Compelling Soccer

Kicking off through the haze of early mornings, failing laptops and hockey. Decipher from that what you will.

-Well anytime you start an injured player you gamble. Rafa rolled and got snake eyes with Steven Gerrard Tuesday, as he had to come out before the 30 minute mark. For the record Fabio Aureilo didn't do a bad job. You just can't replicate what a healthy Gerrard will give you, much like the Reds were reminded yesterday with the absence of Fernando Torres. I also find it hard to chastise Benitez for his decision to take the chance. Let's face it; Liverpool is pretty much done in the Premiership. Their best chance at salvaging something this season is in the Champions League. That made yesterday a must win affair. Against Lyon, even at Anfield, you couldn't expect a positive result without Torres and Gerrard. How can you not give Gerrard a go? In the end, Gerrard couldn't do it, and Liverpool gave up a 1-0 lead, falling 2-1. They're now likely done in the Champions League as well and 2009-2010 is becoming a lost season fast.

It's clear this roster needs an overhaul. Much like my favorite baseball team, the New York Mets, Liverpool is far too reliant on a couple of world class players and simply do not have secondary players who can step up and contribute when called upon. These guys work well in tandem with Gerrard and Torres, but are lost without them. The except I believe is Yossi Benayoun, who certainly can create in the midfield. But the rest of the group seem lost without help. It's time to see what the Reds have with the likes of Ryan Babel and youngster Jay Spearing to see if they've got some players who can transition from secondary players to ones who can be relied upon when the top two aren't healthy or in form. I don't expect it to be easy, but one would expect changes are coming soon for the Reds.

-I got FIFA 10 yesterday and am still adjusting to this console generation's soccer. I can already see marketed improvements over previous incarnations of the game just with game play, and I haven't even gotten into Manager Mode yet. (Which I also hear, is a mixed bag) The play seems a lot more free flowing and player skill levels seem to really come into play. I started on the third highest difficultly level, had some fun with the US national team. Then I cranked up the difficultly level and decided to warm up by having the Houston Dynamo come to Anfield and face the Reds. The Reds were physically better than Houston and it showed. They won most of the headers, they muscled people off the ball and were faster on runs. My finishing stinks, so I only pulled off a 1-0 win with Dirk Kuyt putting one in in stoppage time. However the difference between the two sides were marketed. Likewise, when I played against England, I was able to put pressure on their defense because Charlie Davies' speed gave them problems.

Overall I'm excited for how the game is playing so far. I still need to learn how to play defense; I'm getting brutalized by perfectly time balls over the head of my defense turning into breakaways, but it could be a good one. If manager mode is decent, FIFA 10 has a chance to be in for the long haul.

-Jermaine Jones' switch to the US was approved. Unfortunately, he's still out with his shin injury, meaning it may be a while before we see him in a jersey. Considering the strength of the US midfield, there's no guarantee he makes the squad come the WC. Especially since his role would be similar to Michael Bradley; um yeah, who do you like a battle between a newcomer and the coach's son?

-Maurice Edu tweeted last night that he was the victim of racial slurs by supporters of Rangers yesterday. To make matters worse, Edu plays for Rangers, so these were fans attacking their own player. I know FIFA is continually making an effort to stamp out racism. But of course if you have to repeatedly make warnings about how racism will be punished, then you have a racism problem that isn't going away quick enough. How do you wipe out 400 years worth of prejudice? The answer is sadly not easily.