Raoul wrote:Juninho wrote:Raoul wrote:Watched the game, my mate and I danced round the room before we realised that Sinama's goal had been disallowed.
Damnit.
I haven't read all these posts, but I suspect there are a few complaints about three disallowed goals. The first and last ones were rightly disallowed, even the last one. In many games it would have counted, but the linesman did get it right. They presumably got the second (Hyppia's from the corner) right too.
We played reasonably well, well enough to win, but then that is why we love this game - sometimes the plucky, hard working underdogs get up and win it. Not our best performance, and Rafa left the subs too long, though they were the ones I wanted, so I shouldn't complain too much.
Well done Sao Paolo, you did what you had to, and did it well. Could have been much different though.
And to all you Sao Paolo fans who are saying on here that this competition is really important - well, I agree with you, but then I'm not European - I'm from a football backwater and I think it is great when the little guys get to play with the big boys. But I'm afraid we can tell the Euros that it is a big deal all we like, however, in the end, we are wrong. It takes two to tango, and until Europe and European football fans take this competition seriously, it is not important. I think you should all be on here saying thank you to Liverpool for giving the competition as much as they have, rather than crowing about a lucky win. Something about winning friends and influencing people...
You guy said almost everything, that's why I'm posting here.
First of all, I'm a São Paulo supporter and I would apologize for my bad English, but I appreciate if you try to read it
Liverpool played better, definitely. But you can't say that it was refereer and linesman fault, because your three disallowed goals were really illegal. I saw the replay many times and 2 of them were visible offside. About the Hyppia's goal, one player of Liverpool obstructed the São Paulo goalkeeper, he made fault in him. It was visible, just see it. So let's not say it was robbed and you lost cos the linesman were a sh*t... the linesman made a great work, many of them would validate those illegal goals. Although, I would agree that Lugano could be sent off for that fault in Gerrard. The refereer was "cool" for giving him just a yellow card. But I don't think it was completely wrong, since Gerrard was not going directly to goal and Lugano was not the last man.
As the friend above said, I would like to thanks liverpool for giving to the tourney the importance it deserves. It would be horrible if Liverpool played this game like Man. Utd and Real Madrid played the one in 2000, really like a Mickey Mouse cup. Liverpool showed great profissionalism and we aprecciate that cos we know the Europeans, in general, don't give the same importance to it as us.
Now my commentaries about the gameplay. São Paulo started the first half very nervous, that's why Liverpool was dominating the first 15 min of game. Then, São Paulo started to play better and really deserved his goal at 26min, with Mineiro. After the goal, Liverpool got better again but, in general, the first half was very equilibrated. Good gameplay in first half. São Paulo had his moments and I thought it was gonna be a great second half.
And it was, but not at the way I thought. In second half, only Liverpool played. São Paulo could not touch the ball most part of the half, and defended itself pretty well. Liverpool was efficient in making long passes and creating changes of goal, but wasn't effective in finishing it. Rogério Ceni made great defenses and, together with Lugano and Mineiro, guaranteed the result for São Paulo. I think the ideia of Paulo Autuori was to make the team closed like it was and get counter-attacks, but even the counter-attacks the São Paulo wasn't able to make. So second half was totally for Liverpool. A bit of luck and a great job for the defenses were responsable for the victory of the team.
I can't agree with many commentaries that São Paulo is a bad team and it doesn't seems to be a brazilian team and bla bla... It was sure not a typical match for São Paulo. Maybe it was for Liverpool, which made a good match, but São Paulo had only one objective: win the match. So, when São Paulo got his goal, just closed itself and made a great defense job. If you were waiting for beautiful passes, dribbles and finalizations, sure you won't get them on this situation. It was like a "life and death" game for São Paulo, as you all said, we give great valour to this championship here. So, if you doubt our team can make great matches, so watch some games of Libertadores, like the final, or even the games of Campeonato Paulista. I can say for sure that São Paulo can play even better than Liverpool today, but in a different way, because Liverpool uses a lot of air game, and São Paulo doesn't.
So, I hope you could understand my message. I'm sorry for the brazilians who come here and just crown "we are the best and bla bla", but I wait for your respect too. Saying that our team is like a sh*t and that you lost for refereer's and linesman's fault isn't cool. You can see the replays later and you will see that the goals were really illegal.
Thanks for everything. I will see much more Liverpool matches after this tournament. It's really a good team, and my favourite in England.
By the way, S. Gerrard is really incredible
Cheers mate, we might turn this thread into a discussion about football yet!
Hmmm, looks like we failed!
