EPL: Sunderland 0 - 1 Liverpool, Match Report By Jonno

The march towards number 19 has started!

It was a highly anticipated match, especially with the never ending transfer saga involving a certain captain of a midlands club. On top of that the capture of our new number seven, Robbie Keane (Reggie Keane to some), made most of us looking forward to this match even more than usual. Sunderland have strengthened their squad themselves with a host of players, many of them the former colleagues of our own Robbie, and a certain spitter that we all love to hate.

The match started with both sides lining up with a 4 - 4 - 2, that surprised me a little, I would say that many would be expecting the 4 - 2 - 3 - 1 which served us so well towards the end of last season and with teams needing to hit the ground running rather than ease their way into the season, it was certainly a strange decision from Rafa, especially with Xabi missing from the starting line-up. His place was taken by Damien Plesis, a promising bright young star that had starring roles in last season's march towards becoming the national champion with the Reserves. Another surprise was the inclusion of Sami ahead of Daniel Agger, although that one is more understandable with Sunderland looking to pump lots of high ball into the area.

Many were cursing Rafa when Sami had a mad moment with his weak header inviting Diouf of all people to have a clear sight of goal, luckily, as usual, Carra came to our rescue, nicking the ball away to concede a corner. From there, both sides were sussing each other out with hopeful probing balls that came to naught.

Sensing that we are still feeling our way through the match, Sunderland grew in confidence, starting to ask more questions of us, often packing the midfield to choke us and not allowing much space. We were lucky that their players were feeling their way through as well and weren't as sharp. They did however, snap us into action and the Reds were passing with a little more zest and purpose towards the second period of the half, however, these moves were often broken down by Sunderland who packed their defense and covering midfielders, at times with as many as 6 in the box to track runs and frustrate the Reds, and frustrate they did. There were a few moments of brilliance from the Reds when they put some nice passes together to open up the Sunderland defense and got a few shots in, one such moment was when Robbie cleverly brought down the ball, swiveled and let one fly with his left boot which missed the right hand post by about a foot. So close yet so far.

Sunderland were happy to go into half time scoreless, but they know that half time came at the right time, for them, just as we were controlling the game and started asking serious question about them.

The second half started the way the first one ended, Xabi came on for Damien who had a bit of a back problem and Liverpool came flying off the blocks, stepping up a couple of gears and went looking for that first goal that would open the game up. The warning was there, we are not leaving until we get the 3 points we came for, it almost came when Kuyt somehow managed to conjure space for himself and tested Gordon with his left foot, the rebound dropped nicely for our strikers to follow up but both Robbie and El Nino went for the same ball and El Nino's shot actually came off Robbie and went out for a goal kick, much to our frustration.

Next was Xabi's turn to try when he let fly another beauty from inside our half that sent Gordon scrambling back, only to breathe a sigh of relief to see it sail wide by a couple of feet. By this time, Robbie was already taken off and replaced with another youngster who impressed in the reserves, Nabil El Zhar. He brought much pace to the right hand side with Kuyt moved to a more central role.

As the match was drawing to a close, it was Xabi who made the difference when he sent a searching ball towards Torres who let fly a daisy cutter that went all the way and bulged the net. That sent the travelling fans and M Bar into a bouncing frenzy, with the fans bouncing nonstop until the final whistle came.

It wasn't vintage Liverpool, more of a smash and grab job at Sunderland, but I will take the 3 points as it was the first game of the season and a usual, our lads are still some way from full fitness and understanding, not less between Robbie and Nando, but there are signs that this team can push on, with lots of improvement that can be made and especially our Olympians who are due back soon, it's a nice build up to the bigger tests that await us. With the new look team and depth; it certainly excites any Red in the world as we look forward to the Boro game at home next week with greater anticipation. Boro are no pushovers, as shown when they beat a more fancied Spurs 2 - 1, but we know we will be fitter, stronger and another week's worth of training under our belt and we certainly look forward for Robbie to make his competitive bow at Anfield in the League. Walk on...