I know, the EPL is 25% done and where are my Liverpool posts?! Ask Fox Soccer Channel, who betrayed American fans by selling almost all of the best games to an outfit with trivial distribution and who respond to emails on the subject with a huge line of bull.
“Please bear in mind that one of the primary goals of our partnership with Setanta Sports was to bring even more EPL matches to viewers each week. We cannot say for certain whether Setanta will be available on your cable system any time soon, but we can assure that not all of the marquee matches have gone to them.”
Anyway, this morning we get the Reds for the first time and a decent matchup at that. Aston Villa are the last team in the league, coming in, to have not yet lost a game, three wins and six draws for 15 points and seventh place in the table, and manager Martin O’Neill bringing a similar personal record, having never lost at Anfield.
The first half was all one way–our way! The finishing wasn’t there for the first half hour, with Riise and Garcia putting a few into the stands, but most of the play was in the Villa end and then suddenly the boys pushed three goals in the netting over the next 12 minutes.
Dirk Kuyt got the first one off some nice buildup, tapping the ball down towards the top of the box and kicking it past Thomas Sorenson into the far corner. The pressure continued, giving us a couple of corners, and then in the 37th minute Crouchie lashed out his long right leg just past a defender and banged the football awkwardly inches passed a diving Sorenson’s fingers. The first half scoring ended with Luis Garcia getting free at the far post, the Villans defense completely muddled, leaving the winger to slide the ball underneath the keeper.
Not surprisingly O’Neill made two changes to start the second half, bringing on Didier Agathe and Chris Sutton in place of Milan Baros and Juan Pablo Angel to try to get some pace up front. The switch paid off in the early going as play and possession were much more even and ten minutes in rising young star Gabby Agbonlahor took a nice pass from Sutton at the top center of the 18 yard box and scored. In midweek against Reading in a Carling Cup match the Reds also had a good lead, barely hanging on for a 4-3 win, so I always wonder if there’s such a thing as a safe lead for this team.
Maybe. Certainly the goal woke up the boys though over the next ten minutes their hard work only got them a couple of shots over the top or easily into Sorenson’s arms. A free kick from a hard angle to the right side of goal from Gareth Barry to Sutton’s lunging head did force Pepe Reina to make a terrific stop but the resulting corner was wasted. Reina’s goalkeeping has taken a great deal of criticism this year but today, and in the two Champions League matches I saw earlier, his play has been effective.
Twenty-ish more minutes of very aggressive football through the end but no more scoring. The best chance fell to Robbie Fowler, on as a substitute for his 350th appearance with the Reds, just to the left of goal but he nicked the ball at too much of an angle and it went behind for a goal kick.
An impressive performance by the Reds in front of a roaring home crowd with goals from three different attackers, two good saves by Pepe Reina and very strong defending from what I consider the first choice back line of Riise, Hyypia, Carragher and Finnan. French side Bordeaux visit on Tuesday for a CL match; a victory will give us 10 points on four matches and almost certainly clinch advancement to the knockout rounds, especially if PSV Eindhoven get a result against Galatasaray.
Looking ahead in the EPL, the Reds have a good chance to move well into the top half of the table (they were eleventh before today but should move to eigth place) by the end of 2006 with the upcoming matches coming against Reading (also being shown on FSC), Arsenal, Middlesbrough, Manchester City, Portsmouth, Wigan, Fullham, Charlton, Watford, Blackburn and Tottenham. Good play and good luck could result in well over 20 of these thirty possible points!
BillSaysThis 