Steve Bruce said, "these things happen in football" after the Sunderland v Liverpool game last year when the ball hit a beach ball and went in the goal. He also said at that time that if you know that the game should have been started by a drop ball after hitting the beach ball you are a saddo.
Well Steve, it was ironic then to watch you rant and rave on the sidelines on Sunday after a somewhat dubious penalty in the 33rd minute. Liverpool need to get about eight more dubious penalties at the Stadium of light for that complete lack of understanding of the rules to even out. At least the decision on Sunday was close to being correct!
Overall I thought the ref and his linesman were diabolical. The ref failed to get the majority of things right, but I feel his worst decision of the day was when Andy Carroll was fouled outside the box and the ball fell to Raul who shot over the top from just outside the box. The ref had waived advantage but after Meireles shot over the top he came back and gave the free kick. How can that be? If you call advantage then you have to play on. If he was wrong and the player didn't get an advantage then you can pull it back but our player had already shot on goal. FIFA must sort this out.
On to the game. Sunderland didn't deserve a thing from this game, regardless of the linesman/ref's decision in the 33rd minute. While Liverpool were not at the best in the early stages they were the only team that looked like scoring, with Kuyt having two great chances inside of the first 5 minutes to score a goal. Sunderland's only real moment of danger was when they whipped in a cross from the left that beat everyone. Goals changes games and Kuyt dispatched the penalty with ease. Liverpool were in control at this point. Further efforts by Suarez, a header cleared off the line from Carroll, and a great shot by Spearing (who had a very good game) all prevent Liverpool from increasing their lead. Finally as the game entered the last 10 minutes Suarez picked the ball up on the touch line and advanced towards goal. I was looking for the pull back but instead he went for goal and hammered it in. It was a fantastic piece of skill by our little man. Sunderland were then reduced to 10 men on a professional foul, which I don't think the referee even saw again, but at that point the game was over and we were cruising.
My man of the match was Suarez followed closely by Spearing who impressed me. The only real blight on the game when Suarez seemed to hurt his groin in the dying minutes.
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Posted by James on 03/22/2011
Good article, though I thought Liverpool were definitely not at their best. For periods of the game Sunderland controlled the ball well and Liverpool struggled to keep possession and carve out chances. The game highlighted our lack of creativity (without suarez and gerrard there is none at all) and the team's lack of width to put good crosses into the box for Carroll to attack. Nevertheless, a good result for us that brought us closer to challenging Spurs for 5th. YNWA
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Posted by Marcus Black on 03/22/2011
I would like to ask EVERY other football fan how many of them knew this rule about the beach ball or foreign object interfering before our game with Liverpool. I didn't and I bet the person writing this didn't. This is a completely different account this time - a foul outside the box was given as a free-kick buy the ref - 30 seconds later it was given as a penalty by a confident linesman - who, as TV replays showed, was wrong and had his view blocked by another player.
How about earlier this season when a Sunderland centre half backheeled a ball back to the goalkeeper to take a free kick and Fernando Torres decided that he had taken it and Liverpool scored - Liverpool fans and players alike knew - the ref had no idea what had happened as he had his back to the play - yet the goal counted. Never have I seen such blatant cheating.
Suarez MOM?? - 6.0 from all judges for his diving and play acting - Spearing was the best player Liverpool had - looks an excellent prospect
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Posted by Ryan on 03/22/2011
great article, as always. looking forward to this summer, maybe some new signings, and a fresh start for the greatest club in the world. YNWA
PS- any idea as to when gerrard will be back in action?
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Posted by Ethanr on 03/25/2011
I agree with a lot of what you said. Sunderland have nothing to complain about. Those calls always go against us, like manure's pen last year that was from 3 yards outside the box, not a foot. When you look at that foul from every single angle except for the perfect position where nobody actually stood, it looked like a clear-cut pen. That was still a yellow card on Mensah, and the ref was harsh to give him a straight red, but the fact is that he took out Suarez. Even tho he didn't see him, he still stopped his progress and that is a yellow card, so either way he's off. Sunderland are very lucky the FA are being nice and dismissing the red.
Liverpool came close to scoring many times and Sunderland never threatened. The ref was horrible, but it was both ways even tho the obvious worse call helped Liverpool out. The thing about Liverpool is that they always seem to play bad after scoring their first goal anyway, so that pen probably helped Sunerland for the rest of the 1st half.
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Posted by JD on 03/25/2011
Why do you think Suarez is a "little man" :-)? He is 1.8 meters tall!
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Kevin Brodie has been fortunate enough to see some of Liverpool’s greatest teams and players in action over the last 35 years. Reds fans are spoiled for choice in trying to pick their favourite memory. The best early memory I have of watching Liverpool in person was our 7-0 thrashing of Spurs, with the 7th goal being a thing of beauty. Watching us in 89 lift the FA Cup after the terrible disaster at Hillsborough was also very special. My favourite Liverpool moment on the TV has to be the Champions League final in 2005. It was a day I will never forget.
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