Bits and Pieces

Crushed for time recently, and it’s come as a bit of a surprise, so apologies for lack of a friendly write-up over the weekend (Liverpool won 3-0, Voronin looked handy, Putterill and Peltier scored their first goals for the club, and it’s still a pre-season friendly) as well as other content. Coverage of tomorrow’s friendly, which should see Torres’ first game for Liverpool, should be a different story.

In lieu, I’d like to point you to a few things I’ve seen sailing through the tubes on this “internet.”

- First, Being Sven, which should be utterly required reading for American Reds, has a great post on all of Rafa’s youth buys and the system they’ve created at Liverpool over the past couple of seasons.

- Harry Kewell continues his fine form in fairly meaningless games in which he’s not playing for Liverpool, scoring Australia’s 4th in a 4-0 win over Thailand. Coming on a sub around the 60th minute, Kewell, along with the completely detestable Tim Cahill, opened up the game and Australia managed to put three past the Thais after their entrance. The win sees Australia move on to the quarterfinals, where they’ll most likely lose to Japan. Taking shots at Kewell is a pastime for all Liverpool fans, but I will continue to reiterate that I’m still of the belief that his presence would have greatly benefited Liverpool last season, and he’s also got a key part to play for the Reds in the future.

- Brazil whomped Argentina yesterday in the Copa America final, despite Rafa’s best wishes for Mascherano, who scored his first two goals for the national team earlier in the tournament. Brazil played Dunga’s style of football -- tough-nosed, compact defense, very little space in the midfield, and blazing counter attacks -- to a tee, and the introduction of Dani Alves off the bench as a right midfielder (stunningly, where Benitez wanted to play him…) sealed the win.

- Meanwhile, in more international action yesterday, Emiliano Insua’s Argentinean Under-20s advanced to the semi-finals after beating Mexico 1-0. Despite my crush on Insua beginning last season, I’ve been unable to catch any of Argentina in this tournament (naturally, my digital cable package is adding ESPNU at the end of the month), but I’ll go out of a limb and guess that Insua’s been great, as I usually think he is. With Aurelio out for at least another month, possibly more, and Liverpool yet to purchase a back-up for Riise outside of Arbeloa, Insua's going to have a bigger role to play in '07-08.

- YNBA, along with Footie Girl, have done their second annual end-of-the-season awards.

- And finally, even though it’s not Liverpool, I’d like to highlight the blog “Culture of Soccer.” It’s one of my favorite reads throughout the entire blogosphere that’s developed, as it combines politics, sociology, and football, three of my most frequent discussion topics. You should be reading it regardless, but the reason I bring this up is in the hopes of possibly helping out. The author is going on a cross-country road trip, and is looking for possible stories to be explored. I wish I had some ideas, but since I don’t, hopefully that’s where you guys come in.


The friendly tomorrow versus Werder Bremen is on Setenta at 2:15pm, and barring any unforeseen nonsense, I should have a review up soon after, ideally like after matches last season. Which reminds me, I’ve yet to see how Liverpool’s new deal with Setanta will affect American coverage, specifically for those of us unlucky enough to watch via ITVN, but hopefully actually having a friendly on the air is the start of what this deal will bring for us Yanks.