Official Liverpool Thread

[cjt4ever]

I'm happy with a nil all draw to be honest. I was hoping for better though....If we can keep Chelsea goaless at home, then we can do it at Anfield, hopefully. I've got a good feeling about the team this year though. They seem hungry to win atleast some trophy this year, and I could see them going all the way!

[AJ]

Liverpool were the better team in the second half. I got tired of the commentators going on about how Liverpool will be happy with a 0-0. How? I can understand how something like 1-1 would have been good 'cause then they have an away goal and if they held Chelsea at Anfield to 0-0 they would be through. Now though they have to be careful not to let in any goals in the 2nd leg. If Chelsea score then Liverpool need to win the game. No going through on a draw like in Turin.

[britneyspearsisgod]

0-0 was not a good result for this moment in time. It would have been good for the Premiership, but they REALLY needed to get a goal. Chelsea have just one goal to get and with their defence, Liverpool would be buggered.

Saying that, Liverpool just have to win. I want Liverpool to win. If they don't, I curse you all. I CURSE YOU ALL!!!!

[pigeon]

Dear Corporate Member

With Chelsea FC playing in the Champions League Final in Istanbul on 25 May 2005 we are in the process of planning a corporate trip. We are trying to establish the interest in such a trip and are inviting you to pre-register and therefore arrangements can then be made based on those numbers. Apologies if you have already received this email.

We would appreciate if you could respond to this email to advise:

You do not wish to travel to Istanbul OR

You intend to travel to Istanbul but will make your own arrangements

OR

You are interested in our corporate trip and the number of places you

require ( May we remind you that you are permitted to book 1 place

per corporate seat held)

Based on this information you give us we will either not contact you again or will be in touch with the details of the package.

Our package will take the usual format of a 2 night trip with the cost likely to be higher than Munich and Barcelona due to the longer flight and higher hotel costs and as a guideline will be in the region of £1500 + corporate match ticket.

We cannot assist with any match ticket only enquiries - this is via Corporate Sales at Chelsea FC.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind regards

Chelsea Village Travel

Football Department

01737 646 430

[Summers]

God forbid they need to find these things out in advance.

[therockbox]

The first line claims they're already there.

[naiwf]

Nice start for your squad, 1-0 in the 4th or 5th minute, I wasn't really watching the clock when the goal was counted. I'm rooting for you because from what I understand Chelsea are the EPL's version of the New York Yankees.

[britneyspearsisgod]

I suppose they are. Personally, I'm amazed the goal was given, because it was nowhere NEAR being off the line. However, apparently it could have been a clear penalty and the ref would have had to possibly send Cech off, so he gave it. At least, that's what my dad said.

But whatever - Liverpool deserved something. Well done to them. Now let's all go to Istanbul and have some fun.

[pigeon]

Just like the Kop of old.

The Times: Sheer decibels shatter the champions

By Simon Barnes

THEY got the name of the goalscorer wrong. Liverpool’s shocking, and shockingly inevitable, fourth-minute goal was not scored by Luis García, as the announcer claimed. It was scored by Havoc. It was created by Havoc and finished by Havoc, for last night Liverpool cried Havoc and let slip the dogs of sport.

This fancy, wealthy, newfangled Chelsea team have done a lot in a short time. But they have not played a European Cup semi-final at Anfield on a night when Havoc has been cried and normal rules of footballing reality, therefore, have been suspended. And Liverpool — well, Liverpool haven’t done much for a long time, but they can still remember. And last night, they remembered, and the force of their memories was strong enough to bring the past to life.

It is not a matter of noise, although noise is a part of it. Football matches are always noisy and when they close the roof at the Millennium Stadium, a few hours under the flight-path at Heathrow is infinitely preferable to an afternoon of football. No, it is the quality of the noise, the prayer-filled quality of noise that seeks to shape a match not according to the relative strengths of the teams but the relative desire of the fans.

And Chelsea were shocked. Shocked by the decibels, shocked by the prayerfulness, shocked by the desire. That is why we saw something we do not associate with the Chelsea of this season, with the Chelsea that is the creature of José Mourinho. We saw tentativeness. We saw a team out of its depth.

It was not the players but the prayers that made Chelsea look so callow. And as Havoc had been cried, so it led to a rare thing, a thing almost unheard of from Chelsea this season: panic. I think it likely that if the chance had not come at the Kop end, the panic would not have happened because the Liverpool players themselves were largely incidental.

But Chelsea were shocked out of their sense of superiority by the quality of the pre-match vibes; it was a start that visibly threw them. It was not the hostility, for all that there was plenty. It was the desire that the impossible should happen and that the underdogs of war — sport, I mean — should prevail. Chelsea were rattled.

And that is why they conceded a goal that had about it more than an element of daftness. The ball went beyond either team’s control in the penalty area and García got the final touch. William Gallas kicked it away again and television hadn’t a clue as to whether it had crossed the line.

In cricket, the tradition is to give the benefit of the doubt to the batsman. It actually says so in the Laws. No such thing is written in football’s rules: rather, the not terribly noble tradition of giving the benefit of the doubt to the home team.

The Liverpool crowd had done an astonishing thing. They made Chelsea play worse than they can, they made Liverpool play better than they can, they made the referee turn a crucial decision their way. That’s 23 people all behaving in the way that the Liverpool crowd wished. It was, in the most literal sense, a triumph of hope over expectation.

There’s a lot of guff written about football crowds, particularly Liverpool’s. But the fact is, the tradition of a club is not in the hands or even the feet of players, or managers, hirelings all, who will be off the minute a better offer comes along. No one in football has loyalty to anyone, or is expected to.

Only supporters have loyalty. They are not loyal to persons or institutions so much as loyal to loyalty itself. And with Liverpool, the loyalty passed the test of time, the years of comparative failure. It lay dormant, like the frogs that bury themselves in the desert for years at a time, waiting for rain. And when the rain comes, they awake and the desert itself is riveted from end to end with noise, made new.

In the previous round, Liverpool had been forced, profoundly against their will, to recall the horrors of Heysel. They were required to be humble and to act nice. Now, freed from guilt and from good behaviour, they were able to revel at last in their extraordinary season and they sang like 40,000 men who had just been released from jail and, on the same day, won the lottery and fixed up a hot date with the entire cast of Chicago.

It was a quite peculiar night and one in which the players played their bit-part with as much conviction as they could muster. It was a day when the spectators became the stars, when the readers created the plot of the novel, when the opera singers were outsung by the audience. Last night, the crowd inflicted their will.

[Jonny D]

I saw this earlier, and just to let you know, this guy is running in the election.

Vote Boris Johnson, of the anti-Scouse party. All together now: Boris Johnson is a blue, is a blue, is a blue, Boris Johnson is a blue, he hates Scousers!

[lazy_arse]

The FA have confirmed that only the top 4 will go into the Champions League next year. Just looked at the table and it looks quite unlikely that your going to make it. At least you can still win the trophy.

[therockbox]

Meh, they'll be made to look like tits when Everton fall at the first hurdle.

[fineintent]

Meh, they'll be made to look like tits when Everton fall at the first hurdle.

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[lazy_arse]

I won't be suprised if Everton are down the bottom of the league next year. They have such a small squad and Europe will tire them our. They've been lucky this year as they havn't had many injuries so they have been able to put a similar team out every week and so they have been very consistent.

[Colly]

All depends on whether Tommy Gravesen comes back. If he doesn't and Moyes follows through his promise of Big Dunc being on the way out, the physical presence of Everton is all but gone. They'll be mid table again next year, and the Toon will retake their top 4 place...

[therockbox]

Meh, they'll be made to look like tits when Everton fall at the first hurdle.

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Yeah because everyone thought teams like Liverpool, Porto, Monaco and PSV would be in the last four of the past two competitions. Everton's physical style will be hard for continental sides to adapt to - have a look at Chelsea/Bayern for a prime example.

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[fineintent]

Meh, they'll be made to look like tits when Everton fall at the first hurdle.

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Yeah because everyone thought teams like Liverpool, Porto, Monaco and PSV would be in the last four of the past two competitions. Everton's physical style will be hard for continental sides to adapt to - have a look at Chelsea/Bayern for a prime example.

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[therockbox]

As do Liverpool.

[Summers]

Everton did better than Liverpool this season in the Premiership, though. Everton deserve the chance to play in the CL for that. Liverpool didn't do well enough, thus don't deserve the chance.

[therockbox]

But if they win (because we're talking as if they've already won it), surely they've earned the right to compete next year as well? We've played, what, 15 more games than Everton this season? That's taken it's toll.

Besides, I'm not convinced about UEFA not increasing it to five just yet. You've got Gailard (sp?) saying no, a day after the President has said there's the possibility of an extra place being allocated? They need to sort themselves out 100%, quickly.