same score.  Liverpool’s goal came early in the game off a tap in by 20 year old David Ngog, after a header in the box by Jamie Carragher.  Glenn Johnson and Fabio Aurelio were able to start after getting the mysterious horse placenta treatment from an alternative medicine woman in Belgrade.  I wonder if she can treat manager Rafa Benitez?  The Reds started out fairly strong in this game, but seemed to get more uninspired as the game wore on, perhaps because they knew Lyon had fallen behind in Florence.  Debrecen actually had two great chances to tie late in the game, but goalie Pepe Reina made excellent saves.

The day began for Liverpool with news that Ryan Babel had conducted an interview with the Liverpool Echo, which was printed on the day of the match, that he wants out of Liverpool and he “does not understand the manager.”  Good riddance.  Why would they ever want to keep him now?  He also complained about the senior players not helping him and only being interested in their own glory.  What a freaking baby.  Maybe the team can get some good money when they get rid of him at the transfer window in January and use it to get someone with some heart.

The Reds had qualified for the knock out stages of the Champions League the last five years, with two finals appearances and one championship.  As third place finishers in their group, they will now join the Europa League knock out stages, where they will almost certainly be favorites to win the competition.  Rafa claims the team will concentrate first on finishing in the top four of the Premiership to ensure Champions League play next season.  They currently sit in seventh place, and will need to leapfrog Man City, Tottenham, and Aston Villa.  Difficult, but certainly not impossible, with five months still to play.  In the aftermath of yesterday’s game, both captain Steven Gerrard and Javier Mascherano vowed to try to win the Europa League.

It is certainly not unprecedented for a so called “big team” to fail to reach the knock out stages.  Manchester United actually finished fourth in their group in 2005 and was out of Europe altogether.  Milan and Bayern Munich have also been relegated to the Europa League (formerly called UEFA Cup) in recent years.

The Reds will try to pick up the pieces this weekend in the Liverpool derby at Everton.  Fernando Torres is still not expected back, but the team does appear to be getting healthier.  The almost unbelievable run of injuries is without question the number one reason for the team’s struggles this fall, and the depth has simply not been enough.

I was able to watch the first hour of the Portugal – Bosnia-Herzegovina game until it was decided before switching over to Slovenia – Russia.  The first half in Sarajevo was pretty sloppy for both teams.  Neither team looked particularly comfortable and their were lots of starts and stops without prolonged possessions.  The pitch looked to be in pretty rough shape, which may have contributed.  The stadium is apparently not very big, but it was certainly very loud and smoky.  Bosnia was missing four players from the first leg due to suspensions, so referee Roberto Rossetti was determined to keep control of the game.  Bosnia tried to press forward and got a couple of chances from outside, but Portugal stayed strong. 

Things started opening up a bit in the second half, and Rossetti seemed to let the players play more.  There were chances for both teams early in the second half from in close, but Raul Meireles scored at 56 minutes for Portugal off a defensive blunder and that was it.  Bosnia started falling apart after that and the fans apparently started throwing objects onto the field, even hitting an assistant referee.  Portugal won 2-0 on aggregate and advanced to the World Cup.

When I switched to the Slovenia – Russia game, Russia trailed 1-0, and I was just in time to see Russia go down to 10 men due to a straight red card that actually looked kind of weak.  This series was at 2-2, with Slovenia ahead because of away goals, so Russia played desperately.  They did have a couple of chances, and Slovenia missed some easy chances on counters, as Russia played everyone up.  A Russian player then received a second yellow, putting the team down to 9, but Russia continued to press forward and nearly scored late, but it was not meant to be.  Slovenia had an emotional celebration of their upset in front of their home crowd.

The controversial game was in Paris.  France beat Ireland in extra time when Thierry Henry hit the ball with his hand not once but twice, and then knocked a pass that William Gallas headed in for the winner.  Not only was there a double hand ball, but replays showed the play was offside, anyway.  Ireland had tied the series earlier on a nice goal by Robbie Keane, but they ended up getting a totally harsh result and deserved better.  There really needs to be some sort of limited replay in international soccer, maybe by utilizing coach’s challenges.

In the other games, Greece advanced over Ukraine and Algeria advanced over Egypt, both with 1-0 wins, and Uruguay advanced over Costa Rica after a 1-1 tie.  Costa Rica was literally seconds from advancing in group play before they gave up a late goal to the US at RFK Stadium that salvaged a tie, and now they end up staying home.  Brutal.

The US got thrashed by Denmark in a friendly, 3-1, giving up 3 goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half.  The next US tune up is not until March, at the Netherlands.  With the 32 team field set, all eyes turn to South Africa for the December 4 draw.

The first leg of the World Cup Qualifying playoffs start Saturday.  Ireland hosts France, Slovenia at Russia, Bosnia at Porugal, and Ukraine at Greece in Europe, and then Uruguay at Costa Rica and New Zealand at Bahrain are the other matches.  Other countries are playing friendlies, including England vs. Argentina Brazil and the US vs. Slovakia.  The big story is that Cristiano Ronaldo will not play either leg for Portugal due to injury, and France will also be missing Franck Ribery.