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 Michael Owen and Emile Heskey are expected to lead the Liverpool attack against Arsenal in the Charity Shield tomorrow... Kop Talk 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 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 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
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
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
Questionable yellow card to Gerrard (6 min I believe) for tackle against Vieira. Even Arsenal players protest the call!
Run by Cole down left side as Heskey fell and Xavier was nowhere to be found; Hyppia makes saving tackle on Henry.
Three great saves by Dudek!!! Defense stands still as Dudek comes up huge. First on Henry, then two on Bergkamp.
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!
Paging Mr. Duff . . . 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?
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.
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.
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?
Match Reports Gilberto Silva puts Arsenal back in groove Another day, another medal. Exactly six weeks after Gilberto Silva took his turn to lift the World Cup in Yokohama, the Brazilian midfielder picked up another, somewhat less auspicious winner's memento in Cardiff yesterday after scoring a debut goal which Arsenal's superiority merited in a scrappy, rain-swept Community Shield encounter against Liverpool... The Independent Gilberto's Community service BBC Sport Online analyses Gilberto Silva's goal for Arsenal against Liverpool in the Community Shield Gilberto Silva capped a fine performance on his debut for Arsenal by scoring the decisive goal against Liverpool in the Community Shield... BBC Gerrard should have been sent off - Wenger Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard should have been sent off in their 1-0 Community Shield win on Sunday for what the Frenchman branded a reckless challenge on Patrick Vieira... SoccerNet HOULLIER NOT WORRIED BY COMMUNITY DEFEAT Gerard Houllier remained unconcerned, despite seeing his Liverpool side outplayed by Arsenal in the Community Shield at Cardiff... Sky Sports SENEGAL STAR MUST STAY ON HIS FEET: BRUCE Steve Bruce believes Liverpool new boy El Hadji Diouf must learn to stay on his feet if he is going to be a success in the Premiership... Sky Sports Houllier: We had too much respect for Gunners Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier claimed his side showed Arsenal 'too much respect' in their 1-0 Community Shield defeat in Cardiff this afternoon... SoccerNet
In short- The 4-3-3 looked like three forwards waiting for someone to deliver them a goal. Diouf tracked back for the ball more than Hesky or Owen. In fact, it almost looked as if Diouf was playing as a wide right attacking midfielder. Which I realize sounds silly. Owen shanked a very good opportunity. I think Xavier was a lot worse the Traore, personally. Was it at the about the 70 minuite mark that Arsenal figured out that they could just bring the ball up Xavier's side and he would deploy his "Matador" defense? I kept waiting for Riise to do something. Gerrard deserved the yellow. It was a scissor-tackle. Not that I don't think Viera didn't earn it later, as he stood over Diouf, yelling at him after he took him down in the box. Don't stay up until 3 am drinking and such if you want to wake up at 9 am and be comfortable. LFC just didn't have thier cutting edge, but I still feel like things will be just fine in a few more weeks. I'm just glad this didn't count for League. Oh yeah, I think the black and grey looked really sharp- I better be getting a long sleeved version, as well as an Auxerre home jersey for my b-day. I have certainly given my girlfriend enough hints.
I think the new away kit sucks big ones. It's 'orrible. Ah well - each to their own. I also thought Traore did well. He's been a revelation this pre-season. His possession was assured yesterday (including neat sidestep of Viera and Parlour in quick succession midway through the first half). Riise had a poor game and Hamann is clearly carrying a knock, and in the week that we sold Stephen Wright the sight of Abel Xavier was just depressing, but there you go. Midfield is still not producing enough for the forwards to work with. Same problem as last season. Let's see if the number 11 shirt that has yet to be assigned is filled before the close of the transfer window on August 31.