Inconclusive goal, conclusive injustice
Liverpool 1-Chelsea 0. From the BBC report on tonight's gripping Champions League semi-final at Anfield Road, which was decided in favour of Liverpool by a grotesque miscarriage of justice involving the awarding of a non-goal against Chelsea: "Blues manager Jose Mourinho would later claim it [the ball] had not crossed the line, but with television replays inconclusive, any argument was academic... Reds boss Rafael Benitez was unwilling to say whether he thought the ball had gone in."
And here's Reuters: "But the fourth-minute goal that gave them victory over newly crowned Premier League champions Chelsea was highly contentious as Slovakian referee Lubos Michel ruled the ball had crossed the line, though television replays were inconclusive."
Two inconclusives do not make a goal, and one inconclusive should not decide a game. What a shame! Liverpool defended superbly, but football is about creativity and attack and Liverpool's way is ultimately a dead end for the game. Chelsea ran at the wall with all their might but were repulsed for most of the evening. Still, they attacked and Jose Mourinho was right when he said: "The best team lost."
And so to bed, dejected.
Comments
I commiserate Eamonn, truly I do. But when the underdog wins, surely that is good for football. As a man who takes pride in exposing the hubris of our elites, surely you can see that the Universe, God, The Fates - whomever might be having a little fun. Abramovich's billions can buy the players, but on the day it's anyones game. As a 'Pool fan I'll take it anyway it comes.
Posted by: John McDermott | May 4, 2005 4:18 AM
I laughed. In fact, I'm still laughing. Particularly after the 6 minutes of injury time the Russians bought.
How come you're upset, Eamonn?
Posted by: arseblogger | May 4, 2005 8:58 AM
I'm a complete neutral, I just like watching football, but I must say that from the neutral position this season the accusations of Chelsea 'buying the league' have been ridiculous.
They've not really spend very much more over the last two/three years than Arsenal and Man U have spent. Also it's not like Arsenal and Man U fans give out when their clubs spend loads of money.
Just seems like jealousy to me.
On another note it facinates me how the Liverpool fans I know get so much more worked up about Liverpool winning the match then I've ever seen them get about any Irish victory in any sport. It's a real pity. We're some country of contradictions with people whinging and whining about the English all day long and then an English football match being the biggest sporting event of the year!
BTW Eamonn it's really bad form to put people emails addresses up in clear text on the site. That will result in them getting loads of Spam.
Posted by: Dave | May 4, 2005 5:28 PM
First, a response to the excellent arseblog comment. I took quite a bit of stick last year for giving out about Greece playing for the one goal. The strategy worked and they won Euro 2004, but it was not what I wanted to see. Give me the football of George Best: Wit, grace, goals!
Liverpool displayed none of the above. That's why I went to bed in despond. Sure, Chelsea couldn't manage a goal in 186 minutes, but they tried. They are tired after winning the Premiership and they sorely missed Damien Duff to work the wing. But, good luck to Liverpool in the final.
Dave, most blogs request e-mail addresses and URLs of people who post comments. It's a kind of basic quality control. Those worried about giving their real e-mail addresses can use a fake one, or none at all.
Posted by: Eamonn | May 4, 2005 6:41 PM
No Eamonn, incorrect 99.99999% of blogs while asking for email addresses do not publish them in plain view on the site.
I know of no blog software with that as the default setting. Wordpress, Movable Type and Typepad all ask for both a site URL and an email address and then publish the commenters name as a link to their site if they give a URL.
If you are going to publish people's email addresses in plain view you should put a message telling people that you are doing that. It's really bad form not too!
Posted by: Dave | May 4, 2005 11:48 PM
Reading that back I sound like a bit of a tosser, sorry I don't mean to be!
Posted by: Dave | May 5, 2005 12:31 AM
Dave
This blog employs the "MTEntryAuthorEmail" tag, meaning "the email address will be modified so as to prevent spambots from harvesting it. The web browser, however, will still display the email address properly."
Posted by: Eamonn | May 5, 2005 8:04 AM