He's Still Big, But He's Not Red Anymore

And there goes one of the great chants in sport.

"He's big, he's red, his feet stick out the bed, Peter Crouch, Peter Crouch"

He's big, he's blue, etc., doesn't have the same ring.

Unlike Rafa, Harry will play him. So it's a good move for Crouchie. All the best; YNWA.

BBC: Crouch agrees terms with Pompey
Liverpool striker Peter Crouch has agreed personal terms with Portsmouth and will complete his move upon passing a medical within the next 48 hours.

El Nino, Age 12

Torres makes look easy in this video of an Athletico Madrid - AC Milan youth match from 1996.

Oh Dear

Big loss for the Netherlands; big loss for Liverpool. I'll have to change my European Championships fantasy team.

BBC Sport: Injury rules Babel out of Euros

Netherlands winger Ryan Babel will play no part in the Euro 2008 championship after he tore ankle ligaments in training on Saturday.

The 21-year-old Liverpool star had been expected to play some part of the team's final warm-up match against Wales in Rotterdam on Sunday.

Curse of the 'Pool Men

Telegraph (uk): Gary Neville builders create Liverpool FC shrine under Manchester United player's pool

Liverpudlian brothers Brian and Gary Greer buried a Liverpool scarf and a copy of Kop, the club's fanzine, and a match programme, in a plastic tube when they worked on the England defender's pool.

"While we were there we created a Scouse time capsule under the pool and tiled over the top of it," Brian Greer told The Sun newspaper.

"When his house is dug up in the future, archaeologists will see what a passion he had for the Red men."

People sure do like to pick on Gary Neville. Here's a video of a British show that's like "Punk'd" on MTV, where Rio Ferdinand sets up fellow footballers. Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs are not amused.

Champions League Exit

MOTM
Chelsea player Didier Drogba celebrates after Chelsea beat Liverpool during the second leg of a Champions League semi-final game at Stamford Bridge in London. Chelsea won 3-2 to qualify for the final in which they will play Manchester United.
(AFP/Carl de Souza)
Chelsea beat Liverpool 3-2 yesterday in overtime to advance (4-3) to the Champions League Final in Moscow on May 21st.

Rafa made some baffling personnel selections; no Peter Crouch as usual, even though this was a must-win, must-score-to-win game and Crouch has an excellent record of scoring goals in international matches, for club and country. Riise and Arbeloa at the wing backs. I'd rather see Stevie Finnan hopping on one leg than Arbeloa, but I'm not Rafa. Arbeloa got beat like a rented mule on Chelsea's first goal.

Ryan Babel on the bench. Jermaine Pennant on the bench. Bennie Onion at least provided a little offensive spark, and created Liverpool's only goal in regulation time (and got subbed out early for his troubles), but Xavi Alonso was invisible as he has been for much of the year. Dirk Kuyt was so bad the ESPN announcers never even said "He works so hard" once during the game. Kuyt has the worst first touch I've ever seen. The ball bounces so far off his feet you'd swear he kicked it.

Rafa claimed Torres was hurt when he subbed him out for Babel in the 2nd overtime, but that was a stunning move when goals were critical. And then Babel scored that incredible 40-yard strike goal and you had to wonder, why wasn't he in from the beginning?

And it must be said, the pre-game taunting of Drogba by Rafa was nothing short of disastrous. MOTM Drogba made him pay & pay dearly with his two goals.

This morning I watched the highlowlights on SportsCenter and got a good laugh. These guys really know nothing about soccer. Steve Levy did the voiceover and pronounced Sammy Hyypia "Huppeeuh". And Frank Lampard he called "Lamperd". Just pronounce that one like its written, moron. Lamp - ard. Or call him Lamps and avoid the gaffe. You just know that Levy has never actually watched an entire soccer game. Never. From now on I'm going to call Levy (Lee - vee) "Levee". (I expect better from an Oswego graduate.)

I'm an American so I don't have the Manchester United hate you get when you grow up a Liverpool fan in England. So I'll root for the Mancs in the final, for Paul Scholes, the best English player of his generation, who didn't get to play in ManU's last Champions League final in 1999 due to suspension. And I just can't root for Chelsea, the unlikeable Blues, Terry, Lampard, Cashley and co.

If Liverpool had won, it would have been an all-Reds final in Moscow. So appropriate. Warren Beatty would have had to attend. But Chelsea has its own connection to communism, as Roman Abramovitch looted the money he used to buy the Blues from the Russian people as communism collapsed in a frenzy of capitalistic greed. Another reason I can't root for Chelsea.


Guardian (uk): Player Ratings

Guardian (uk): Benítez left with empty feeling and unclear future
A trophyless season will do Liverpool's manager no favours in Anfield's civil war

Independent (uk): Chelsea 3 Liverpool 2 (Chelsea win 4-3 on agg): Lampard summons remarkable courage to fire Chelsea through

Independent (uk): Moscow prepares for an English invasion

Telegraph (uk): Liverpool manager Benitez looks to the future

The Times (uk): Absent Roman Abramovich gets his home brew

Liverpool Echo: Chelsea 3 - Liverpool 2
AT least there’s no need to worry about those Russian visas anymore.

Fucking Hell

Times (uk): The names are drawn out of the pot to reveal an all-English quarter-final

Liverpool draws Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-finals.

Not Schalke. Not Fenerbahce. Not Roma. The #1 team in England, Arsenal.

And my brother calls to point out that in between the two legs of those quarters, Liverpool plays Arsenal in the Premier League -- at Arsenal.

And if Liverpool should emerge victorious from the Arsenal quarters, who will they likely face? Chelsea.

Fucking hell.

BBC: Arsenal face Liverpool in Europe

Telegraph (uk): Champions League: Arsenal face Liverpool

Guardian (uk): Gunners paired with Liverpool as the Champions League gets serious

The Kop: 1964, 1973 and 1994

I am posting this for my Liverpool-worshipping brother's birthday. This is as close as I can get you to The Kop this season.





link to 1994 video

wikipedia: 100 Players Who Shook the Kop

Origin of the term "Kop" (from wikipedia):

Spion Kop (or Kop for short) is the name for a number of terraces and stands at sports stadia; so named due to their steep nature, resembling a hill near Ladysmith, South Africa that was the scene of the Battle of Spion Kop in the Second Boer War.

[]

"The Afrikaans name for the battle," writes Liverpool Daily Post columnist Mike Chapple, "is Spioenkop; spioen for spy or look out and kop meaning hill or outcropping."

Oh My

Consider the source, but:

The Sun (uk): JURGEN KLINSMANN is in the frame to become Liverpool boss — if Rafa Benitez gets the sack.

That change would make one coach I know very, very happy.

AC Milan Are Champions of Europe

My caption: Too little, too late. Crouchie and Kewell should have started; at least they should have been on at half.

Official caption: Benitez brings on Harry Kewell for Bolo Zenden as Liverpool struggle to get back on terms in the second half (BBC)

Well, as a Liverpool fan, that was a bitter disappointment. Liverpool dominated play in the first half, all from the right side of the field where Jermaine Pennant ran rampant. The announcers kept talking about Zenden's lack of pace, as though this were some new thing; he has spent the season half lame, or huffing and puffing, clearly having lost a step or three from his salad days, which were not Merseyside. I heard Peter Crouch say in an interview that Bolo speaks four languages; perhaps he has used one of them to bewitch the manager. "I put a spell on you/'cause you're mine..." Harry Kewell looked a little rusty, but he is a world class left wing, had pace, and forced at least three corners as a result. Including the one at the end where Kuyt scored.

So those were Rafa's brilliant tactics: to start an old, slow, and injured left wing and stick with him for 57 agonizing minutes; and to leave out the second leading scorer in the Champions League until 12 minutes remaining. Rafa is hailed as a great tactician. Coach Mom has always doubted, and I have to agree with her today. That was just awful. The substitutions were so late. And why did he take off Mascherino, rather than Xabi Alonso? Mascherino had had a fabulous game. Alonso will be best remembered for the foul that gave Milan the free kick for their first goal, and a yellow card. When Inzaghi scored his second goal, I was appalled that the entire Liverpool backline had stopped dead to watch him go at Pepe Reina. If Mascherino with his young legs had been in the game, would he have made the run back to save that ball off the line? We'll never know. But he's got all the energy in the world compared to the other players out there, as West Ham left him on the bench all season. (And after watching him -- and Tevez -- play, you have to ask: Why? Were they nuts?)

I just don't get why Rafa doesn't trust Crouchie. As Tommy Smyth said in the post-game aftermath (in the seconds before ESPN2 whisked us off to some tractor pull), the game changed when Crouch entered. Liverpool suddenly had a man in the middle to make things happen, and shortly thereafter they scored on the corner kick. Crouch is not really that good in the air, because although he's tall he's rather willowy. But he's fantastic with the ball at his feet, has great touch, passes well, and sees the game like a creative midfielder. And there he sat, for 78 minutes, while Dirk Kuyt, who hadn't scored in the Champions League all season, ran around in circles. Kuyt has the worst first touch on the team. Half the time he can't even receive a pass, the ball just bounces off his dead feet. I'm always suspicious of players who get applauded for their workrate. I'd rather have fat Ronaldo, loafing up the field but scoring early and often. Workrate is overrated. Give me results any day.

ESPN had their usual muddled coverage. Why can't they show the substitutes bench? Then you can plot who you'd substitute in as the game goes on. Derek Rae and Tommy Smyth have their annoying verbal tics, but at least know the game; better than the moronic announcers we get for the USMNT games. But an hour before the game, they ran a promo that went thusly: "AC Milan. Maldini. Kaka. Versus Liverpool. Crouch. Gerrard." I said to myself, don't they realize Crouch might not even play? Of course they don't. They're ESPN, with the rights to soccer, but not the love. They cut away so quickly at the end, if I was a Milan fan I'd be screaming with outrage. I bet they'd stay for hours for the post-game interviews for some stupid NAIA college football tournament. Or a tractor pull.

NYTimes: A.C. Milan 2, Liverpool 1
Milan Wins 7th European Crown

BBC: AC Milan 2-1 Liverpool

Paul Doyle, Guardian BLog: Liverpool got everything right but their selection
Rafa Benitez found the perfect formation to stifle Milan, but he lacked the players to win.

Guardian (uk): Liverpool fans injured in ticket row
Two taken to hospital after fight breaks out

Guardian (uk): Liverpool have bravery but no breaks as Inzaghi inflicts Milan's revenge

Telegraph: Picture Gallery

SkySports: Gerrard gutted by Athens loss

Another One That Never Gets Old

Liverpool Vs AC Milan Champions League Final 2005

Champions League Final Previews

My prediction

From the press and the blogs:

ITV's Champions League predictions

BBC Sport: Team News, AC Milan v Liverpool

Guardian (uk): Special Report: Champions League (several excellent articles)

TimesOnline: Champions League (another compendium of excellent articles, plus a podcast from Rafa, Carra & Pepe!)

Independent (uk): Crouch: 'Once we have won the Champions League final I will look back and think how far I've come' (our brush with fame; Crouchie watched the Champions League final in Istanbul with Joe Cole in a bar in Chicago; we met him in the elevator of our hotel in Chicago two days later!)

BBC Sport: Alan Hansen's column: History will count for nothing in the Champions League final in Athens on Wednesday.

being sven: Shades of Red: A Liverpool Fan Roundtable

kopblog: Should Kewell Play In Athens? (if you want to skip the suspense, here's the answer: "ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY!")

The Soccer Blogger's Soccer Blog: Champions League Final Preview

Soccerbetting.info: CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL ? LIVERPOOL TO BE GREEK HEROES?

myliverpoolfc: PREVIEW - New classic possible between Liverpool and Milan

Farewell to Robbie Fowler

Today Robbie Fowler, the hero of the Kop, will play his last game in a Liverpool kit. My favorite story about Robbie Fowler is that he went to Istanbul in 2005 and was sitting in the stands as a fan when Liverpool won its fifth European Cup (even though he was at the time a Man City player). For today, I switched from Didier Drogba (out with injury) to Fowler in my fantasy team. I'm sure the Liverpool team will do everything possible to help God score in his final Liverpool game. Even Rafa hopes he will score today. Here are a few videos of Robbie Fowler to enjoy if you're not getting the game live. Robbie Fowler, you'll never walk alone.

His return to Liverpool last year:

All of Fowler's goals after his return:

100 Players Who Shook The Kop: #4, Robbie Fowler

Compilation of great Fowler goals:

Fastest hat-trick in EPL by Robbie Fowler (1994):


Observer Sport Monthly (uk): Don't look back in anger

Liverpool 1 - Chelsea 0 - Liverpool Advance on Penalties, 4-1

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard celebrates after team-mate Dirk Kuyt scored the penalty that clinches victory for Liverpool against Chelsea during their European Champions League semi final second leg football match at Anfield, Liverpool. Liverpool won on penalty kicks after the two teams were tied 1-1 on aggregate after extra time.(AFP/Carl De Souza)

Independent (uk): Liverpool have the final say as Mourinho falls to nemesis again

Independent (uk): Liverpool 1 Chelsea 0 (1-1 on agg, Liv. win 4-1 on pens): Reina saves best until last as Liverpool take road to Athens

Harry Kewell On the Comeback Trail

Here's the video evidence; film of a Liverpool practice before the PSV match, from dailymotion.

Pre Match LFC vs PSV - Training
Uploaded by redhalfofmerseyside

Liverpool Crushes PSV 3-0

The strike is Gerrard's 15th in the competition, breaking Ian Rush's European Cup goalscoring record for the Reds (BBC)

Liverpool methodically destroyed PSV in Eindhoven this afternoon. Steve Finnan was my star of the game for the two crosses that set up Stevie G. and Crouchie's header goals. Riise's goal was a cracker. Alonso looked lost, and Kuyt worked hard to no effect as usual. With three away goals, Liverpool is all but through to the next round.

DailyMotion: Liverpool v. PSV Goals

SquareFootball: Champions League: Liverpool/PSV- Liverpool Player Ratings

Telegraph (uk): Brilliant Gerrard dismantles Dutch
PSV Eindhoven 0 Liverpool 3

TribalFootball (Aus): Liverpool thump PSV with superb display

Guardian (uk): Gerrard inspires as Reds throw caution to wind

GuardianSportBlog (uk): Europe better get used to emphatic English wins

Footbal365: RAMPANT REDS EYE SEMI SPOT

News Liverpool Fans Can Use

Highlights from Liverpool Arsenal yesterday. Bonus Scotsman commentary.

All hail Crouchie! Peter Crouch returned from surgery on his broken nose yesterday to score a 'perfect hat trick': Left foot, right foot, header! (Favorite headline: CROUCH OUTDRAWS GUNNERS AT HIGH NOON, Football 365)

The Independent sez, McLaren, use Stevie G. in the middle, drop Limp, you idiot. Or something like that. Stevie G., only #10 on the list of the Top Ten Highest Paid Footballers. No one is more valuable than Sir Stevie. Those in the know know Stevie G. should be England captain, too.

Also in the Independent, an article about Zenden and the Holland team.

John Arne Riise has been declared bankrupt by a court in Liverpool. Maybe that is why Bellamy went after him with the golf club? Apparently his former agent invested his cash in some bad deals. Riise was very young when he made all that money (he's only 26 now) and hasn't always had the best judgment.

Maybe Riise should have read more books before he hired an agent. The Premier League has a charity called "Reading Stars" (pdf link), and every year every team selects a player who selects a book. This year's Liverpool player is Jermaine Pennant, and his book is Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo. A book about an English soldier in WWI. Doubt he chose it, but there it is.

Found a new Liverpool blog: The Offside Liverpool; and a new American soccer blog: Who Ate All The Cupcakes?

Happy 115th Birthday, Liverpool FC

One night in Istanbul
Yes, you heard that right. The world's greatest football club celebrated its 115th birthday yesterday. (OK, I'm a little late here. Bygones!) Here's the history of the club's founding, from the club website.

So, to celebrate, here's a roundup of club news.

The Reds got the best possible draw in the Champions League final 8, where they will face PSV Eindhoven. None of the English teams remaining (Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United) face each other.

PSV Eindhoven star Alex suffered a hamstring injury last week, which was initially thought to end his season; now he's going back to Brazil for an MRI and hoping to play in the second leg at Anfield on April 11th.

Liverpool's new American owners suspended work on the new stadium; Bloomberg reports that they may add capacity to increase the seating in the new stadium from 60,000 to 75,000 seats so as to rival Manchester United (Old Trafford capacity 76,212).

The club signed 17 year old midfielder Gary Mackay Steven from the Scottish First Division Club Ross County.

Crouchie had surgery on his broken nose last week; there are rumors that he will be transferred for either Tottenham's Berbatov or Juventus's Trezeguet. P.S., Berbatov is a dead ringer for Andy Garcia.

Pepe Reina may be Spanish, but he's bleeding Liverpool Red now (from Who Ate All the Pies)

'My wife and I have just had our first child and she's a Scouser.' Pepe Reina is now fully integrated into the Liverpool way of life.

And, finally, a song.
The Stevie G. Song: (To the tune of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You")

Lyrics:

You're just too good to be true,
Can't take the ball off of you,
You've got a heavenly touch,
You pass like Souness to Rush,
And when we're all drunk in the bars,
We can't believe that you're ours,
You're just to good to be true,
Can't get the ball off of you...

Oh Steee-ven Gerr-aaard, da da da da da da (etc)

I prefer the Que Sera, Que Sera song (scroll down to see the Manc fans lyrics).

You'll Never Walk Alone

Yesterday was the third anniversary of the Madrid train bombings. 191 people died and 2,050 were wounded. The Champions League games scheduled for that day went on (controversially) although UEFA arranged for a moment of silence before each game, and the players wore black armbands. This weekend while I was Liverpool surfing I found this stunning version of "You'll Never Walk Alone" which was sung by the Celtic fans prior to their match against Barcelona on March 11, 2004, in tribute to the victims of the bombing. ("You'll Never Walk Alone", the Gerry and the Pacemakers version, is the club theme song for Liverpool and Celtic as well as for all these other clubs:

* England: Ipswich Town,
* Austria: SK Rapid Wien.
* Netherlands: FC Twente, Feyenoord Rotterdam and Ajax Amsterdam.
* Germany: FC St. Pauli (also Borussia Dortmund and Alemannia Aachen).
* Greece: AEK Athens FC (AEK fans adopted a Greek version of the song).
* Japan: F.C. Tokyo.
* Italy: Hellas Verona F.C..
* Portugal: SL Benfica

Ouch

I saw this awesome photoshop at Ramblings of a Soccer Junky.

Sports News Updates

TOTALLY UNRELATED PHOTO: Jan Christensen's "Relative Value" on display at the MGM Gallery in Oslo. The painting featuring 16,311 dollars (12,400 euros) of banknotes glued to a canvas proved too tempting to thieves, who made off with it at the weekend.(AFP/Scapix/File)

Here are some updates on some wildly disparate sports stories we've followed here:

Jen Harris settled her case against Penn State and their lesbian-hating coach Rene the Weenie Portland. Terms were not disclosed, although Harris's lawyer said in a separate statement that Penn State would be taking steps to "further protect all students who have experienced discriminatory treatment". Read opinions on the settlement here, here, and here. As a veteran of many sexual harassment claims, I'm sure Penn State had dug up enough dirt on Harris that she didn't want to go to trial and be embarrassed. Even though Rene Portland probably knew none of it when she kicked Harris off the team for being a lesbian, courts have routinely allowed defendants to embarrass victims of sexual harassment in this situation. I hope the kid got a bucketload of money.

Ranger dancer Courtney Prince won a victory in her sexual harassment lawsuit against the New York Rangers. She will be given all paperwork generated by the Rangers in their internal investigation of her claims, and their investigation of five other claims, including the claim by Anucha Browne Sanders .

Liverpool's Welsh firebrand Craig Bellamy tells the truth about him teeing off against John Arne-Riise before their ChampionsLeague clash with Barcelona last week. Yup, he threatened his teammate with a golf club. Idiota.

Despite more and more national attention to his case, Genarlow Wilson still rots in jail in Georgia. The Georgia state senate has voted the bill that would allow his case to be reviewed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but they are on a two week recess.