Kantoi on the last hurdle

Sao Paolo 1 Liverpool 0.

That was the final scoreline yesterday. To make the matter worse, we definitely played well and dominated throughout. Only a defensive lapse and a rabun linesman decides the outcome of the match. Well, what can you say, this is football. Just like when AC totally outclassed us (except during the 6-minute spell and the shootout) in the final last May, we absolutely battered them, except on that 1-minute spell.

Why do we lose? I think that the main reason was that, Liverpool really cannot break teams down (OK, we did put the ball in the back of the net 3 times, but those don't count). When SP plays with 9 ppl at the back, we just could not break them. I address this to the inability of Xabi Alonso to perform. I don't know whether ppl notice or not, I think that Xabi is still not at his best, after his injury. Maybe this is the case of not match-fit? I dunno. To be fair to him, his performance last season was definitely outstanding and it would be such an acheivement even to match that again this season. Frankly I have not seen any of his defence-splitting pass this season. Erm let me rephrase that. He can still produce his trademark passes (like the one for Garcia against Anderlecht) maybe once or twice in a whole game, but he hasn't done it CONSISTENTLY. Like how he tear Norwich apart at anfield, and how he bossed the mid at Turin. There are nobody to unlock defences, like Deco at Barca, Ballack at Bayern or Ahmad Shahrul Azhar at Perak. Gerrard used to be able to do that, but he now seems to be more of the 'runner', the one that gets the whole team going.

OK lets put that match behind. What's next? A fixture-pileup looms. Newcastle home on boxing day and Everton away 2 days later. Followed by West Brom home 3 days after that and Bolton away 2 days later. Pergh. 5 matches in 13 days? Malaysian players would have simply revolted after the 2nd game. Can we cope with that? I can easily see us drop points at goodison (although they are not in good form nowadays, nothing can be an indicator for a derby) and at reebok (even 1 point would be great). Lets hope that Rafa can re-conjure his magic after losing them at Yokohama.

Lets just hope that Santa drops by at Anfield this year (not that I believe in santa claus or anything)

Oh, I am joking about the Ahmad Shahrul Azhar piece