Football Review

I just got back from watching Liverpool recorded their 8th consecutive league home win with a 1-0 victory over City. City are very stubborn, aren't they? They held Liverpool to a goalless draw in the previous fixture at this year's UEFA Cup final venue, Richard Dunne was their man that day. Today, it was Joe Hart. Credits to him, I believe he deserves a cap (a start of potentially many more).

I want to be sleepy, although tomorrow I will be starting the most heavenly period of life as a UTP student in any semester: the study week. Study week is when you have no more assignments or projects or lab reports to be submitted, no more presentations, no more quizzes or tests to prepare, and no classes. We are supposed to be free of all that. But not when you're a final year, I guess. We have a presentation worth 25 to 30% (I'm not sure) this Thursday, and my group still have a lot to do.

Yea, I want to be sleepy. I want to sleep now and wake up early tomorrow (oh ya, Raja Nazrin, the seconder of the current state monarchy here in Perak, is going to give a speech next morning) and do some simulations. But before sleeping, I think I want to scribble something. Something about football, mixed with a bit of emotions.

Liverpool played their full strength team (Insua replacing Riise included) just now. With two more games to play, Liverpool now have nothing more to play for. Andy Gray even mentioned, he can't recall the last time Liverpool went into May with a real chance of winning the title. It is, somewhat disappointing. I don't know if disappointing is the accurate word. In certain parts, Liverpool have excelled. Somehow, we still fell short this season.

Reaching the last four of the world's most prestigious club competition is always a good achievement, but when you consider that Liverpool have reached the final twice in three years, it is quite of a setback, isn't it? And as I mentioned in my previous post, the match versus Chelsea, after the news that United will be in Moscow, gave me an incredible emotional complexity over to prefer Chelsea or Liverpool for the final. Now that it is Chelsea in the final, it is a bit of a relief, that Liverpool were denied by Chelsea and not United.

But now, for the first time under Rafa's reign, that in early May, Liverpool are out of contention of any silverware. The emptiness, the hollow feeling, is, saddening. That you go to mamak stalls and watch Liverpool play, knowing they are already fourth, out of reach for third, and no more matches after the league ends. In Wembley, Portsmouth will contest against Cardiff in one of the most bizarre FA Cup tales in history. In Moscow, I choose not to elaborate. No Liverpool there, so one might say that I can watch that match peacefully as a neutral.

Thing is, I am never neutral when it involves MU. That is the truth. I will never have the adrenaline compared to watching Liverpool, but I will always be backing for the team against MU to win. There are two things in football that makes me happy: Liverpool winning, and MU losing. The fact that the occurrence of MU losing is much rarer than Liverpool winning sometimes makes the former a bigger joy than the latter. I will be totally supporting Chelsea for the Champions League, but what if United wins? Will I bear to watch that? It has been quite some time watching United winning a final, so I almost forgot how painful it is if it happens. But if it does happen, I'm sure the pain will be very deep.

Back to the league, Chelsea drew themselves within contention of the title after beating United at the Bridge, but to realistically win the title, Chelsea must win both their remaining matches and United to drop points in those two, because if both are level on points, it is highly unlikely for Chelsea to score twenty goals in the remaining two matches.

But then United won 4-1 against West Ham. With ten men for over fifty minutes. United might have played well, I don't know. That didn't matter to me. What mattered to me was the statement by Curbishley. He said that it would be an injustice if United don't win the title. Yea, big deal. At first, I never bothered about that statement, but then only I realized, Curbishley actually have a match against United coming up. Wow. I don't like Avram Grant (yup, one because he's an Israeli, but another one is) because I don't think he has character or the talent that Mourinho has. But for this particular reason, I totally agree with Grant's statement saying that it is very improper for Curbishley to say that. I have incredible respect to Curbishley. He guided Charlton for years in the second tier into Premier League and not get relegated immediately. He even beat Abramovich's (but not yet Mourinho's) Chelsea 4-2. I still remember that. And I totally envy how he did the double over United last season (but I think the first was with Pardew) and beat them again this season. But I lost all that respect with that statement. It was a very honest opinion, I believe. But being a professional, he probably should've waited a few days later before voicing his view. I don't care how good United was last night, I'm very pissed off at Curbishley for not winning against them.

That said, I pity Avram Grant. Since when do I have pity over an Israeli? (Yup, specifically Israeli, not Jews.) But in from a totally footballing perspective, I should say he has exceeded my expectations tremendously. Of course his squad is already star-studded by the time Mourinho left, but I have good faith that Chelsea will be out of the top four. Yes, honestly. He stuttered in the first two games, but since then, his Chelsea is as good as Mourinho's, if not better, you might argue, because he has succeeded what Mourinho has failed (at Chelsea, he did though succeeded at Porto) that is to reach the Champions League final. To the last fortnight of the league season (let us hope they do not drop points tomorrow, so they'll still be in the contention for the double) they're still in contention for the biggest two prizes at stake for an English club. His character aside, he has done a good job, isn't he? He might not be that popular with the press, he might not look like an influential manager, but he has proved his worth on the field, and if that is not good enough, what is? I'll say, I won't be sad looking him replaced, but I will sort of pity him.

I will not say good luck Grant, but I'll definitely say good luck Chelsea. May the double be with you.