2012-2013 English Premier League: Liverpool

Tweet The new EPL season is finally here! It feels like Sergio Aguero's last minute goal that won the premiere league title for Manchester City happened only yesterday (sorry United fans, had to mention it). It was the first instance since 2003 that the premiere league was won by a team not named Chelsea or Manchester United. It showed us that with enough patience (and more money than everybody else) anyone could win the league. Manchester City is set to return the same team from last year and looks poised to capture their second title in a row. Of course Roberto Mancini, Manchester City's coach has already tried to claim that United are the favorites to win the title (maybe they even are with the Van Persie signing, but at least act like you are defending champions Roberto!), kicking off one of the more amusing things about soccer: managers trying to deflect pressure away from their teams. In my opinion, Arsene Wenger is the king of this, nobody complains more than that guy. But enough about teams I dislike heavily, let's talk my favorite team: Liverpool.

Last season, Liverpool's captain Steven Gerrard missed roughly half the season with injuries, in addition to Gerrard, Liverpool's best player (Lucas) tore his ACL and Liverpool fell into a slump of mediocrity without him. To add insult to injury, expensive signings Andy Carrol, Charlie Adam, and Stewart Downing not only failed to perform; but they played so poorly that I openly questioned how good professional soccer players actually are. Liverpool's lone quality signing, Luis Suarez, was suspended eight games for using a racial slur, and this was backed up by video evidence... wait, no it wasn't I'm thinking of John Terry, who got a two game suspension despite the fact that the case against him actually had evidence to support it. Suarez was guilty of not being English. To add on top of all that, Liverpool astonishingly managed to hit the post or crossbar roughly 35 times over the course of the season, and compounded that by missing 6 penalties. Then coach, Kenny Dalglish (club legend, best player to ever wear a Liverpool shirt) still guided the club to two cup finals (winning one) but was unceremoniously dismissed at the end of the year for failing to finish in a Champion's league position, a task that was border-line impossible given all of the above things I mentioned. Needless to say, last season was not a very fun one.

This year brings new hope to Liverpool (mostly in the form of, it can't possibly be worse than last year). Unlike last year, Steven Gerrard will be healthy to start the season along with Lucas. New coach Brendan Rodgers is bringing an attacking, fun style that the club sorely needs (so hey, if they suck again at least it will be fun to watch), and management seems to have finally put some quality signings together (which I will talk about in future posts). In all honesty, despite the crap pile that was last year, I am excited that soccer is back on and that I can watch my favorite team play again. For now I will leave it at that.

The NBA, Liverpool, and School

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Pictured above: A man who finally decided to stand up to the bullshit Liverpool has faced.

I have to be honest, after a whole day of studying, the notes I am reading are starting to blend and I am beginning to see things. Perfect time to take a break from studying. I could not think of a better way to take a mental break then to post my thoughts about a ridiculous day in the sports world. First of all the NBA, WOW! We all knew that free agency would be crazy, but none of us thought it would be this crazy. Earlier in the week NBA fans were both amazed and horrified at the Lakers proclaiming that they would get both Dwight Howard and Chris Paul. Everyone's thought process probably went from "no way" to "wait a second..." to "Fuck! they might actually do it". The Lakers have missed the playoffs less then 6 times in their Franchise history, they always have stars somehow. The Lakers fan's dreams and the nightmares of all other fans looked to be true when Paul was traded to LA with Bunym still available as a trade piece for Howard. However, the NBA (who owns the Hornets) decided to veto the trade hours later. This does not make sense. By all accounts the Hornets got a really good deal (a solid base on which to re-build), the Rockets and Lakers both got stars. If anything the Lakers were actually worse-off from losing both Odom and Gasol. Basically, if the Lakers failed to get Howard after the trade they would have been the same or worse as before acquiring Paul. Of course if the NBA did this just to make sure the Lakers get Howard and somehow keep Gasol or Odom well then. I wont go much more into this as Igor will have an excellent running-diary of what is sure to be a crazy day tomorrow, so check that when you get a chance.

The other reason I wanted to post something has to do with my history as a sports fan. It is well documented how NBA referees screwed the 02 Kings out of a title so I will resist the urge to write 100,000 words about it. What I am trying to say is that its not fun when the refs treat your team unfairly, and sadly this is now happening to Liverpool. Before you think I am just saying this as a Liverpool homer, please just examine the facts presented and try to look at it objectively. Today Kenny Dalglish did something few managers did at Liverpool before; he stood up for the club. Dalglish made a DVD of all of the 'injustices' that are happening to Liverpool that others are not being punished for. The content of the DVD will only be displayed if the FA proceeds to foolishly charge both Liverpool and Suarez for the incident that occurred Monday against Fulham. Why foolish? because as this and this show, the people attacking Liverpool can not hide from the fact that they are being unfair and uneducated in their attacks. In one link it is pointed out how various players have done what Suarez did and did not even receive a slap on the wrist. The other article (written by a brilliant Liverpool blogger) points out how 18 months after his departure, the English press still refuses to stop talking about Rafa Benitez, and also refuses to check their facts before writing idiocy about Liverpool. Believe me, if I had time I would write more about this and even provide examples, but the blog above will do a better job then I will. Also, if you are a fan of Liverpool and somehow have not ran into the above blogs I highly recommend them. It's not about mistakes (referees are only human after all) but it is about consistency and respect, something Liverpool is not getting at this time.

Millennium S&E now has a twitter feed: @MillenniumSandE