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Dunk has been absent from Koptalk for more than a week now, and finally one of the members dared to ask where he is. He didn’t get any useful answers though, as Dunks little helpers clearly has been intructeed to not tell anyone, and not mention that he’s away.
#103697 - December 10, 2007 19:28 WHERE IS […]
After trying a month ago to rewrite history while posing as a fearless defender of Chris Bascombe, last week Oldham repeated the same trick with Paul Tomkins on one of his shoddy KopTalk TV video bulletins.
You can find a full account of why there is no love lost between Oldham and Tomkins here. As with […]
Nothing of interest is happening on KopTalk at the moment, so we thought we’d show you a couple more Sckair/Oldham threads. We don’t know whether to laugh or cry. To any of you who may be weighing up whether it’s worth paying £30 to join KopTalk - this is the sort of embarrassing nonsense you […]
While the rest of us agonise over the rift between Benitez and the owners, Duncan Oldham is rubbing his hands with glee. All he sees is an opportunity to finally drum up activity on his dying site.
We’ve already detailed how KopTalk had no advance knowledge of the feud. As ever, Oldham heard the news in […]
Duncan Oldham is both transparent and predictable. He thrives on negativity; it’s always been the raison d’être of KopTalk to create controversy, after all, which is far more easily achieved with bad news than with good. That’s why it was no surprise that, after months of relative inactivity, he has been excelling himself in the […]
It was a tough game, were Peter Crouch was incensed at what he saw as two attempts by Mikel to stud him from the knee down in the moments leading up to his ill-advised two-footed lunge at the Nigerian. Despite minimal contact on Mikel, there was little option for referee Atkinson other than to dismiss Crouch – just as Didier Zokora and Denilson found themselves red-carded on Tuesday night for raising their studs.
In fact, the incident over-shadowed the goals from Frank Lampard and Andrei Shevchenko that gave Chelsea their place in the semi-final especially when Benitez accused the referee of inconsistency. He might have a point when you consider that Steed Malbranque’s brutal challenge on Vedran Corluka in Tottenham’s win over Manchester City went unpunished, but even Benitez had to concede that Peter Crouch’s challenge itself was “maybe” a red card.
“I have watched the replay twice and Mikel was trying to kick Crouch,” Benitez admitted. “If the referee had blown his whistle he would have avoided the sending off. He was kicked twice and that was the reason Crouch lost his head. I have seen more dangerous tackles. Sometimes they are yellow cards, sometimes they are nothing. He just needed to stop it before.”
According to the people who were close to him, Crouch was furious at what he saw as play-acting from Mikel who, despite playing dead by the touchline, was back on his feet a few minutes later. By then the game was well out of Liverpool’s reach. Avram Grant may have been appointed to win the Champions League, but for now it looks like he is happy to settle for Carling Cup.
The Israeli made seven changes from the team that lost to Arsenal on Sunday, but this was still virtually the strongest squad that he could field in the circumstances. Benitez picked the likes of Jamie Carragher and Xabi Alonso but let his imagination run wild with the rest of the formation. He chose a 4-3-3 system that became 4-5-1 for most of the match and left Crouch isolated and frustrated.
With Andriy Voronin on the right wing and Ryan Babel on the left, Liverpool created too little. The Brazilian Lucas Leiva exerted only a sporadic influence from the space behind Crouch. The pick of the half was a flick from Crouch that played in Leiva who missed; and an identical opportunity for Lampard at the other end that he could not lift over Liverpool goalkeeper Charles Itandje.
It was a clash that cried out for a bit of invention and when Joe Cole replaced Scott Sinclair on 56 minutes the Chelsea manager had gambled on virtually his strongest formation.
Before then Itandje had made a brilliant one-handed save from Michael Essien’s shot. At the other end an error from Ricardo Carvalho, back for the first time since 11 November, gave Crouch a half-chance to lob Petr Cech which he could not lift over the Chelsea goalkeeper. Then came a goal that proved to Grant he has not used up all his luck just getting the Chelsea job.
Shortly before the hour the controversial Shevchenko knocked down a ball on the edge of the area into the stride of Lampard who got his shot away just as the ubiquitous Carragher lunged across to block. The Liverpool captain was having another one of his giant games, but he will probably wish he had not got a heel to this shot. It bounced down against the turf and looped over Itandje to give Chelsea the lead.
Crouch’s sending off followed the goal, the fourth of his career after red cards playing for Queens Park Rangers, Norwich City and Southampton. A blue fan as a child, he was a ball boy at Stamford Bridge in his youth and he has certainly had better nights at the stadium than this. “I think he didn’t need to do it,” Grant stated. Chelsea are hardly in a position to moralise after the brawl in last season’s Carling Cup final saw Mikel sent off.
Grant had asked for protection from referees for his players and he got it last night. Captain Terry had the last word on the challenge that left him with three broken bones in his foot on Sunday. In his programme notes, the Chelsea defender accused Emmanuel Eboue of having “left his studs in” in the crucial challenge that did the damage.
German talent Michael Ballack was given a run-out as a substitute, his first game in eight months out with an ankle injury, and Shevchenko added the second in injury-time. By then, the Carling Cup was starting to look like more trouble than it was worth for Liverpool.
Chelsea (4-1-4-1): Cech; Belletti, Ben Haim, Carvalho, Bridge; Mikel (Ballack, 68); Kalou, Essien, Lampard, Sinclair (Cole, 57); Shevchenko (Sidwell, 90). Substitutes not used: Cudicini (gk), Ferreira.
Liverpool (4-4-1-1): Itandje; Arbeloa, Hobbs, Carragher, Aurelio; Voronin, Alonso (El Zhar, 60), Sissoko, Babel (Benayoun, 73); Leiva; Crouch. Substitutes not used: Martin (gk), Hyypia, Riise.
The Daily Mail is reporting that the stadium seating at Texas Christian University suffered a partial collapse while under renovation from HKS, the Dallas firm that will be building the new £300million Liverpool football stadium. An investigation is underway to determine what caused the collapse. Fortunately, no one was injured as it was empty at the time of the incident.
It’s times like this when I really hope that everyone appreciates the amount of deep research I do for these blogs. Since I live in Texas, I was able to pull some strings and get detailed blue prints of the proposed stadium that is to be built for LFC. After viewing them, I think everyone will be more than satisfied that it will be the best, safest, most state of the art football stadium ever built.
We came, we saw, well at least we didn’t lose. I would post a video of the great match highlights, but there was not any to speak of. The 90 minute contest was full of chances that were not capitalized on. It was, however, worth watching.
Both sides came out with high pressure. Peter Crouch had a few headers that were worthy of the back of the net, but he could not seal the deal. Kuyt played well, but ended up too far on the flank too often and was forced to cross and look for Crouch who just wasn’t having a good day. I know Carragher didn’t like playing right back, but damn he was good at it in the Sunderland match and would have been an asset in this one.
It’s been sort of a slow news week at Anfield with nothing new on Mascherano and nothing but injuries to talk about. Instead, let’s delve into a hypothetical question. Zombies are raiding the Barclays Premier League. Who do you let them have? Who do you save?
Personally, I’d let them have Didier Drogba 
for no other reason than he is a complete muppet. I’m happy this week, wait no, I’m upset, wait no, I’m upset at people being upset, wait no, I’m happy. From the people who brought you bipolar disorders…
On the other hand, if there was one footballer that I could definitely save, I would pick Steven Gerrard. He slips up now and then, but all around is entertaining to watch and produces some memorable moments. You can’t not pick the captain of captains.
What about you? Who would you get rid of and who would you save?
Fernando Torres has been ruled out for Sunday’s match. He was hell bent on returning, but a strained hamstring will keep him from playing. That leaves Crouch and Kuyt *gulp*.
I don’t think we have to worry. This should be one of those games where we see the Liverpool of old dig deep and pull off something amazing. Besides, we can’t lose to a team with a sissy name.
Chelsea’s the name of a girl you fool around with and then promise to call back, not the name of a successful football club. Don’t be surprised when the Reds go to West London and burn Stamford Bridge down. You can catch the burnination live on Fox Soccer Channel Sunday at 11am EST.