Oct 19, 2009
I would like to hereby apologize to all Liverpool supporters. I fully take the blame for everything that's gone awry so far this season. Because I decided to really start following them week in and week out, watching every game I can and following online if possible the ones I can't, they have suffered the same fate as all the rest of my teams. What's that fate? Doomed suckage. See Jets, Mets, Nets and Rangers. It just fits that a team I root for would lose on a goal going in off a beach ball on the field. Seriously. A beach ball on the field. Say nothing to whether it should have counted; to lose that way is just, Jets-esque. Or Mets-esque. Or... well you get the picture.
-In more positive Liverpool news, Steven Gerrard is hoping to play Tuesday at Lyon. With the Premiership dream likely no more than that at this point, the Champions League might be the only thing the Reds have left. Fernando Torres is unlikely to play, meaning they'll still be far from their best for that tie.
-I didn't see a ton of soccer this weekend; but I did catch most of Michael Bradley's game with Borussia Monchengladbach (not to be confused with much easier to spell Borussia Dortmund). Bradley found the back of the net in that one, but it was about as meaningless as a goal can be. It was in the waning moments of stoppage time when M'gladbach was down 2-0 already to VFL Wolfburg. So it did nothing but help in goal differential. Still it was nice to see an American find his place onto the score sheet.
The downside was that up until that point, I had been thoroughly unimpressed with the way junior played. He had a lot of trouble working his way onto the offense and did not seem to be able to do much creating with the ball. In fact, he was pretty poor with the ball at his feet. He was unable to win 1v1 matchups to create space. If he wasn't outright dispossessed, he was pressured enough to turn it over on a poor pass. He was okay when he was just a relatively small cog in the set up, but put him in the thick of things, trying to make a pass with a defender on him and it wasn't happening.
The good news for Bradley is that he played the full 90 minutes and scored. As irrelevant as the goal meant in the scoreline it could mean everything for a guy who has been in and out of the squad this year. I'm not one of those people who think that there are three or four center mids better than him; it's questionable that there are any right now. He's definitely one of the more talented American players, so hopefully he'll get the playing time to improve on the weaknesses of his game.
-For those looking to keep track of Americans playing at the highest levels in Europe, Monday has a game of potentially great interest to you as Fulham and Hull City go at it. Three Americans could be on the squads for this one. The "potentially" tag is there though because it's not definite. Clint Dempsey is the most likely starter, but he of course missed the US qualifiers with a shoulder injury. I haven't seen anything saying he's out yet, however, nothing is definite. Eddie Johnson saw time as a sub in Fulham's last game, so it's possible the flash in the pan turned forgotten man will get into at least the 18 dressed players. Perhaps he might even see some more time as a substitute.
On the Hull City side, one would hope Phil Brown watched the USA Costa Rica game, though it was on very late in England. If he did, he would see why Jozy Altidore needs to be a fixture in his lineup. I'm not sure whether he can't handle training, but Altidore is usually pretty good when he plays with the national team with little club time. One has to wonder what he might do with more playing time. Well, stop the wondering Mr. Brown. Put Jozy in there and find out.
-Maybe I'm behind the times, but I'd hate to be Ireland right now. They drew France for their home and home playoff to get to South Africa. Of the teams in the draw, France looks to have the most talent. But hey, maybe I'm wrong and Le Blues aren't what they used to be. I mean they did end up in the playoff in the first place.