[[ * tH!s iS ANFIELD * ]]

* KOP memoir

tHeKOPrAntS@8:13 PM

xxx Liverpool 3 Everton 1 xxx
Liverpool 3 - Phil Neville (o.g 45 wahahahaha), Luis Garcia (47), Harry Kewell (84) :)Everton 1 - Tim Cahill (61)team for Liverpool: Reina, Carragher, Hyypia, Riise, Finnan, Kewell (Warnock 87), Alonso, Sissoko, Gerrard, Garcia, Crouch (Morientes 90)team for Everton: Wright, Hibbert, Naysmith, Neville, Stubbs, Weir, Cahill, Kilbane (van der Meyde 68), Osman, McFadden (Ferguson 67), Beattiesent off: Steven Gerrard (18), Andy van der Meyde (73)8.02pm:Hmm… ESPN’s slow! Hahaha. I already know the starting lineup, but they still don’t know it yet! Hahaha.Steve McManaman’s on the ESPN show too… hmm, I’ll admit I don’t know much about him, but from what I’ve read on RAWK, many people don’t seem to like him much because of the whole Bosman thing. Steve McMahon’s over at the Liverpool party in Indonesia… These two ex-Liverpool players are a little weird, ‘cause they are like boyhood Evertonians… and both had illustrious careers at Liverpool whom a lot of fans recognize and respect them for, but after their departure, they aren’t exactly receiving the kind of admiration from Liverpool fans as those other Liverpool legends do.Mikel Arteta’s on the TV now… so is Xabi NOW! Ahhh… Xabiii… it’s weird how our players have some horrid people as their best friends. I remember how horrid that Ah-ta-ta was against us last time… Ok, I think Ahtata isn’t as horrid as that Looney kid. Don’t know what Stevie sees in him. Then of course, Robbie’s best friend is Steve McManaman…. Ok, I’m pretty neutral towards this guy actually…I’ll be interested to see how Timmy Cahill and Harry will be like together later. I remember how in the earlier derby this season, Harry ruffled Timmy’s hair as he went past him to shake the opposition players’ hands. So adorable… I’m fine with Timmy Cahill actually. He hasn’t done anything to piss me off so far really.Oh by the way, I cut my hair!!I know how some people have said they don’t see the difference… but here’s the MAJOR difference: I think my hair is shorter than Harry’s now! Hahahaha. I can still tie a ponytail, but it’s rather short, and when I asked HH today whether he thinks my hair is shorter or longer than Harry, he said he thought mine was shorter than Harry. Haha. I think it’s either shorter or about the same length.The 203rd Merseyside derby…I’m looking forward to it. :)8.42pm:On second look, maybe my hair is ABOUT THE SAME LENGTH as Harry’s. Not exactly shorter I think… about the same… Hmmm….9.03pm:OMG…Stevie…OMG!!!!Sigh…That was real reckless of Stevie though…I don’t know what to say man…I mean… argh… I don’t know man…I don’t really feel too pissed off with him, because I know derbies are like that, but… maybe it was kinda stupid, considering he got a yellow card earlier for a stupid reason, and he just went in with the sliding tackle a while later…9.31pm:WOA!SUPERB GOAL!WOHHH!!!The ideal player to score too.I love all Nevilles!Really man.Now besides Gary Neville, my other favourite non-Liverpool player is Phil Neville.Wooo!9.37pm (half-time):My 2nd Merseyside derby… and this is really scary.The atmosphere at Anfield is like a volcano waiting to erupt any moment (or maybe it has been erupting already). It’s absolutely messy, chaotic, fierce, just totally mad. It hardly looks like a football match to me. Looks like some kind of wrestling match. Scary.Stevie’s red card was stupid.The first yellow was perhaps… a little harsh (but stupid nevertheless)… but after getting a 1st yellow, you really should watch what you do instead of going in with this kind of two-footed challenge just moments later. Totally stupid… I feel so hot myself, and I think some of the “passion” has gone into the heads of the players, making them really hot-headed and unable to think properly.I really find it hard to comment on our performance so far… but let’s just say, I’m a little relieved that I actually don’t see much difference in our performance before and after Stevie’s dismissal. We were kinda a little shit before Stevie got sent off as Everton got the two best chances early in the game, but once Stevie got sent off… you can’t really expect us to play any better so putting that into consideration, I have little gripes about our performance. I guess we’ve not created any real chances, but at this stage, we really can’t expect much sexy football from us.I just hope the lads will be calm and keep a cool head in the 2nd half. I know, people have said that you know, football is a MAN’S game, and these sort of derbies just have a lot of passion in it, but I just can’t stand seeing stupidity… especially coming from Liverpool players.I can’t stand the ref too. Well, while I don’t exactly disagree with Stevie’s 2nd yellow, I agree with the commentators that he needs to be more consistent. There’re also quite a few Everton players who should be given yellows for their fouls. Either that, or he should tone down a little when it comes to cards, or we might be playing football with no one at all in the end. I completely disagree with Harry’s yellow though. HARRY DID NOTHING!! WHAT DID HARRY DO!!!GRRR….Ok, calm down calm down…2nd half has started… Calm down people!9.51pm:HA!!WE’RE GREAT!!WE’RE GREAT!!Hahaha, Reina ran all the way up to hug Luis… Great long goal kick from Reina, good flick-on from Crouchy, but wonderful lob from Luis!!!Hehehee.I’m happy!!10.05pm:BOOOTIMMY CAHILL…10.17pm:WOooo…So many cards.Poor Van der Meyde.. He came on not too long ago didn’t he?The commentator is getting rather animated. This game is sooo crazy.10.22pm:BOO!!!SAMI WASN’T OFFSIDE!!IT WAS CROUCHY….BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!10.28pm:I LOVE HARRY!!!!HARRYY!!!!WONDERFULLL GOAL BY HARRY!!!HARRRRRRRRYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!10.40pm (full-time):YAY!! I’m so happyyy… Harry scored a wonderful goal… reminds me of some of the goals he used to score for us… soooo beauuutifuuulll…We were really great today. Hahaha, I think we’d need to give Everton a two-men advantage the next time we see them to see if they can win then! Hahahahaha.It’s great to rub it in man…Oh man… our performance was just so damn damn damn good.I just got off the phone with HH… ha! He finally admits we’re good too.My brother is still soooo bitter over Harry. I made him say “Liverpool is good”, and he had to add the “except Harry” at the end. Now he’s saying “Crouch is good” again. AHHH…Well, after a 10/10 performance against Birmingham, I really think this performance matches up to that against Birmingham too. Only sad part was the way Stevie had to be sent off, and yah, that was the only blemish in our performance today. Well, I certainly wouldn’t dare to say it was good Stevie was sent off, but you do have to admit, we didn’t perform outstandingly in the start… after Stevie got sent off, the performance was a lot better, especially in the 2nd half. At the end of the first half, Everton had the edge over us in terms of possession, but at the end of the match, the stats showed we had dominated the game.Yes, although Van Der Meyde got sent off to level the numbers, we’d still have deserved to win it even with the odds against us. Once he was sent off though, there was never any doubt as to who would win it.To be honest, when Stevie got sent off, all sorts of worst-case scenarios started forming in my mind. The best hope, it would seem, was to hang on to a 0-0 draw based on our solid defence. However, once it got to 2-0… I was just like, “Oh damn it, we’re gonna win this.”2-1 was a little scary… because by that time I really wanted nothing less than a win, a win which we would fully deserve… and yah, once the numbers were levelled, I knew we had to, and would, score the 3rd goal to kill them.As I said earlier, really no joke man, Everton probably would need a 2-men advantage to perhaps even just to reach our level. Hahahaha.HH sort of “tried” to take away credit from our performance by saying Everton was shit, but we all know better, don’t we? They were on form, and they did start off pretty well, but it was just pure grit, character, brilliance from individual players (esp Xabi, but also Harry, Luis, Crouchy, Carra etc) that led to this superb performance and result. Yes I know the Everton defence was a little shit to let Harry just take a shot like that, with no one attempting to block him or whatsoever… but come on… it still took some piece of skill for Harry to take a shot like that… curling it nicely into the top corner and all… it was just sooo pretty… like him, and me. Haha.My silly brother said Harry looked like a chimpanzee during his celebration. So mean… but haha, ok, he looked a bit silly, but it’s HARRY, so I don’t care. :)I shall stop about Harry for a while…Moving on….Xabi was brilliant! Yup, after Stevie got sent off, Xabi was definitely the main man in midfield, and he did a wonderful job. He totally commanded the midfield, was super with the set-pieces… Sami’s goal should have stood you know… And of course, Neville scored that brilliant header from Xabi’s cornerkick. Hehh. Xabi also went close with a freekick effort that came off the bar. Xabi was absolutely absolutely super. Undoubtedly the MOTM.In fact, HH says Xabi should be the captain instead ‘cause he thinks Stevie’s useless. Well, I won’t go so far as to say that, but Xabi was really that great today, such that he made Stevie’s absence hardly missed at all.Credit goes to the fans too, who were singing Stevie’s name throughout the 2nd half! It was really nice. While I wasn’t absolutely mad with Stevie with his stupidity, I will admit to be rather disappointed with him. I know, I know, he was all passionate in this derby, and it’s nice to see such “passion” too, but… as a captain, you just have to know how to mix calmness and passion together. HH said Stevie’s IQ was 08 (the number on the back of his shirt in this game. The special 08 shirt is, I believe, something to do with the “Liverpool- City of Culture” in 2008 thing.) and perhaps, in that moment, his IQ really went that low indeed. Well, it’s over, and I won’t harp on it any further now. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really blame him now. I just have this pet hate for stupidity that’s all. Hahaha. Everything ended fine, so it’s okay. :)Besides Xabi, everyone else did great too. Luis scored a superb goal, and was a constant threat to Everton’s defence. I do think he should have scored a few more though. Crouchy had that great assist too… Momo did great alongside Xabi in midfield… Harry, I don’t have to repeat myself… Our defence did great, despite conceding that goal.Brilliant, fantastic, outstanding, superb... Sorry, my vocab is pretty limited!But basically, I think you get the idea.Liverpool were absolutely great today. With a man down, and of all people, we had to lose our captain (not some Traore or something), many would have thought it was all over for us. I for one, will admit to feeling only negativity at that point in time. But we showed real character and superior class and quality to carve out an absolutely great result over our rivals in such a fierce and competitive game. Full credit to Rafa, the team, and the fans for that.YAY!Overall rating of Liverpool’s performance:This was like more of a wrestling or boxing match (or a real battlefield fight) than a football match… Hahaha, it sure wasn’t as much about sexy football as it was against Birmingham, but Liverpool nevertheless, only impressed me tonight, especially in the 2nd half. I find it hard to even just to minus marks for some of the stupidity, because the positives that came out of this performance really more than made up for some of the moments when I was a little pissed off.Full marks, 10/10, from me. :)Man of the Match for Liverpool:I’d like to mention Harry but it has to be… no doubt about it…It has to be Xabi.

Thursday, March 30, 2006