White Suburban Punk

Rafa Benitez’s six year run as Liverpool manager has ended “by mutual consent.”  His statement: 

“It is very sad for me to announce that I will no longer be manager of Liverpool FC. I would like to thank all of the staff and players for their efforts.

“I’ll always keep in my heart the good times I’ve had here, the strong and loyal support of the fans in the tough times and the love from Liverpool. I have no words to thank you enough for all these years and I am very proud to say that I was your manager.

“Thank you so much once more and always remember: You’ll never walk alone.”

Sad, but I guess it was inevitable.  Still, I wonder why it took so long.  Rafa will probably go to Italy and take over Inter Milan for Jose Morinho, who was named manager of Real Madrid.  Liverpool put no timetable on the search for a new manager, but the speculation should be fun.  Maybe the New England Revolution’s Steve Nicol? 

Photo from Liverpool Echo

Tottenham Hotspur clinched the final Champions League spot in the English Premier League with a 1-0 win over Manchester City, with the goal scored by Abigail Clancy’s fiancee, Peter Crouch.  Liverpool have clinched a Europa League spot as the seventh place team.  They can finish no higher than sixth.  Rafa Benitez has begun a series of meetings with Liverpool’s top brass, but there is still no word on transfer funds available or the sale of the team.  It does appear that Benitez will be staying with the club, however.

Hull City, Burnley, and Portsmouth will be relegated to the League Championship.  Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion have been promoted, and the playoffs begin Saturday for the final promotion spot.  Sixth place Blackpool will play a home and home with third place Nottingham Forest, and fifth place Leicester City will play fourth place Cardiff City.

Chelsea will clinch the Premiership title with a win at home against Wigan.  Manchester United plays at Stoke City trailing Chelsea by one point.  Everyone’s final game is at the same time Sunday, 11:00 Eastern in the US.

The Red Sox swept Orange County in a four game set and everything appears to finally be coming together, just in time for a visit from the yankees.  That game is actually third fiddle in the Boston area tonight, however, as the Bruins look to sweep the Flyers in Philly and the Celtics host the Cavs in game 3.  The loss of David Krejci could be devastating for the B’s, as he had been superb in the playoffs and the team really relies on his creativity in the offensive end.  If the Bruins can wrap it up tonight, they could get some significant time off, as Montreal tied up their series with Pittsburgh, 2-2.  Ole!

The pitching matchups for the Sox series are: Josh Beckett vs. Phil Hughes Friday night, Clay Buchholz vs. CC Sabathia 3:10 Saturday, and Jon Lester vs. AJ Burnett 8:00 Sunday.

Liverpool crashed out of the Europa League last week after they beat Atletico Madrid, 2-1, at Anfield, but lost on aggregate on away goals.  The Atletico goal in the 12th minute of extra time killed them.  Yet another stunning disappointment on the season.

Sunday, they hosted Chelsea in the Premiership, trying to keep their slim hopes alive for fourth place.  In a humiliating, painful, soulless game, they lost, 2-0, closing the home season.  It was relatively even until the 33rd minute, when Steven Gerrard gave the ball away to Didier Drogba in perhaps the worst play of Gerrard’s career.  After a Frank Lampard goal in the 54th minute, Liverpool looked completely beaten and probably deserved to lose by more than two.

So they’re out of the Europa League and eliminated from any chance for the top 4 and the Champions League.  They have already clinched a Europa League spot for next year, so this weekend’s game at Hull has no significance whatsoever, they’re just playing out the string.  Rafa Benitez is supposed to meet with the club’s chairman next week to find out what the hell is going on.  Reports out of Italy suggest that Juventus want an answer from Rafa soon, but things may be complicated because of his long term contract with Liverpool.  There doesn’t appear to be any imminent news from the investor/ownership/sale of the team front, so who knows how much money (if any) they will have for the transfer budget for the summer.  These are dark days at Anfield.

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

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

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.

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

More dropped points by Liverpool and now that’s seriously it — they absolutely must win each of their five remaining games to have any hope of finishing in the top four.  Liverpool deserved a better result in this game, especially after essentially dominating the second half.  The first half was rather ho hum, played at a slow pace with few chances either way.  Maxi Rodriguez drilled a shot that was tipped off the crossbar at 35 minutes and Birmingham had a chance a few minutes later, but that was it and it was 0-0 at half.

Steven Gerrard scored on one of his patented blasts a minute into the second half and Liverpool dominated possession after that, but a complete defensive breakdown led to a tie game.  Liam Ridgewell came in wide open, completely unmarked, fielded a cross and deposited it past Pepe Reina, who had no chance.  This kind of mistake has killed the Reds this year.

At 65 minutes, Rafa Benitez replaced a slightly bewildered Fernando Torres with David Ngog.  The cameras caught Gerrard with a confused look and a slight roll of the eyes at this seemingly bizarre move.  Benitez said after the game that Torres was exhausted, which was understandable after the beating he took in Portugal on Thursday.  In fact, the whole team looked exhausted.  Ngog missed two good chances in the last 25 minutes and Maxi also had a couple that were not converted.  Missed opportunities and a colossal mistake equal a draw and just one point.  Liverpool now trail fourth place Manchester City by four points and have played one game more.  Thursday they play Benfica and Sunday Fulham, both at Anfield.

Photo from The Guardian

10 man Liverpool lost in Lisbon to Benfica, 2-1, in the first leg of the Europa League quarterfinal.  Some truly unbelievable officiating sealed their fate.

Liverpool started strong, continuing their flowing play from last Sunday’s game against Sunderland.  At nine minutes, Steven Gerrard was taken down just outside the box and he cleverly grounded his free kick to a wide open Daniel Agger, who backheeled it into the net.  Liverpool had the all-important away goal and it forced Benfica to attack.  Coming into the game, Benfica was unbeaten at home in their last 25 games in all competitions, and although they created some quick, clever chances, it was all Liverpool for the first 15 minutes.

Things started to change as Benfica’s play got rougher and more reckless and they were not sanctioned by the official, Swede Jonas Eriksson.  Twice in the first 25 minutes Liverpool players were kicked in the head by wild Benfica players going after loose balls and neither resulted in a foul.  Then, at 30 minutes, Fernando Torres was slammed to the ground from behind by Luisao, who then went after Ryan Babel.  Babel tried to defend himself by putting out his hand to keep the thug away from him.  Shockingly, Luisao received just a yellow card and Babel was shown red.  So Babel was thrown out of the game after Torres was fouled.  Say what?  With Liverpool down to 10 men, Benfica realized that it was open season on Torres and began mugging him every time he came near the ball.  Incredibly, Torres scored at 37 minutes off a free kick, but the play was mysteriously ruled offside.  As the announcer said in his sing-song British accent, “it’s a very, very hostile atmosphere on the pitch at the moment.”

The perversion continued late in the first half when Emilio Insua, who was on a yellow card from a previous game, received another one for barely touching a Benfica player.  He is now suspended for the second leg next week.  Incredibly, Liverpool still led at halftime, 1-0, and I actually wrote in my notebook, “it’s looking like the ref will have to give some penalties for Benfica to get the win.”  That’s exactly what happened.

The attacks on Torres continued, and at 58 minutes, Benfica was awarded an extremely questionable free kick right outside the box.  The ball was drilled off the post and in the battle for the rebound, Benfica was incredibly awarded a penalty kick, apparently due to a phantom foul where a Benfica player dove to the ground near Insua.  The PK was converted by Oscar Cardozo to tie the game at 1-1, and then the crowd really started getting out of control, shooting fireworks at the Liverpool goal for the rest of the game.  A second PK was awarded and converted at 79 minutes off a handball from Jamie Carragher, and Torres was mercifully replaced at 82 minutes before he could be injured.  It’s incredible he lasted that long without getting seriously hurt.  After the game, I didn’t see any Liverpool players shake the hands of any officials, and Rafa Benitez blasted them after the game, but the result stands.  At least Liverpool got the away goal, they can’t take that away from them.  The return leg is Thursday, April 8.  Meantime, Liverpool play at Birmingham in the Premiership Sunday.

Photo from ESPN Soccernet