Phillip

Athletico Madrid were very, very unluckly. Two rockets of a shot from Forlan and Arguero, both from 30 yards or more out, hit the post/upright, and it could easily have been 2-1 to Madrid.

I don't know if anyone has commented on this yet, but did you see the inventiveness in our corners? Twice, I think, in the first half, the corners were played to the top of the box, once Essien played a dummy and I think Anelka got a great shot in; the other time, it was just a nice pass to the top of the box and we got a good shot in. Also, the corners were consistently getting over the first defender, and into dangerous areas (e.g., our players heads), which is a good thing. Was it Deco who took most of the corners yesterday? If so, kudos to him.

I voted Anelka, since he looked a threat to score whenever he touched the ball, and his passing was amazing. Loz's analysis of the three best players is spot on.

Maybe so, but it was harsh to take away Ivan's goal due to players in the way who were offside. They were not directly in the way.

It seemed very harsh that Ivanovic's goal was taken away for a player or two being offside and blocking the view of Bolton's keeper. To me, they did not seem to be close to the keeper, and were not in the direct path of the shot. Oh well, Lamp's penalty kick makes me feel a bit better, though in my mind it should be 0-2.

Sorry. Like I said, I have nothing to base my gut feeling on, and not living in Europe puts me totally away from any gossip and the like that y'all may be privy too. So, if Mikel is living the clean life, then my presumption was wrong, and I accept that.

I clicked on the link, but no music played. I just saw a bunch of green/blue images. What did I do wrong?

Good read, G4. I could not agree more. Is Mikel a partier? Something in my gut tells me that he is not one to work out too much, and that he is one to go out to bars and parties many nights, when instead he should be taking care of himself like a true professional footballer. I could be dead wrong about that, but that is my gut feeling. If that is the case, then Mikel is his own worst enemy. Can anyone set me straight on this?

Should he have abandoned the match, given what was happening? I think he was put in a tough situation, and assuming that he was not involved in the shenanigans, then I am not sure what would have been the right approach. Kind of reminds me of what Peru did when they quit against the Argies in the 1978 World Cup Semifinal, thereby keeping Brazil out of the final.

It took forever to download that page, and I got impatient and bailed. Anyway, I believe you, but I must have caught the time of the match when Essien went to the pooper, since he was god-awful for those 5-10 minutes when I was watching incredulously when he kept giving the ball away. Oh well, I won't belabor the point, since we won so convincingly, but Ballack was much, much better than Essien that day.

Just one match suspension, since it was a second yellow, not a straight red.

Great result. Liverpool are not a threat to us, and so gaining 3 points on the Cow-Dung is precious for us.

Oops, I forgot about that. Then I would add Makalele to my list.

Big deal! These happen a lot more than you would think, and typically by the keeper kicking the ball into the other goal, and usually on a rain-soaked pitch.

You must be JOKING! I counted 5 passes in a 10 minute period in the first half in which Essien gave away short passes to the opposition, and a few times in the second half as well. He was atrocious in his passing today, and his great goal does not change things for me. I think he must have the swine flu, by the way he played today.

Spot On! I would also add Paulo Ferrera, who is still one of my favorites due to his demeaner.

That is a ban-worthy post if I ever saw one. How could you?

OK. I guess that an argument can be made that the keeper went out from the goal to pick up Kalou, and that caused him to misjudge the free kick and allow it to go into the net. I think it is the wrong decision in this case, but I am not an expert by any means on this rule.

Then you are not a Chelsea fan, Bluegraham, but rather you are an Anti-Liverpool fan. I am a Chelsea fan first and foremost, and that means that I want Liverpool to defeat ManU to increase our chances to win the league -- case closed!!!!!!

What a bogus survey. I think the better analysis is that calm players take their time, and shoot better, while nervous players shoot quickly and inaccurately. So, the time wait is due to a player's calmness or lack thereof prior to taking the penalty kick. The article does talk about the pschological aspect of the game, but I think it fails to correlate calmness with taking extra time before shooting.

Sooooo, since Kalou did not make contact with the keeper until the ball was well past him and just about in the net, why would that be an offisdes call? When the keeper flapped at the ball and got his fingertips to it, Kalou was nowhere near him. I am confused, and need clarification. Oops, I see that the Moos and Loz had some posts about this, and I still feel that it was in no way intererence.

I voted for Belletti, due to his pin-point crosses and overall good play. Ivanovic and Cech were close seconds. I made a pact after the first 20 minutes that even if Kalou scored 10 goals, I would not vote him MoM, due to his horrible blunders. How the heck did he get involved with the keeper to cause disallowance of Lamps free kick "goal"? How did he miss that sitter after an excellent pass from Ballack? It is mind-boggling!

From what I could tell from the youtube clip, it was a beach ball, and not a balloon. Thus, it would have been very hard to pop by Reina. Should he have just kicked it out of the way when the real ball was in Sunderland's half of the field? Definitely yes, but I was not watching the game, so I really cannot comment if such a time period existed for him to do so (I would expect that was the case, but who knows, maybe the beach ball was further upfield at the time, and he could not get to it safely).

It was a good game to watch, and I must give credit to Villa, for they were about the only team that I can remember which was ahead going into the last 20 minutes, and which did not go into time stalling tactics (like playings rolling on the ground after a minor injury, or taking a whole lot of time to take a throw-in or a free kick). Fair play to them, and also fair play to the substitute referee, who did a good job. Frustrating game, but we cannot complain about being unlucky, like Liverpool. To end on a positive note, I REALLY LIKE THOSE AWAY JERSEYS!

Oh, sorry, I was looking at his "Joined" date and mistook it for his "Post" date, and thought that he had posted on 10 October, 2009 (I also did not see the 2006 date -- I am really messed up!). I see now that he had made that post many moons ago. Thanks for setting me straight, Moi.