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What a day for Liverpool Football Club, and myself of course: Their seventh victory in the League Cup, currently named the Worthington Cup. For the record, this was the last Worthington Cup Liverpool will ever win, the last any club will win for that matter. Worthington�s will no longer be sponsoring the Cup, and a new sponsor has not yet been selected. The Reds have had a poor season overall. After an amazing start to the season when they were unbeaten and 7 points clear at the top at one point, an uncharacteristic dip in form occurred. They slipped from seven points clear at the top of the premiership, above current leaders Arsenal, down to where they currently reside in 7th place. There is no logical explanation for this slump, which is the worst in the club's history, but Gerard Houllier and his team must now surely believe they are back on form. They have thought this already this season, but shortly after a short run of good results they lost what should have been an easy match, and with it a large amount of confidence. Either side of this however, they had victories in the UEFA Cup away and at home to Auxerre, which obviously boosted their morale for the Final against huge rivals Manchester United (aka the Mancs). For a change, Liverpool went into this cup final as underdogs. Man Utd, although having had a few minor disasters this season as well, are currently in second place and were expected by many, including some doubting Liverpool fans, to take the cup. They were fielding what is arguably their best side, as were Liverpool, and based on this season's successes by the Mancs and disasters for the Reds, they were favourites to win. The Liverpool supporters had a great turnout at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff, and were in great voice, with banners, flags and scarves waving. They were not seeing it as the "worthless" cup that it has been dubbed as. Any match between the Mancs and the Mighty Reds is taken very seriously, as it was said, even if they were playing Tiddlywinks it would still be an enormous occasion. Before the match, the players knew they had a lot to prove, not least of all Jerzy Dudek. This season has been more disasterous for him than many other players as mistakes, mainly the one against Man Utd in the Premiership, cost him his place in the First Team. For a couple of months Jerzy was benched, but never once complained. He knew he needed rest, and was perfectly happy to see his mate Chris Kirkland take up the position between the posts. How he came back into the side could not have been the way which he desired. Kirkland suffered a terrible injury in the FA Cup match against Crystal Palace which meant that he would be out for the rest of the season. Naturally Jerzy was eager to get back in his place and prove his critics wrong. This Cup Final, I and many others believe, has done this in a more than satisfactory manner. Unfortunately I could not actually watch the match, and was forced to sit eagerly in front of a blank screen listening to the radio... on TV. The nerves were there for me too, as I anxiously counted down the minutes to kick off. Believe it or not, I had predicted the scored to be 2-0 to us beforehand, and for Owen and Gerrard to score. I know it seems unbelievable that I would predict the correct score and scorers, and I'm not sure how I did it, but I also predicted 2/3 of the scorers over the 2 legs against Auxerre too... Anyway, I had faith in Jerzy to keep a clean sheet, and also for us to deliver at the other end. I knew they'd have to work hard, as even I have to admit Manure are a good team, and would keep us - Sami, Stephane and The Dude particularly - on our toes. Through all the nerves, I was confident. I sat on this very chair in this very shirt - my old Liverpool home shirt - and my scarf, which is currently resting upstairs after all the stretching! My Manc brother (who claims to be a supporter, but really doesn't follow his team closely at all) wasn't helping. He was in my face constantly, literally, telling me that "We're gonna kick your arses!" and pretending not to have heard of any of our players. Then my mum and dad were here, Mum (a Liverpool fan) was doubting our team's abilities - she remembers the glory days - and giving me sympathetic, we-don't-stand-a-chance looks. Dad, a neutral (kinda Forest supporter) was explaining to me all the reasons why technically it looked like a likely Manc victory, but I refused to believe any of them. I kept faith in my team. I kept telling Mum not to doubt Jerzy, and kept making up songs to offer my encouragement to the players who were miles away. When kick-off finally came I became rooted to the spot. Nothing was gonna move me until halftime. I sat through the tense opening stages, wishing I could see what was going on instead of just hearing it. I was practically praying for a goal, and I heard the mancs come close, causing me a close heart attack, but I could breathe again on realising it didn't go in. Eventually the breakthrough came. Gerrard - what a goal! I heard the commentator souting "STEVEN GERRARD!" then "Beckham?! GOAL!!!" Gotta admit I was confused, but it was explained and I found myself shouting at the TV and dancing on the spot. A couple of minutes later I remembered my Manc brother sat in the other room. I had to go running in, keeping one ear on the commentary, to yell at him! I stood in the doorway, doing a litle dance and shouting "Go Stevie! Thanks Beckham!" He gave me an evil stare, but there was nothing he could say to defend them, or bring me down. :D I danced my way back to my seat with a huge grin on my face. Not long was left until half time and again I was willing them to score. I kept telling myself another before halftime would really relax me and calm everyone's nerves. When the halftime whistle was blown I couldn't think what to do with myself. Needed to get a drink and calm down a bit... and gloat to the Manc a bit more. He was pretending not to care, but I could see his feelings by the way his face had changed since the start of the match. He had been confident, and I was glad to see his confidence had dropped. I knew there was still a long time for everything to change, but for some reason I didn't think it was going to. I was praying that we wouldn't stop attacking, but also that we wouldn't stop defending. Naturally I had faith in Dudek. He'd pulled off, from what I'd heard, decent saves in the first half, and was seeming confident. I was also confident that our (to quote Owen) "fantastic" back four wouldn't fail us, as proved by Henchoz's keeper-style clearance. The second half eventually came, and I was sat ready again, hoping for some action. Can't really remember much of what I was thinking at the time, or many details, all I know was I kept telling myself that the Mancs weren't going to score. I kept repeating the song I'd made up over and over in my head, so I was completely convinced it was true : "Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho. Off to Cardiff we go! Sami, Stephane and the Dude are gonna stop Ruud! Hi-Ho! Hi-Ho! Hi-Ho! Hi-Ho!" I was listening intently all the way through, relieved that they weren't shouting "Goal! Manchester United have equalised!" - that was just Ross-Scum. As the closing stages approached and the scoreline was still 1-0, I started to worry. If the mancs pulled one back now we'd be in for a long battle to the end. Just as I was thinking that I heard increasing excitement in the commentator's voice. My ears pricked as I heard that Owen was on the run... then GOAL! I exploded this time. Shouting, jumping around and finally running into where the Manc was sat on the sofa in the other room! I grinned at him, pretty much lost for words. Didn't know what to say to him. Gloating somehow didn't seem appropriate... I just jumped up and down waving my scarf at him, laughing my ass off. A minute or so later I returned to my seat to listen to the last few minutes of the match. As the time quickly passed I bounced around on my seat, grinning. When the final whistle went and I heard all the cheers there was nothing to do but join in! Dancing round the room yelling my head off attracted an audience. The rest of my family came into the room, my Mum smiling and praising Dudek (she likes to think she knows everything about football), my Dad giving me strange looks and my brothers laughing at me. I had to sit down to stop them, but I was still grinning, and inside I was singing! I don't remember much of what came next... all I can remember is me singing, grinning and laughing at the Mancs a lot. I listened to the presentations and stuff on the radio, then when they finished I tore myself away for a while. Again, I can't remember how I spent the time between the final whistle and the highlights, it seems like such a long time ago when really it was only two days. I think watching the highlights was the next best bit of the day, following the final whistle, following the goals, following... I could go on.... but won't. I sat on my bed to watch them eagerly, with a tape in the video player to record them, and was blown away with pride. The goals looked so much better than they sounded... Stevie's strike was amazing, from such a distance you'd expect it to be stopped before it reached the goal, but with the power behind it and Beckham's contribution it sailed in perfectly. He deserved another one too, when Baros set him up, but the damn French-Fumbler (no offence Barthez) just got to it. :( Then for Owen's goal, naturally a lot of credit has to be paid to Didi. Great work getting away from midfield and a perfectly timed pass. Just left it down to Owen to do a nice little run and knock it past Barthez. Makes you so proud to be a Liverpool supporter to see two great goals in the same match! Pretty rare these days I gotta admit! :( I was also filled with pride when I saw Dudek's saves. None of them were particularly spectacular, but all seemed confident and well executed. Also very impressed by Henchoz's off the line clearance when Scholes (I think) shot back at goal on the rebound. Perfect reaction! Think Jerzy was as grateful to him as I was. So sweet to see him congratulate/thank him! The whole match was impressive. Never once did I think the Mancs should've scored, and I wasn't disappointed by any of the players. Yes, Heskey shouldn't have fallen over, and Smicer should've scored us a 3rd goal, but so what?! We still beat the Mancs 2-0! Eventually came the bit I was really waiting for. The after match reactions and seeing Sami finally lift a cup as the proper, fulltime captain. It was great to see them all hugging and grinning. Particularly sweet when GH and Dudek met up. They were grinning and pointing at each other and saying something I couldn't make out. Then they hugged. Jerzy looked so happy, I was so proud of him! When he was holding up his trophies and kissing them I couldn't help but keep repeating, "Bless him!" and grinning almost as much as he was. I thought he really deserved MOTM. Proved his critics wrong in the best possible way - clean sheet against the team they played when he lost his place! It was also the first trophy he had won with Liverpool, and about time too! All the players deserved to be happy with themselves for taking part in such a great match! The funniest bit of the whole day was probably when Sami was trying to get the cup off the random old guy and he took a long while handing it over! Heh� poor Sami! Watching them celebrate, from Carra jumping up and down and yelling madly to Henchoz quietly punching the air and grinning, I wished more than ever that I was there. I found myself envying all the Liverpool fans in that stadium... even the Manc fans, who by that time had left, probably to wait outside and pick fights with Liverpool fans! More likely drown their sorrows in a pint of anything but Worthington's! By now they will have convinced themselves that it's only the Worthless Cup anyway and kidding themselves that the only reason we won was Jerzy's performance, and nothing to do with the crap way their team played. The fact of the matter though, whatever they tell themselves, is that we've got one over on them again. Whenever I say that the better team won, my brother attempts to argue and always goes back to "The Treble" to prove how brilliant his team are... I think that's the only thing he knows about them: They won the Treble, they must be great! Never mind the fact that over the last 7 games between the two sides Liverpool have won 6 of them... nah, that doesn't matter! Man Utd are still the best team in the world! The atmosphere in the stadium seemed amazing. I've never been to a Liverpool match (hangs head in shame) to compare to, but from the matches I've watched, it seems one of the best. My personal celebrations, very boring in comparison to most I'm sure, lasted until Monday evening before I calmed down enough to think of anything else. Still, every time I've thought of Liverpool since it has made me smile and celebrate inside. Through the remainder of Sunday I watched highlights over and over again, searched the net for pictures from the match, chatted to all my Liverpool friends, or most of them, and failed to concentrate on my DT homework. I did manage to stick some Liverpool pictures on my folder though, especially for my Manc teacher. Turns out he didn't even collect our folders in, but I made a few jokes about Manure to make up for it! While using the computer Sunday and Monday night I played You'll Never Walk Alone so many times even my Mum got bored of it, but the first few times it brought tears to my eyes. The pride I feel even now is the greatest I've felt for a while. I know it's just one cup - the least important really, but that's not the point. The point is, after such a - to be blunt - crap season, we took on our biggest rivals, and we beat them. We didn't just scrape it either, we played a good match, and we earned it. I know that from now on, whenever I look back and watch the highlights and celebrations, I will feel the same sense of pride tht I do today, and did on Sunday. Whether it be a goal I see, a photo from the match, or a clip of the celebrations, It'll still make me smile. The best bit is seeing them all celebrate afterwards. Hugging each other and kissing their trophies... You have to feel pleased for them. It�s a great day to look back on, and the looks on the Mancs faces will remain in my mind for a long time to come! After such a long tedious storm this season, we can only hope that this is the golden sky at the end. |