). For me the worst team to win it are the scums...they were the most luckiest team in the history to win it.....For us, we have to be the most unlukiest semi-finalist so far.......(with all the injuries we have had).Anyway, its a long read. Fell asleep half way thru it
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005....ex.html
Don't look now, but Liverpool could be on its way to making history. Rafa Benitez's team is one of the worst sides in history to advance to the Champions League semifinals.
Liverpool sits in fifth place in the Premiership, 28 points behind league-leading Chelsea. That's pretty dismal, but it's nothing compared to the 1997-98 Borussia Dortmund team, which somehow reached the final four of Champions League (losing just one game along the way) despite finishing 10th in the Bundesliga. Still, that Dortmund side finished 25 points out of first, slightly better than where Liverpool stands.
Other teams have finished as low as fifth while making the semifinals, but all of them were at least within respectable distance of the top: Valencia finished 17 back in 2000-01, Real Madrid seven back in '99-00 and Juventus 16 in '98-99.
Liverpool's remaining Premiership schedule still includes a trip to Highbury to take on second-place Arsenal, which means that by the end of the season, the Reds could be as many as 30 or more points out of first. And yet, if you go by Champions League as evidence, Liverpool is one of the top four teams in Europe.
It's not. It might not be in the top 20. That's how unreliable Champions League is as a gauge of an individual club's strength. It's a knockout competition: Raise your game on the right nights, get a few breaks and you can go very far -- as did last year's champion, Porto.
But it would be wrong to dismiss Liverpool as merely lucky. In fact, the team should be commended for getting this far when you consider the nightmarish string of events that have turned Benitez's first Premiership season into a veritable baptism of fire.
Benitez lost his first-choice center-forward (Djibril Cisse) and two serviceable backup strikers (Neil Mellor and Florent Sinama-Pongolle) for much of the campaign. The much-hyped Harry Kewell, who was supposed to bring quality and creativity to the front line, was exposed as a bust in his second season at Anfield and has spent much of the last few months sulking and training by himself. Winter signing Fernando Morientes is ineligible to play in Champions League for the Reds. Chris Kirkland, the supposed goalkeeping prodigy, went down to injury early on. His replacement, Jerzy Dudek, endured one of the worst seasons of his career and then injured himself before the quarterfinal clash with Juventus, forcing Liverpool to turn to inexperienced teenager Scott Carson. And the starting midfield duo of Xabi Alonso and Dietmar Hamann was sidelined for huge chunks of the campaign.
As if that weren't enough, local hero/Liverpool icon Steven Gerrard, who himself had his share of injuries, has spent the season battling rumors that he will leave in the summer.
Benitez had to face all this as a newcomer to the Premiership, inheriting a club with a glorious history and frustrated (but unendingly loyal) fans, after seven years of treading water under Gerard Houllier. Yet somehow, Liverpool is a Champions League semifinalist, a worthy conqueror of Serie A leader Juventus (whom it outplayed and, more impressively, out-thought tactically).
It's a credit to Benitez's ability to keep his men together and to make the necessary tactical adjustments. When a team faces the kind of injury crisis Liverpool has had to cope with, there isn't much that can be done in terms of grinding out results. Knockout competitions, however, are another matter -- and that's where Liverpool has excelled. You don't have to be the best to win Champions League -- you just need to raise your game when it counts.
Extra time
It doesn't appear that Real Madrid's impressive 4-2 dismantling of Barcelona in the "Clasico" will change the club's plans to arrange a Galactico clearout this summer. Apart from Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo, Real will consider offers for every player. The asking price will range from the truly enormous -- for Raul and David Beckham (whose commercial appeal essentially makes him a self-financing player) -- to the reasonable, for Roberto Carlos and Luis Figo.
Michael Owen and Iker Casillas also find themselves in this category, but their situation is a little different. Owen could be too good to come off the bench, but his playing time would be limited next season if Real can pry Robinho from the Brazilian league. As for Casillas, he has yet to extend his contract (which expires in 2006). While he's likely to re-sign, the usual games are being played by the usual agents. ...
Many have criticized UEFA's four-game home ban on Inter (following the flare-throwing incident in Champions League quarterfinals) as too lenient, and some have advocated the club being kicked out of European competitions for one or more seasons. These folks are missing the point. The incident at the San Siro was not the result of 1980s-style hooliganism, the kind which left innocent people injured (and occasionally dead).
Banning Inter (which under Italian regulations wasn't even responsible for policing that section of the stadium) would have done nothing to solve the problem. The real issue is with stewarding, how stadiums are policed and current legislation. A more practical and effective approach would be for UEFA to grant licenses to clubs based on the security conditions -- if your stadium doesn't meet minimum safety conditions, you can't play there. This would force clubs to upgrade their grounds and would avoid punishing a team for the actions of a minority of supporters and for the inefficiency and incompetence of police. ...
PSV Eindhoven all but clinched the Dutch title and is in the final of the Dutch Cup. Throw in the fact that the club reached the Champions League semifinals and the true scale of PSV's achievements comes into focus. Guus Hiddink did all this despite losing his top scorer (Mateja Kezman), best player (Arjen Robben) starting goalkeeper (Ronald Waterreus) and an important winger (Dennis Rommedahl), all before the season started. It's tough to find a European manager who has done better in such difficult circumstances.
