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.

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

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.

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

Liverpool lost at Sunderland in October on the infamous “beach ball goal,” when Sunderland’s Darren Bent scored the game’s only goal on a shot that was deflected by a beach ball that had been thrown onto the field.  Subsequent commentary revealed that the goal should have been disallowed, and it marked one of many instances of poor fortune for Liverpool this season.  In the return leg Sunday at Anfield, Liverpool left no chance for bad luck to influence the game.  In perhaps their most dominating performance of the season, Fernando Torres scored two goals and Liverpool cruised to a 3-0 win, which could easily have been at least 6-0 in the first half alone.

Torres got the scoring started just three minutes in on one of the most amazing goals you’ll ever see, an absolutely magical shot that was perfectly placed in the upper corner of the net.  And that was actually Liverpool’s second quality scoring chance, as Daniel Agger just missed in the first minute off a Steven Gerrard free kick.

All game Liverpool dictated the pace with energy and tempo and crisp, authoritative passes.  It was truly beautiful football, and the players themselves looked like they were having loads of fun, as there were smiles all over the field.  At 32 minutes, Glen Johnson made it 2-0 with a deflected left footed blast off a corner kick, and soon after, Torres knocked a shot off the post and then sent the rebound wide, prompting laughter and smiles from his teammates. At 60 minutes, El Nino put the game away when he calmly settled the ball in the box and knocked it into the corner of the goal.  Torres has now scored 7 goals in his last 4 games.  This was a great example of how much talent is actually on this team when they’re all healthy.  I don’t know if they even need four world class players this summer, as Torres says.

Liverpool sit in sixth place, four points behind fourth place Tottenham, who have one game in hand.  The Europa League round of eight starts Thursday at Benfica, and they play at Birmingham City Sunday in the Premiership.

Photo from ESPN Soccernet

Wow, do these teams hate each other.  After five red cards in the last five games between these teams, Sir Alex Ferguson was crying that Javier Mascherano didn’t receive one Sunday, even though it was highly questionable whether the penalty kick should have even been awarded.  Nevertheless, Liverpool lost, 2-1.  

Fernando Torres opened the scoring just five minutes in on a beautiful combination with Dirk Kuyt and Steven Gerrard.  It was the first goal by a visiting team at Old Trafford in three months.  Just six minutes later, Antonio Valencia went down in the penalty box and Man U was awarded a penalty kick, which was saved by Pepe Reina, but Wayne Rooney deposited the rebound to tie the game.  Not only did Valenica go down shockingly easily from very little contact, but the contact that occurred was outside of the penalty box.  The supposed best referee in the league, Howard Webb, did not even consult with his assistant before awarding the PK and giving Mascherano a yellow card.  Typically, Sir Alex complained that Mascherano should’ve been shown red for interfering with a clear goal scoring chance, even though Jamie Carragher was right there.  Rafa and Sir Alex began yelling at each other on the sideline, and the match continued at a frenzied pace.  Valencia did not earn free kicks for obvious dives later in the half, but he didn’t get yellow cards, either.

With the game tied in the second half, Man U started controlling possession, although their only scoring threats were from Park Ji-sung, who did a good job heading in a nice cross from Darren Fletcher at 60 minutes.  Liverpool was unable to put together any sustained threats and Torres couldn’t put away a couple of difficult chances on bouncing balls in the box late.

Standings:

Club                       Played            Points

Man U                        31                    69

Arsenal                     31                    67

Chelsea                     30                    65

Tottenham              30                    55

Man City                  29                     53

Liverpool                31                     51

Aston Villa             29                     50

A top 4 finish is looking less and less likely, which would be a disaster whose repercussions would last for years.  Liverpool has an easier schedule than the other teams, but only 7 games remaining.  Next is home against thirteenth place Sunderland on Sunday.

Photo from ESPN Soccernet