Trophy Belong To Reds

18 Dec 2005 Sao Paulo 1-0 Liverpool - Club World Championship

BBC - Liverpool slipped to defeat in the Club World Championship final against Sao Paulo in a game dominated by the Reds - Liverpool created numerous chances and had three efforts ruled out for offside but were thwarted by hurried finishing and in-form goalkeeper.

Offside, goal disallowed, not scoring, being unlucky.....blah blah blah..

Anyone noticed that Liverpool did really well during the whole match? Their attack, passing, tackle, defense, conner, free-kick.... 11 players on the pitch were in their best form, even Kewell!! There were some great crosses came from him, which i haven't seen for ages!! Morientes' overhead kick was brilliant, as well as Gerrard's free kick and crosses.

Though Liverpool were forced to use 4-5-1 formation to dominate the midfield when meeting a skillful brazillian team, that didn't affact their attack! Just see how many chances Garcia or Gerrard got? And about their backline, yes, after this match, i still think it's the most solid one! Plus Sissoko and Alonso's hard effort in the central midfield. Everyone was aware of his position, and the offside trap was set effectively.

You may say all of those are useless without a goal. That's true. I feel extremely disappointed about not winning a trophy, but at the same time, feel happy about that performance! It's the best I've ever seen apart from last season's CL final! It gave me more confidence that they can be competitive in Premiership title race back home. At least we're now going back with a perfect form, aren't we.

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Rafa: "The first thing I can say is congratulations to my players and we deserved to win. We had 21 shots and 17 corners and we hit the bar twice, we scored three goals but what can you do? We couldn't have done anymore to win."
"I am not happy with a lot of things from the game but I am very happy with my players and we did everything possible for winning."
"I have tried to show respect for Sao Paulo because it is a good team but we deserved to win and we controlled the game. You don't normally see a team from Brazil defending like they did."

Xabi: "We're bitterly disappointed but we've got to accept it and get on with things. There's no point in moaning about it now. It's a shame we couldn't lift the trophy, but we've got to pick ourselves up and keep on working."

Riise: "We've proved we can play some great football out here but now we've got to go home, get used to English time again and start thinking about the match against Newcastle on Boxing Day."

Reina: "I'm angry at the way it's ended because we were the better side. We've let a title slip out of our hands and it's the kind of competition you only ever get one chance at. I wasn't that bothered about the record. It had to end some time. I'm just annoyed that it had to happen in the final with a title at stake."

Garcia: "We feel cheated. They tell me it wasn't a goal, but what can you do now? We can't do anything. We have lost out on the trophy but we know we've played well. They had one chance, and nothing else after that. At least I think we showed everyone that we can compete with the best teams in the world, and I believe we can kick on from this now."