Dear Liverpool Fans,
Please use the comments section to delight me with your fanciful and “homerist” (I just made that up) explanations of how David Ngog & Co. didn’t steal two points from Birmingham City today?
Or, if you’re up for a bit more of a challenge, use this opportunity to explain to me how David Ngog’s actions were actually caused by Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson?
Yours truly,
thefuseproject
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According to ESPN the recap went like this…
“Liverpool 2 – 2 Birmingham
Preview Report Match LiveCommentary GameCast Match Action
Henderson saves Blades
Updated: November 9, 2009, 4:54 PM ET
Darius Henderson’s late penalty spared Sheffield United the ignominy of five straight Coca-Cola Championship defeats as an action-packed South Yorkshire derby ended 2-2 at Oakwell.”
…so they can’t even explain it.
never mind – they fixed it.
Oh I love soccernet.
You didn’t hear? Fergie called N’Gog the other day, wished him luck, and asked him whether or not there should be an apostrophe in his last name. The mindfuck worked, it’s all N’Gog’s been able to think about.
Outside of that, I’ve got nothing. The players he has should be able to win, but there’re obviously deeper problems. It’s not just tactics, either; I think part of the ability of big teams to win against small teams is sometimes that small teams are intimidated before they even get there. They hear about how hard it is to win at Stamford Bridge, at Old Trafford, at the Emirates, at Anfield, and they believe it, come in, and roll over.
With Liverpool’s dip in form (read: complete and total collapse), that intimidation factor doesn’t exist…and so the Birminghams come in and expect to at least play a game. As the game goes on, momentum swings towards Birmingham as they realize, shit, we’re only one down. We just need ONE GOAL to make this level. So they get that. Then they get a second while Liverpool’s pouting and having an existential crisis worse than an emo kid going through a breakup while his parents are divorcing (“But didn’t Xabi LOVE US TOO?”), and Liverpool have to come back without any real strikers to draw. I haven’t watched this yet (I’ll hit it later tonight), but i’d imagine around the 65th minute they start to not suck and actually try to score.
Because here’s the thing: these aren’t all bad players. There’s tactical issues and player confidence issues, but the team itself isn’t the worst in the league if they can just pull their shit together. Remember, this time last season Arsenal’d lost to Hull and Villa was a lock for the Champions League; it’s a long season, and there’s still time to salvage it. Not MUCH time, but some.
If you haven’t watched it yet, I guess you don’t know why I chose a “diver” for the picture.
Ngog went down like he was hit by a sniper…no contact, none. At all.
Most people who are hit by a sniper don’t make a point to execute a Fosbury Flop over a sliding tackle, to be fair.
Okay, just watched it. Brutal. That’s never a penalty, but I have no idea why N’gog was booked (if he was booked for diving, that’d make sense…but then he wouldn’t have the penalty). He must’ve learned that from Gerrard.
I bet it was SAF misfiring…
I’m through complaining about Fergie and the managers bitching about the refereeing. They are all actually correct. The players move too fast for the referees to keep up with them and they are starting to miss the action with stunning regularity now. Of course, we now have the advent of high definition telecasts and instantaneous instant replays, so we know right away whether or not they fuck something up. Unfortunately, that does not get them off the hook.
The Bent dive at the Lane was bad, but not quite as obvious as the “effort” that David N’gog put on Lee Carsley today.
So, my apologies, managers. Please forgive me. I still don’t think you take enough responsibility when your teams don’t play well, but you’re right about the refereeing. It’s pathetic.
Another career that is over before it started basically.
Pathetic.
N’Gog and Carsley both got YCs for the handbags after the dive (which the ref obviously missed)