In case any of you were worried that I may have given up on following some good ol' European-style kickball (aka. soccer), I want to put that fear to rest with an update on my chosen side. Liverpool has given me some euphoric times and some low moments so here's a review.In late November, LFC found themselves in a precarious situation vis-a-vis the Champions League group stage. The CL is a tournament of the top European club teams in which Liverpool reached the final against AC Milan last year. November saw the Reds on the verge of elimination as they sat in distant 3rd place in their 4-team group and needing to sweep the rest of their matches. They did this with a flourish, beating FC Porto and Olympique Marseille by a combined score of 8-1. They later drew Inter Milan, arguably the hottest team in Europe, in the next round to be played in February.
As they seemed to be on the verge of a breakout in European play, in the Premier League LFC have been less than impressive. December saw the first and second league losses (to Man U and lowly Reading) of a season marked by draws and missed opportunities. In the past 6 weeks, out of a possible 21 points, my boys have brought home a mediocre 11, placing them in a disappointing 5th with a game in hand. When set along side an earlier than hoped exit from the Carling Cup at the hands of Chelsea and a lucky draw in this week's match against Luton Town FC, the season is not what we'd hoped. If Luton don't sound familiar it's because they are a full 2 divisions of English football below Liverpool and are is such bad financial trouble, their players haven't been paid since October. Not a team that should give us problems.
The bright spots have been:
- We are still alive, thought tenuously, in the Champions League
- Fernando Torres (pictured) is proving to be worth the small fortune we paid for him
- The teams that were picked to challenge for "top 4" status in the EPL have mostly been unimpressive, thereby giving the Reds a little breathing room at the top.
I will try to make my updates more frequent so they won't have to be so long...thanks for reading, Slicky.
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What has happened? Even though we lost to Chelsea (which always happens - we haven't won there since 1980) it appears we have stolen some of your mojo. Rafa gone this summer? Hmm...
ReplyDeletep.s. I heard on WSD that 8/20 (40%) of the managers in the premiership this year have either been fired or left. It's "unbelievable", "unbelievable". Thanks for the post just for me. :)
To tell you the truth, Rafa's future may rest on coming through this next phase of CL...especially if we don't get our stuff together and finish top 4. I was glad the Man City lost too.
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