Chelsea 1 Liverpool 2 - FA Cup Semi Final (Apr 22 2006)

[TLW]

Chelsea 1 LIVERPOOL 2

Report by Dave Usher at Old Trafford

Scorer(s) - John Arne Riise, Luis Garcia Half Time - 0-1 Venue - Old Trafford Date - Sat 22 Apr 2006 Star Man - Harry Kewell

 

 

 

Luis Garcia has had to endure 12 months of Jose Mourinho bitching about how his goal last season didn’t cross the line. It doesn’t matter that there’s photographic evidence to prove that it did, ‘the Translator’ won’t be swayed from his blinkered view. So when Luis’ shot rippled into the back of the net to put the reds’ two up, he could have been forgiven for racing to the Chelsea bench and asking “was that one far enough over for you, knobhead?”

Of course, Garcia has too much class to do that, but I haven’t. So if anyone from Chelsea is reading this: “was that one far enough over for you, knobheads?” Not that it will stop them moaning. They never lose fair and square after all, there’s always something to blame defeat on. This time Maureen got his knickers in a twist over the free kick from which Riise opened the scoring, and also over Mongo’s ‘goal’ which was ruled out.

So I’ll get those incidents out of the way before we go any further. I haven’t seen the video of the game yet, but for these two incidents I don’t need to see them again as I had a decent enough view of them at the time. Taken in isolation, the free kick from which Riise scored from was dubious. Mongo did go in with a raised foot, but usually English refs let that go.

However, about two minutes before that incident, Mongo went crying to Graeme Poll after Crouch had challenged him with his foot raised. He got his free kick, so when he committed the exact same kind of challenge on Garcia he should really have had no complaints when he was penalised. But this is Chelsea we are talking about here, and they would find a way to complain if they were served breakfast in bed by a naked Angelina Jolie. No doubt they’d be bitching that bacon wasn’t crispy enough or some shit like that. Horrible crying twats.

As for the second incident, I thought at the time Mongo had prevented the Liverpool defender (Riise I think) from jumping, although I didn’t expect Poll to disallow it because they tend to get the benefit of these kind of decisions. Poll had a clear view of it and instantly made the decision, indicating that Mongo had held down his marker. I’m told the replays proved that to be the case, although much like Luis’ goal last season, there will be some at Chelsea who won’t ever concede that.

If anyone had a right to complain about Poll, it was us. The free kick count must have been something like three to one in their favour. In the second half it became ridiculous. A Liverpool player (usually Gerrard or Sissoko) would outmuscle a Chelsea player, who would then fall over and Poll would blow for a free-kick. The second half was as close to a non contact sport as you’re ever going to see.

And then we have the linesmen. The guy who was supposed to be flagging their players in the first half got a few wrong (even without seeing the replays I can think of two which were miles off and weren’t given), but the linesman in the second half was shocking. I don’t remember him flagging once in that second half, and Hyypia and Carragher were rightly furious with him. It almost cost us at the end, but fittingly Joe Cole blazed over the bar and then went back to the dressing room to a bollocking from the ‘Special Needs One’. I’m sure the irony of shitcoat blaming Cole for the defeat when he himself did more than anyone to give us the advantage will not be lost on the Chelsea players.

You get some managers who really are too clever for their own good sometimes. They let their ego influence their thinking, and let’s face it, no-one has a bigger ego than the Chelsea manager. Starting with Geremi, and using Ferreira in midfield was surprising, but leaving Cole, Duff and Robben on the bench was madness. Shaun Wright-Phillips didn’t even make the 16, but then we shouldn’t be surprised about that given the winger’s desperate desire to join Liverpool. He was even seen laughing and joking as he left the stadium. You have to be a certain type of character to fit in at Chelsea, and clearly he isn’t that type. By that, I mean he’s not a complete twat. He’d be a welcome addition to the Anfield ranks, but whether they would do business with us is another matter.

But I’ve gotten sidetracked there, back to the game. If Chelsea’s line up was a surprise, ours certainly wasn’t. That’s the team most fans would have gone with, me included. We were a lot better balanced than Chelsea, and although the first five minutes or so weren’t too good for us, we quickly settled and were the better side in the first half. Perhaps Chelsea’s formation may have confused us a little early on, but once we figured out how they were lining up it was more a case of Chelsea’s formation confusing themselves.

They seemed more concerned with trying to nullify the threat posed by our midfield than with imposing themelves on the game. Ferreira and Geremi were supposed to keep Kewell quiet, but Harry produced possibly his finest game in the red shirt. He took the piss out of them and they couldn’t get near him. A mate of mine said it was like watching Barnes in the old days, and I agree. Kewell showed a strength on the ball which hasn’t always been there, and he seemed to just glide away from people. His use of the ball was excellent too, and whilst he was on the field we were the better side. I just hope the injury isn’t too bad, but given his terrible luck with cup finals he must be fearing the worst.

Ferreira's employment on the right of a midfield diamond was odd, but even more baffling was Essien at the point of the diamond. Pablo Aimar he ain't. With Fat Frank on the left casting lustful glances towards Gerrard, Chelsea were all over the place and struggled to get any decent service to Crespo and Dogpoo.

Despite their toothlessness Chelsea had a great chance to take the lead when Dogpoo, looking suspiciously offside, brought the ball down but put it wide when it seemed easier to score. He was made to pay for his wastefulness, when Poll awarded a free kick on the edge of the area and Riise slid a shot through the wall into the bottom corner. Instead of complaining about the decision, Chelsea should be asking why their wall parted quicker than a woman’s legs in the presence of Igor Biscan.

The celebrations in the red half of the stadium were manic. I had a great seat almost on the half way line (thanks to Kristen for the ticket, if it hadn’t have been for him I would have missed out on this fantastic occasion), so I could see the celebrations all around. The Riise song bellowed out for several minutes, as our side looked to be in complete control of the game.

We looked much the more likely to score, with Kewell tormenting them down the flanks and Xabi and Momo dominating the midfield battle. Harry could have had the goal his performance deserved when he switched wings with Gerrard and had a run at Del Horno. He skinned him, and then went by Mongo before dragging a shot wide.

Chelsea were looking very ragged, and shortly before half time Garcia wasted a glorious chance to send us into the break two goals up. An incisive move saw Gerrard break clear on the right, and from his perfect cut back Luis blazed a shot over the bar.

Maureen made a change at half time, but it wasn’t the one most people would have been expecting. Robben came on, which made sense, but Del Horno made way for him rather than the out of his depth Geremi. That meant Ferreira switching to left back, with Robben flitting between both wings.

The reds continued to look the better side despite Chelsea’s tactical change, and Garcia put another great chance over the bar when it was easier to score. The flag had gone up anyway, but Luis didn’t know that when he wasted the chance. Garcia is the most frustrating player I’ve seen at Liverpool, but he is the man for the big occasion and even though he’d missed those chances I’m sure I wasn’t the only thinking that the next one he got he’d bury. That’s just Luis.

He didn’t have to wait long either, as two Chelsea defenders went for the same ball and it fell to Garcia 35 yards out. He advanced towards goal but his path into the area was being cut off by ?????. He looked up, and in that moment I had a Juve flashback and just knew the ball was going to find the top corner. One half of Old Trafford were in dreamland, as they belted out the ‘Sangria’ song.

My worry was that at 2-0 we’d just sit back and hold what we had, but that wasn’t quite the case. They sent on the cavalry as Duff and Cole joined Robben, Dogpoo and Crespo in a five man forward line, but the defence remained resolute and the midfield still looked capable of mounting counter attacks.

Crouch had played well and given them some problems, but with the game becoming stretched we needed a threat in behind them. Neither Crouch or Garcia could provide that, so it was the correct decision to bring on Cisse. At least it seemed to be at the time. As it turned out, Cisse did his best to blow it for us, by not doing any of the things he was brought on for.

He didn’t get great service to be fair, but that’s no excuse for getting caught offside repeatedly, for not chasing down defenders and worst of all, for aimlessly hitting a cross into the box when there was no-one there when he should have been running the clock down in the corner.

Chelsea pulled one back within a couple of minutes of Cisse coming on (not that Djibril was to blame for that), as Riise’s poor header was seized upon by Dogpoo who did well to beat Reina to the ball. It was a bad goal to give away, and it was typical of what Rafa is always drumming into the players about Chelsea only being able to score against us from our own mistakes.

That set up the grandstand finish, and Chelsea laid siege to our penalty area. Kewell’s enforced departure didn’t help us, as we lost a major outlet when he limped off. Traore is no Harry Kewell.

Holding the ball up isn’t Cisse’s strength, and neither is closing down defenders. So Chelsea were able to start attacks from defence without any real pressure. Benitez sent on Morientes for the tiring Garcia, and Nando showed what a great pro he is by running his bollocks off trying to put pressure on their defenders. Cisse should have looked at Nando dragging his old slow legs across the field for the good of the team and hung his head in shame.

It’s easy to call Cisse lazy, but I don’t think it’s a case of that. I don’t believe he looks at a defender running away from him and thinks “I can’t be arsed chasing him”. I just don’t believe he thinks ANYTHING. It doesn’t enter his head to close defenders down, as he just doesn’t have a football brain. Morientes’ game intelligence was there for all to see, and on one occasion late on he chased down Gallas and tried to make a tackle. Gallas shrugged him aside and continued to carry the ball forward, but Nado got up and chased him down again and blocked the clearance. He got a rapturous ovation from our fans, and it’s things like that which Cisse should be learning from. If he hasn’t learnt by now though, he never will.

Chelsea had forced a number of set pieces, but we’d defended them superbly. Then, with time ticking away, a clearly offside Cole found himself one on one with Pepe but ballooned the ball over the bar. It was just like Gudjohnsen last season. At that moment we knew we’d done it, and the final whistle followed seconds later.

As we all went nuts, the one thing I remember is seeing Carra doing his Istanbul run, charging towards our fans, running around a little before collapsing on the floor! He’d been immense once more, as he and Sami (ably assisted by the full backs) repelled attack after attack in that final twenty minutes.

YNWA, La Bamba and The Beach Boys blasted out over the tannoy, as we sang and danced in the stands. I didn’t want to go home at this point, and the only downside to it was that I wasn’t sat with any mates. We were all on our own, as none of us could get tickets with eachother. At least we had tickets though.

Initially I was going to give Carra the star man, mainly because of the final twenty minutes. Up until he went off, Harry Kewell was easily the best player on the pitch but I was leaning towards Carra or Sami because of how well they coped with the bombardment. Having had time to think about it, I’ve changed my mind and Kewell gets it.

Everyone played a part, and Alonso and Sissoko covered so much ground and won back so much possession for the team. It’s obscene when you think that Essien cost around £19m more than Momo!

As for Gerrard, he was quiet but worked very hard. Once again he got cramp at the end, which is a bit odd as the only other time I can remember that happening was the Carling Cup Final against them last year. Maybe it’s a mental tension he has when he plays them, or it could just be that he’s had a bit of a hanstring niggle recently.

I was saying after the game to a mate that he just can’t seem to break free of the shackles when he plays them. He works hard, and does a good job for the side but isn’t the explosive player he is against other sides. My mate made the point that Lampard does fuck all against us either, and maybe it’s just a case of the two sides cancelling eachother out. He’s probably onto something there, as ourselves and Chelsea are the two best sides in the country defensively, and both have excellent defensive midfield players too.

Gerrard’s big day will hopefully come in the final, where he will surely be able to rampage forward more than he could in this game. The danger is that we may see this is being job done now, as having beat Chelsea we shouldn’t have any trouble with West Ham. If I’m honest, that’s how I see it. This was the final, and we should not be letting it slip against the Hammers. I just hope the players aren’t as complacent as I am, or we could come unstuck!


Team: Reina; Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Riise; Gerrard, Sissoko, Alonso, Kewell (Traore); Garcia (Morientes), Crouch (Cisse):