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.

All Hail the Ginger Prince

wikipedia
Manchester United are in the Champions League final for first time in nine years.

Manchester United 1-0 over Barcelona. The lone goal a fabulous 30 yard strike by Paul Scholes. As the song goes, Paul Scholes, he scores goals! This ensures an all-England final (against either Liverpool or Chelski)

For me MOTM was Rio Ferdinand who anchored the makeshift United defense, while Wes Brown (other than a few errant whacks on van der Sar's head), Evra, Park and Tevez had strong games. Hargreaves survived a game at left back, but barely. Hope Evra's injury is not serious but he got a boot in the head which is never good.

Here's the goal in all its glory:



BBC: Ferguson heaps praise on Scholes

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

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