Liverpool 3-2 Manchester City: The Hearts of Champions

Editor’s Warning: this is a soccer post.

Sunday against Manchester City, Liverpool Football Club showed they have exactly what it takes to mount a serious bid for the Premier League crown. Down 2-0 at half, the Reds rode Fernando Torres’ heroics to an improbable 3-2 victory at City.

As my emotions are still buzzing from this thrilling encounter, what follows is a just a few disorganized thought that needed to be put to paper:

Albert Riera, Danger Man: How lucky are we to have a player like Riera manning the left wing? Every season, Benitez is adding two or three quality players and Riera is no exception. His abuse of Pablo Zabaleta over the course of the game likely led to the City player’s rash challenge on Xabi Alonso, which left him seeing red.

However Fabio Aurelio, playing behind him in defense, was dreadful.

Robbie – just…get out of the way: Despite Keane’s tally in the midweek, the Irishman still found himself on the substitute’s bench. And deservedly so. If Keane’s inclusion takes Alonso, Kuyt, or Riera out of the lineup, then it’s a bad move.

Not to pile on Keane, but he managed once again to block a sure goal from Torres, who was on a hat-trick. Granted the ball popped to Kuyt for the winning goal, but Keane’s been blocked more goals (two) than he has scored (one).

The Inspiration: Liverpool’s heartbeat has always been Steven Gerrard. Last season, if Gerrard or Torres had an off-day the lads had little chance of beating a top club like City. But today, with Gerrard mostly silent, we still had the moxie to emerge with all the spoils.

That being said, it was none other than Stevie G who set up what should have been the winning goal. He’s always had a penchant for the spectacular, so when he received the ball outside the penalty area City’s defense flowed to him. A little dink to Keane, who crossed to Torres – but the Spaniard’s lunging effort did not find the net. (Again, I blame this on a poor cross from Keane.)

Skrtel’s Sorrow: With the game in it’s final throes, Slovakian defender Martin Skrtel went down in a sickening heap after clearing the ball away. The injury appeared to be a torn ACL. Skrtel, an imposing, exceptionally tough footballer went down in obvious agony and had to be stretchered off.

Fortunately for LFC, noted Danish centre-half Daniel Agger is ready to step in and fill the gaps. But that doesn’t take away from the inherent sorrow of a season-ending injury.

So there you have it. A transcendant effort from my Spanish man-crush Torres and some opportunistic finishing from Kuyt equal three points. After today, I finally believe that we have a chance to challenge for the EPL title, this season. What an effort from the lads!

I’ll let the architect of this victory add the finishing touches:

“Our character and determination shone through in the second half. It was fantastic. We were made to pay for two mistakes but we went on to show a good mentality to win the game,” said Benitez.

“The belief of the players was the key to our success. I just told the team at half-time that we just needed one goal to get back in the game. Physically were are in good condition as well and the players are ready for every game.”