Bye! January 2006

Work work work... I NEED MONEY!!! I've been trying to adapt my new part-time job at the cinema for the whole month. Well...I have to admit that it's just not that easy as I thought before. I feel frustrated and stressful at times, but I won't quit I promise. It isn't that I can't find other job, but I just don't like to be defeated. What I believe is that if other people can do it, then I can do it too! Keep going, as I always tell myself, everything will soon get on track!

Frightening Second Half Defence

29 Jan 2006 Portsmouth 1-2 Liverpool - FA Cup 4th Round

BBC - Liverpool edged past Portsmouth to reach the FA Cup fifth round. - The win was set up by a fortuitous penalty award - Dejan Stefanovic harshly penalised for handball - which allowed Steven Gerrard to shoot home.
John Arne Riise netted Liverpool's second on 40 minutes by firing past keeper Dean Kiely from an acute angle.

Australian Open Final

[From BBC]
Roger Federer overcame a mighty scare to beat unseeded 20-year-old Marcos Baghdatis and claim his second Australian Open title in Melbourne. (5-7 7-5 6-0 6-2)

Amelie Mauresmo finally claimed her first Grand Slam title when Justine Henin-Hardenne was forced to retire during the Australian Open final. (6-1 2-0 retire)

Yan Zi and Zheng Jie won China's first Grand Slam title after taking the Australian Open women's doubles crown.

Bob and Mike Bryan made up for losing in the last two finals by beating Leander Paes and Martin Damm to win the Australian Open men's doubles title.

Martina Hingis capped her impressive return from retirement by claiming the mixed doubles title at the Australian Open with Mahesh Bhupathi.

GOD IS BACK!

BBC - Liverpool make shock Fowler swoop - Manchester City striker Robbie Fowler has made a surprise return to former club Liverpool on a free transfer.

Liverpoolfc.tv - 10 Great Fowler Facts
- To date Robbie Fowler has scored 171 goals in 330 Liverpool appearances.
- His last appearance for Liverpool was against Sunderland at Anfield on November 25th 2001.
- His last goal for Liverpool was the one that completed his hat-trick at Leicester City on October 20th 2001.
- Robbie made a goalscoring debut for Liverpool with an effort against Fulham at Craven Cottage in 1993.
- In the second leg he scored his first goals on home turf as he hit all five in the 5-0 win over Fulham.
- Fowler has scored nine hat-tricks to date for Liverpool with seven of them coming in the Premiership.
- He is sixth in the all-time list of record goalscorers for Liverpool, one goal behind fifth placed Kenny Dalglish.
- The Young Player of the Year in both 1995 and 1996, he scored 18 goals in his debut season, and became the first Liverpool player for six years to pass the 30 goal mark in 1994-95.
- In February 2001 he became the first Liverpool captain to lift a trophy since 1995, holding aloft the Worthington Cup in Cardiff, after he had spectacularly opened the scoring against Birmingham.
- Robbie holds the record for the fastest Premiership hat-trick against Arsenal in 1994. His treble against the Gunners came in four minutes and 33 seconds.

Read Robbie's exclusive interview on Liverpoolfc.tv.

Wow....can you believe it? What a surprise! But a good striker like him is probably what we need now! Actually I wasn't Liverpool and even a football fan when he played for Liverpool, but I've read a lot about him now. Player like him with passion and love for the club is surely a boost for us! Hope he's ready to rule at Anfield again!!
Alright, now Robbie Fowler is back. How about you, Owen?

Australian Open Quarter- & Semi-Final

QUARTER-FINALS
(1) Roger Federer (Swi) bt (5) N Davydenko (Rus)
(21) Nicolas Kiefer (Ger) bt (25) Sebastien Grosjean (Fra)
(4) David Nalbandian (Arg) bt Fabrice Santoro (Fra)
Marcos Baghdatis (Cyp) bt (7) Ivan Ljubicic (Cro)

SEMI-FINALS
BBC - Unseeded Marcos Baghdatis reached the final of the Australian Open with a dramatic 3-6 5-7 6-3 6-4 6-4 win over David Nalbandian of Argentina.

BBC - World number one Roger Federer looked in ominous form as he cruised past Nicolas Kiefer 6-3 5-7 6-0 6-2 to reach the Australian Open final in Melbourne.

Australian Open Round 1-4

FIRST ROUND
BBC - Tim Henman's Australian Open challenge was ended at the first hurdle by his Wimbledon conqueror Dmitry Tursunov.
BBC - Andy Murray went out of the Australian Open with a whimper on Tuesday as Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela strolled to a 6-1 6-3 6-3 first-round win.

Results of my country's players:
Daniele Bracciali (Ita) bt Yen-Hsun Lu (Tpe)
Yeu-Tzuoo Wang (Tpe) bt Mariano Zabaleta (Arg)

SECOND ROUND
BBC - Lleyton Hewitt has crashed out of the second round of the Australian Open after a brutal four-set defeat at the hands of Juan Ignacio Chela.

(26) Jarkko Nieminen (Fin) bt Yeu-Tzuoo Wang (Tpe)

Yeu-Tzuoo Wang? Too complicated for you guys to pronounce I guess...let's just call him Jimmy. It's his first time to go into the second round of a Grand Slam, though lost to the 26th seed. Congratulate to him to make another steep forward in his career, and become the second player to do that in my country. Jimmy was my classmate in primary school, and I got him in my MSN contact list. He's always in different places of the world, joining competitions. Like football, tennis is not that popular here, and I think most people don't know how much effort our players make overseas. That's a shame as I think Jimmy got a lot of potential and he's still young to make progress.
I've only once seen him play. That was Wimbledon 2004 first round, and he played against Andy Roddick on the centre court. Well, thanks to that, it's the only chance to see him on TV, though there wasn't obviously chance to get through. Now I'm looking forward to the Wimbledon this year as I may luckly get the free ticket if he manages to join the tournament without playing qualifying matches. Come on! Good luck Jimmy!

BBC - Aussie Open quotes - "It is not easy for players in Asia. Asia is not like the United States or Europe. The weather is not conducive and the facilities are not so good. They need to be improved." - Asia's number two Wang Yeu-tzuoo after his defeat to Jarkko Nieminen.

THIRD ROUND

FOURTH ROUND
BBC - Marcos Baghdatis produced a magical display of shot-making to shock second seed Andy Roddick 6-4 1-6 6-3 6-4 in the Australian Open fourth round.

Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!

22 Jan 2006 Man Utd 1-0 Liverpool - EPL

BBC - Manchester United moved four points clear of Liverpool in second place after Rio Ferdinand's last-gasp goal - Ferdinand leapt highest in a crowded penalty area to power a header past Jose Reina from a Ryan Giggs free-kick. Liverpool will have regrets, given their dominance of the game, with Djibril Cisse missing an open goal just past the hour when he lashed over. And in the first half Peter Crouch's powerful shot was well blocked by Wes Brown, who threw himself at the ball.

Well..obviously the partnership between Crouch and Cisse was awful. They were not working together! Damn, I'm so angry and disappointed at Cisse....

Rafa: "We were controlling the game and did a good job keeping the ball and playing good counter attacks but to lose a goal from a free-kick in the last minute is very disappointing. Always the small details can make the difference."

Carra: "When you look at the bigger picture, you can bet Sir Alex Ferguson would rather be in our position. We've two games in hand and we're still in the Champions League. We're still in the best position to challenge Chelsea and we've still got a chance of winning the top trophies.
We never had a problem for the whole match until the last minute and overall, the signs bode well for the future. All the lads are gutted. We controlled the game, but I look back to 12 months ago when we lost to Southampton and there's a massive difference now to then. We've a lot to be positive about. The way they celebrated at the end showed how much it meant to them, particularly when realistically the game was all about second place. It's not sour grapes. I'm sure we'd have celebrated in the same way, but it does show they're a lot more worried about us in terms of the league than they have been for a while."

BBC - Carragher condemns rival Neville - Neville ran the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the away fans. - Carra: "I think there is a line and Neville crossed it."

Best Midfielder

Liverpoolfc.tv > Paul Tomkins: It is hard to believe there has been a more complete player in the history of football - not just in England but in any part of the world - than Steven Gerrard.

" Frank Lampard is an excellent all-round midfielder, but there's not one area of his game where he outranks Gerrard; Lampard only gets the attacking midfield role for England because, unlike Gerrard, he can't excel in other positions. Despite their canniness, neither Patrick Vieira nor Roy Keane could pass the ball 60-yards like Gerrard, or shoot so dangerously from 30.

Gerrard has a bit of everything; he is like a celestial experiment conducted by Messrs. Shankly and Paisley to create the ultimate modern footballer: a hybrid of Souness, McDermott, Dalglish, Lawrenson, Barnes, with a little bit (if not all) of the magic of each.

There have been a handful of better passers of a football in world football, but none could also tackle like Gerrard. There have been better tacklers, but none who could also pass over long distances like the current captain.

There have been taller players who were better in the air, fractionally quicker players, tougher players, more skillful players; there have been players (but not many) with a better shot; some players may have had better levels of stamina, and covered more ground, although it's hard to think who. Better crossers of the ball have graced the game, but again, they are scarce. "

.....read full article.

Welcome Back Harry Kewell

14 Jan 2006 Liverpool 1-0 Tottenham - EPL

Liverpoolfc.tv - The win means Liverpool stay in 3rd place in the Premiership, but they are now just one point behind 2nd placed Manchester United after their derby defeat today and the Reds have played two games less. It had looked like we would have to settle for a point against a good Spurs side that showed why they are doing so well this season, but Kewell won the day with a brilliant volley after 58 minutes had been played. It was Kewell's first of the season and what a goal it was.

Rafa: "If you want to win a game 1-0 then that is the kind of goal you want to score. For Harry it was important to score in front of the Kop after his problems last season and it was the perfect finish. He deserved it and it was amazing to see Harry score the goal he is capable of at the Kop."

Carra: "The way he has been playing for us recently and the way he played at Leeds scoring and creating, shows he can be one of the best in Europe on the left. Harry believes that when he is fit - and that hasn't happened for a lot of the time he has been here - he can do some damage. At the moment he is not quite 100 percent and he's playing this well. With more games and more fitness he will be even better."

Martin Jol: "But we had plenty of possession and the key when you come to Anfield is to keep the crowd quiet. We achieved that for long spells. We kept Alonso quiet and Steven Gerrard was not as good as he can be. That shows how hard we had worked in our preparation, but you can't work at stopping unbelievable shots like Kewell's."

Another Great Half Time Team Talk

Another unbelievable comeback for the Reds! Alonso's goals were really brilliant, as well as the comeback hero Sinama Pongolle!

7 Jan 2006 - liverpoolfc.tv Liverpool are through to the 4th Round of the FA Cup after producing a brilliant fight back from 3-1 down to beat Luton Town 5-3 at Kenilworth Road

Watch the highlight from BBC. (Real Player) Also, the interview with Gerrard and Alonso after the match. Someone slipt.....lol Classic one!

It's my busy final week of the term, there are just three days to go! I'm missing my time wasting on the Internet!!

Twice Battled From Behind

2 Jan 2006 Bolton 2-2 Liverpool - EPL

BBC - Radhi Jaidi had given Bolton a 10th minute lead, heading in to capitalise on goalkeeper Jose Reina's blunder. Liverpool pulled level midway through the second half when Steven Gerrard won and expertly converted a penalty. Four minutes later El Hadji Diouf bundled in Kevin Davies' cross, but Luis Garcia's chest control gave him the space to volley in the equaliser.

We just need Alonso to play behind Gerrard!!

Love me - cap ou pas cap?

It's Crouch Again!

31 Dec 2005 Liverpool 1-0 West Brom - EPL

Liverpoolfc.tv - Liverpool ended a glorious year on a high as a second half goal from Peter Crouch secured a tenth straight league victory over West Brom this afternoon.
The Reds kept the pressure on at the top of the table after a deserved victory over a West Brom side who battled for their lives but who, in the end, couldn't cope with another dominant Liverpool display. Crouch netted the game's only goal seven minutes into the second period when he headed Harry Kewell's cross into the corner of the net to register his seventh of the season and his first in front of the Kop. It was no more than Rafael Benitez's side deserved from a match they controlled from start to finish as they sealed the victory which saw them match the achievement of the 1982 title winning Liverpool team in winning ten games in succession.