Fantastic game of football that was played by two great teams in a fantastic city / setting, what more could any football fan ask for? Ive read all of this thread and I am struggling to understand some of the comments mae about Liverpool being jammy, not deserving to win and how west ham were robbed? Yes West Ham were unlucky not to win, but I feel the same would have been said for Liverpool had they not won because both teams deserved it and its the nature of the best in terms of a penalty shootout, its a lottery.
Liverpool Team Statistics West Ham United
3 Goals 3
1 1st Half Goals 2
5 Shots on Target 8
14 Shots off Target 5
3 Blocked Shots 2
5 Corners 4
13 Fouls 25
3 Offsides 2
2 Yellow Cards 1
0 Red Cards 0
79.4 Passing Success 72.5
31 Tackles 39
80.6 Tackles Success 64.1
63.3 Possession 36.7
55.3 Territorial Advantage 44.7
Thats the opta stats for the game, so how can anyone say that Liverpool didn't deserve to win? Whatever way you look at it all 3 of west ham's goals were fortutious to say the least, the first being an own goal, the second being a bad goal keeping error and the 3rd being a total and utter fluke.
Now how about Liverpools' goals? Crouch's was clearly onside and should have stood, Cisse's was brilliant and I agree he didn't get enough credit for it (great pass by Gerrard also). Gerrards 1st goal was superb as ive seen them blasted high and wide on many occasions this season ala Joe Cole in the semi final anyone? As for Gerrard's 3rd well words can't describe it. Point I m making is that all 3 Liverpool goals were good goals, scored when Liverpool were on top in the game and looking likely to score, just before Gerrard scored that wonder goal it was all Liverpool posession and West Ham were penned in, but granted I don't think any one could have predicted a strike such as that, its better than the goal he scored in the CL to get into the knockout stages last season, just an awesome goal and one of many that he has scored this season.
Another player that doesn't get the credit he deserves his Momo Sissoko, this kid is 21 years of age and is immense, truely immense, how many tackles did he win yesterday, there was one stage in extra time when Gerrard lost the ball and Momo won it back then Didi passed the ball forward and it was lost then Momo won it back then Momo had cramp but got up won it back again, he then beat two men passed it to KK and then went down with cramp, he was Unbelieveable! 120 mins into the game suffering from cramp he was literally doing the running of 4 men yesterday because when Alonso went off he was covering ground for 2 men and when Gerrard suffered from cramp and couldn't run he was running for 3 men and you could argue that he covered more ground for Didi when he came on and was doing a fantastic job at it. Without doubt our best signing this season by far, I think its no real surprise that since his return from injury Liverpool have gone unbeaten in all comps, says a lot for a young guy who is new to the country, team and way of football, he can only get better.
Rio-Coker was fantastic yesterday also and why he is not in the England squad along with SWP is a disgrace total and utter disgrace, I think Sven should take a good long hard look at his selection and admit he is making a mistake. Leaving him out is just nonsense as there is no way on this planet that Hargreaves is better than him. Hopefully someone will have a word with Sven and it will be sorted!
As for Sven,
http://www.backpageimages.com/image/BPI_44661F2152C0B849239625.html what a muppet leaving 15mins early in normal time in one of the best FA Cup final games EVER, surely there was nothing that important he had to attend its not like he had to catch a flight to another game because there was no other game, total muppet!
. Can Liverpool not win a trophy in regular time?? lol
The rain was handy as it allowed me to get some good shots of the fans desperate to see their heroes. Thankfully the rain stopped just as the bus turned up. I'll post my shots in a bit.
