FA Community Shield: Arsenal vs. Liverpool [R]

[BrianCappellieri]

Sunday, August 11th
Live at 9am EST on PPV

Community Shield preview

Liverpool take on double winners Arsenal at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, tomorrow afternoon looking to retain the newly titled Community Shield and lift the first silverware of the new season...
Shankly Gates (http://liverpool.rivals.net/default.asp?sid=890&p=2&stid=8270262)

Michael Owen and Emile Heskey are expected to lead the Liverpool attack against Arsenal in the Charity Shield tomorrow...
Kop Talk (http://www.koptalk.co.uk/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=56254)

Houllier aiming to silence Gunners in season curtain-raiser

Liverpool coach Gerard Houllier refuses to take Sunday's Community Shield clash against Arsenal lightly and expects his players to treat the season curtain-raiser at the Millennium Stadium like a final...
World Soccer News (http://www.wldcup.com/news/2002Aug/20020810_14587_world_soccer.html)

New-boys miss Shield opener

New duo Gilberto Silva and Fabian Carini cannot play against Liverpool in the Community Shield as the pair still await international clearance...
TeamTalk (http://www.teamtalk.com/teamtalk/Team_News/0,1562,2,00.html#518429)

Houllier keen for Cardiff win

Gerard Houllier insists there is nothing friendly about the Community Shield clash with Arsenal and the Liverpool boss is desperate for a win...
TeamTalk (http://www.teamtalk.com/teamtalk/Team_News/0,1562,2,00.html#518452)

[BrianCappellieri]

Curtain Raiser In Cardiff

Arsenal v Liverpool | Community Shield
Sun 11 August | 1400 BST
Live on BBC Radio Five Live

Arsenal and Liverpool meet in the annual curtain raiser at Cardiff in what should be a fascinating duel between two of England's top teams...
BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/2186116.stm)

[khsoccergeek]

Teamsheet for Liverpool:
Jerzy Dudek
Abel Xavier
Djimi Traore
Sami Hyypia
Stephane Henchoz
Dietmar Hamann
Steven Gerrard
John Arne Riise
El-Hadji Diouf
Michael Owen
Emile Heskey
subs :
Chris Kirkland
Danny Murphy
Milan Baros
Bruno Cheyrou
Jamie Carragher
Markus Babbel
Vladimir Smicer

[khsoccergeek]

Questionable yellow card to Gerrard (6 min I believe) for tackle against Vieira. Even Arsenal players protest the call!

[khsoccergeek]

Corner to Arsenal, grabbed by Dudek.

[khsoccergeek]

Run by Cole down left side as Heskey fell and Xavier was nowhere to be found; Hyppia makes saving tackle on Henry.

[khsoccergeek]

13 and a half minutes in, 0-0.

[khsoccergeek]

Good block by Xavier on effort by Bergkamp in the box.

[khsoccergeek]

17 minutes in, 0-0 still.

[khsoccergeek]

Three great saves by Dudek!!! Defense stands still as Dudek comes up huge. First on Henry, then two on Bergkamp.

[khsoccergeek]

Pretty much one-way traffic so far (as if you couldn't tell)

[khsoccergeek]

Wiltord booked for tackle 23 minutes in. Liverpool free kick 35 yards away from goal headed away.

[khsoccergeek]

25 minutes gone, no score.

[khsoccergeek]

Arsenal wins free kick 40 yards out taken by Edu off of the face of Riise. Liverpool clears.

[khsoccergeek]

Good ball from Owen gives Heskey a chance, but shot goes right at Seaman.

[khsoccergeek]

Owen beats a few players off the dribble, and is fouled. Arsenal player booked (Edu I believe). 32 minutes gone, and so am I. I must go to church. Go Reds!

[SuperElf]

FT Arsenal 1 - Liverpool 0

Personally, I thought the team took 15 minutes or so to get in the groove, but then had a far better run of play than Arsenal for the rest of the game.

I was far from impressed with Traore. He had zero presence out there, showed nothing with the ball, and was standing flat on his feet for the goal. Frankly, he stunk up the joint for us.

Xavier looked a step behind. I don't know if it's age, or not being in the flow of the season yet.

Diouf looked good. This was the first game I saw with him in red, and I came in a bit skeptical, but he showed quite a bit of skill on the ball. I am a very glass half empty guy, but I think he might be the spark we need to take a little presure of of Michael up front.

Soeaking of which, Michael was not on his A game. The turf didn't help (he lost his footing a couple of times which cost him good scoring chances), but on the whole it just wasn't his day.

Stevie looked pretty good, he came out chippy, got booked 10 minutes in, and had another nasty tackle minutes later, but turned in his usual solid performance.

As you could tell from the title of the thread, I was rather disappointed with our midfield possession at times. Stevie was great as usual, but Hamman was missing his spark, and as I said, Traore stunk. If we only had Duff, (or Emerton, or . . . ) I feel we could have won 2-0.

Good to see Babbel back. He was a late sub, and looked like his old self for the 10 minutes he was out there. Baros and Cheryou came in late too, and didn't get a fair shot to make their mark on the game.

Dudek looked solid. Nothing he could have done on the goal, and he had a world-class sequence of three saves in about 6 seconds that left me on my feet applauding.

I'm rather POed that they lost, seeing as I only get to see them on the telly twice a year or so. (The scum get every CL game screened on ESPN though. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.)

Anyhow, that's enough ranting. Anything I missed, or anything anybody disagrees with?

[usscouse]

Thanks SuperElf and khsoccergeek
Disappointing result and it sounds like a disappointing game for us.

I just hate to be held to ransom by PPV TV for $20.00 it's just bloody extortion..!
I could see maybe $10 and I think they would get 3 times the people paying up.

[SuperElf]

Yeah, $20 kind of stunk, but I only get to see the boys once a year IF I'm lucky during ESPN CL brodcasts. Anyways, the last match I paid $20 for was the FA Cup Final against Arsenal, which was AMAZING. Too bad I didn't get a similar result . . .

Oh well. Give the boys some time to get on the same page (especially Owen/Diouf, yowzer!), and we'll start clicking off the results.

[SuperElf]

Oh, and another note, for those who didn't see it, we were playing a 4-3-3 for the first time in awhile. I personally didn't think too highly of it, as Heskey didn't really get himself into the game, and we struggled at times putting pressure on Arsenal as they moved through the midfield.

Anybody wildly in favor of it? Now that I think about it, it might have been productive if Traore wasn't stinking up the joint and/or Hamman could have contributed a bit more, but it's NOT something I'd want to run out every game, unless Baros becomes a world-beater, and we have to choose between sitting him or Diouf.

Comments?