MyRAWK - MALAYSIAN RED AND WHITE KOPITES

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

GAME HIGHLIGHTS: LIVERPOOL V TOULOUSE

with sources from http://www.megavideo.com

Pre GAME Conference with Rafael Benitez

The goal highlights and tribute to the family of Rhys Jones.
with sources from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ihd7vQZF5NQ

Liverpool 4 Toulouse 0 (Liv. win 5-0 on agg): Kuyt at double to help Liverpool find their range

Published: 29 August 2007 source from the online newsapaper The Independent

It can't possibly get any easier for Liverpool wherever their travels take them in this, their 35th European campaign. Without raising a full gallop, they sidestepped the sort of qualifying-round stumbles of which they have been guilty in recent years to record their fourth victory in five games this season, with the other controversially drawn, and progress to tomorrow's draw for the Champions League Group stages.

Peter Crouch's eighth goal in 10 European starts doubled their aggregate lead in only 19 minutes, the striker then blundering with five misses of varying degrees of embarrassment.
Sami Hyypia, soldiering on despite breaking his nose on Saturday, showed him the way with the second, but only Dirk Kuyt's late double made Liverpool's 50th home win in the competition anything like as conclusive as it should have been.

"You could see the competition for places we have, with every player trying to play well," said the Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez.

As well as being an utterly one-sided encounter, the evening proved another poignant Merseyside occasion. It began on a highly emotional note, with the playing of Everton's Z Cars theme preceding "You'll Never Walk Alone" in tribute to Rhys Jones, the 11-year-old murdered in Croxteth last Wednesday.

Members of Rhys' family remained at pitch-side during the minute's applause, his father and elder brother in blue shirts and his mother greeted with a hug and kiss from Benitez.

The manager gave a debut on the left of midfield to Sebastian Leto and, in the absence of the injured Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, turned to another of his summer signings, Yossi Benayoun, in a predictably revamped line-up.

Liverpool's early pressure resulted in Kuyt's deep cross from the right finding Crouch stretching to steer home from close range. Crouch lashed wide from a tight angle, nodded wastefully over when Benayoun again delivered well, this time from the left, and completed a hat-trick of gaffes by floating a header off target from Alvaro Arbeloa's centre.

Thankfully for Liverpool, the next big chance fell elsewhere, with Hyypia using it to establish even more breathing space. He was picked out in a ridiculous amount of space from Benayoun's out-swinging right-wing corner and headed in at the near post.

Kuyt both nodded and drove off target and was out of luck with a powerful right-foot shot from the edge of the area that was deflected almost at source against the bar. But there was no denying Crouch the leading role in the calamity capers. He displayed great skill to bring down a ball on his chest only to then volley high into The Kop, before scooping beyond the far post from the left.

Kuyt confirmed Liverpool's superiority when he speared home a low right-foot cross-shot when well set up in a crowded area by the substitute Ryan Babel three minutes from time. And he made it four by dinking over the keeper from a through ball by the impressive Benayoun.

Liverpool (4-4-2): Reina; Arbeloa, Hyypia, Agger (Finnan, 81), Riise; Benayoun, Mascherano, Sissoko (Lucas, 68), Leto (Babel, 75); Crouch, Kuyt. Substitutes not used: Itandje (gk), Torres, Alonso, Pennant, Lucas.

Toulouse (3-5-2): Douchez; Fofana, Cetto, Ilunga; Cesar, Dieuze, Emana (Felix, 76), Sirieix, Mathieu (Sissoko, 81); Gignac (Bergougnoux, 54), Elmander. Substitutes not used: Riou (gk), Jonsson, Mansare, Batlles.

Referee: W Stark (Germany)

Monday, August 27, 2007

Sunderland v Liverpool: POST MATCH REPORT by Will Tan

Momo Sisoko's 1st GOAL! What a smacker!!

After the battle royale against Chelsea, we are back to the meat & potatoes of winning championships – a trip to the atmospheric Stadium Of Light against Roy Keane’s newly promoted Black Cats. It was games like these that derailed our previous league campaigns and last season, our boys not only started sluggishly but only managed a measly 18 goals away from home.

So it was imperative we staked our claims early on and Rafa had a chance to steal a march on our rivals with an early kick off. Nearly 50 comrades turned up at Mbar and once again the place was awash in a sea of red and a chorus of Kop anthems. Not least the “We have the best midfield in the world” when Momo Sisoko broke the deadlock in the 37th minute with a rifled shot from the edge of the area. His performance and goal underlined Liverpool’s new strength in depth as he ably stepped into the huge boots of an injured Stevie G.

It was amazingly Momo’s first goal in Red (and Liverpool’s 7000th league goal) and his shot curled at the last moment to swerve past Britain’s most expensive keeper, Graig Gordon (10m sterling pounds) who up to that point had performed heroically to keep the scores level.

Prior to that magnificent goal, it had been a tough, physical battle which came to a fore early on when Big Sami Hyppia’s nose was broken by a flailing Sunderland elbow. Captain for the day Jamie Carragher also suffered serious injury later with a broken rib and collapsed lung after a collision with Pepe whilst defending a corner kick. (Luckily, Big Sami is expected to be fit to take his place in the upcoming home fixtures against Toulouse and Derby before an extended international break will allow Carra time to mend.)

Overall, it was tough, tight game and even though we had a better squad man-for-man, Sunderland battled hard, giving our boys little space and even less time to dwell on the ball. But this is where our “superior” quality is supposed to shine through. First up for special mention is Jermaine Pennant who is finally beginning to show the class he once promised as a young gooner. Throughout the game he tirelessly hogged the lines and took on defenders while the quality of his crosses has also improved dramatically.

Our star striker had another good game though he didn’t make the score sheet; linking up well with Voronin the pony-tail as the last gasp goal highlighted. Having received the ball from Babel after some neat pass-and-move football, Torres took his time to tee up Voronin who buried the ball into Gordon's far corner.

Torres had three wonderful chances stopped by the great efforts of the current Scotland no1 who kept the score line respectable. The former Athletico star also showed devastating Rushie-type pace that left the Sunderland defence for dead on numerous occasions and let’s hope he can emulate the moustached one’s great scoring record as well.

In the end, Roy Keane acknowledged his team had been outclassed and they had to accept the result. On a slightly negative note, Babel didn’t have the best of games as he continues his learning process but virtually everyone else rolled up their sleeves for a bit of graft. Another downer was the performance of ref Mark Halsey who showed way too much bias towards the home team though luckily his whistle didn’t lead to a Rob Styles-type fiasco!

But in the end, we were celebrating a hard earned win with even more beer guzzling (plus mandatory rendition of YNWA) and if it keeps on going this way, all us Reds gonna have some big and bulging beer bellies come the end of the season . . .

It’ll be worth it if we do number 19!

HYMN of LFC: You'll Never Walk Alone - MyRAWK at M BAR

Here we are at M BAR singing our ode to the LFC boys and the gaffer for a job well done at Sunderland! You'll Never Walk Alone!...

We are MyRAWK (Malaysian Red and White Kopites)