There's always next year

Ok, so the game didn't go so well. To be honest, Liverpool probably had it coming. They have been in two major finals in the last two years and won both of them despite the fact that in both games they have been the poorer team.

Last night however, the absolutely dominated the game creating more chances against the Milan team that they somehow scored 3 goals against two years ago. Still, when a team concedes a goal in the manner of Milan's first (an absolultely brutal deflection), you kindof know it isn't going to be your night.

This is a good time to be a Liverpool fan though. The spine of the team is solid and in players such as Gerrard, Mascherano, Carragher and Reina are absolutely world class and in addition have in my opinion the best manager in all of European Football. This summer, he is going to be given an enormous war chest that can pretty much match that of Chelsea's and the Scum so there is definitely room for hope for next season.

Two final points though. UEFA seriously needs to take a look at the referring from that final from last night. When one bears in mind what Milan were accused of doing last summer, the fact that the ref called for time a minute early whenever Milan had wasted the entire last five minutes with an injury and a substitution is scandalous. I'm not saying that Liverpool would have scored, in fact they probably wouldn't have done so. But the fact remains that they should have been given an opportunity.

My final point is regarding the tickets. There is no way that for a Champions League Final both teams should be allocated 19,000 each but the Corporate boys at UEFA get another 25,000 or so. Liverpool fans spend an absolute fortune following their team and to hear some of the stories of people who didn't get into the stadium despite having legitimate tickets due to some UEFA cock up is just ridiculous. UEFA needs to take a long hard look at itself or else the Champions League Final is in serious danger of becoming the European Superbowl where they hype exceeds the actual quality of the game and the real fans are ignored.

Champions League Final & Moving Out

As always, I haven't updated this blog in far too long but given that tomorrow night is a major night for any Liverpool man, I felt that I should say something.

It was only two years ago that Liverpool ended a 20 year European Cup drought by winning the most dramatic Champions League Final in history. I can still remember the scene at half time at the Windmill pub in York. Liverpool fans leaving en masse and those that stayed becoming either increasingly bitter or simply weeping. Milan had produced a half of football from was as near to perfection as could be imagined and were dominating with a 3-0 lead.

The problem was that Liverpool actually did produce a perfect 2nd half and came back to draw 3-3. By the time penalties came along, well there was that miss from Schevchenko, and there was no doubt that Liverpool would prevail.



My reaction, well lets say that it was as close to psychotic as I can remember ever being.

So here we are two years later and Liverpool are back in the final. For some reason, I have become a lot calmer with my sports since that memorable night two years ago and you might even say that I have matured to the point where if Liverpool were to lose tomorrow night, I wouldn't cry (I think).

In other news, I am getting out of my parents house at the end of the month and moving up to Belfast. I have now been home for about 18 months and whilst my original plan was to stay at home until I heard back from Canadian Immigration, it has been too long and I can't wait around forever. Besides my contract at my firm is for another year so hopefully the one year lease will work out perfectly and if at the end of that Canada is still an option, that would be perfect timing.

That's your lot for now. I'll try and write again soon with a more thought provoking update

Stephen Hawking Interview

This is only 8 minutes long but I truly found it to be inspiring.