I wonder why people here are all that shocked when Liverpool FC
came away with a good thumping by Everton.
I am bemused by all the pre-match predictions on here. Some of you
are as naive to think that Liverpool will win three nil, four nil
and other such differing goal margins. I, on the other hand,
thought that a draw would be a good result. A one nil loss was
feasible. I was wrong in both accounts, as we not only failed to
draw but were trashed three nil.
But I am not surprised.
First of all, it was a derby. Pronounced darby. Derbies are totally
unpredictable affairs and very ugly. The game was played at a
hundred miles per hour with non-stop running and aggression. You
have to give credit to the Toffees. They knew how much beating
Liverpool would mean to their fans. It is a feeling on par with
achieving European qualification. You would expect those Everton
players to walk out onto the pitch giving no less than their best.
And more. To give nothing but would be criminal for football.
Did you see the Blue team's reaction when they scored those goals?
Pure ecstasy. More importantly, did you see the fans' reactions? As
a Red I too could see how much these Everton fans, their players
and their manager wanted this victory so badly, and that was the
difference.
Derbies are a sporting event which may be hard for the average
Singaporean to understand. Liverpool and Everton share a rivalry so
unfathomable that concededly, Singaporean Liverpool fans like us do
not fully understand what goes between these two fiercely
competitive neighbours because we are simply not 'there'. As
Liverpool fans living abroad, we do not really feel that
deep-seated rivalry between teams such as Liverpool and Everton,
Spurs and Arsenal or Newcastle and Sunderland. We only read about
that fierce rivalry in the papers. Most of us tend to ignore the
psychological impact it has on the ninety minutes, which is very
significant. The closest thing I can imagine to a sporting derby
around these local parts would be a Singapore-Selangor match back
in the Malaysia Cup days, where the Kallang Roar would reach to
penultimate levels and passion truly boiled over. Those days are
long gone.
If you had listened to what Steve McMahon (a former Liverpool
player) on ESPN has to say about derbies, you will get a sense of
what I am talking about. In derbies, the fans that heat up the
rivalry truly make themselves the twelfth man factor, pushing their
players to their very limits of their play. And from what I saw of
Goodison park tonight, the whole stadium was blue. Both ends of the
stadium, one of which would traditionally be reserved for the away
team's fans, were packed with Evertonians.
Do not take too much heart from this result.
Man for man, player for player, Liverpool are way better than
Everton in the talent department. I am not boasting my club's
abilities. It is just a fact many cannot argue with reason.
We have to know derbies are the exception. I rather we drop points
against Everton and make the Liverpool derby virgins taste their
baptism of fire before we come up against more important rivals
such as United at Old Trafford. Everton are not serious title
challengers - clubs like Manchester United, our greatest rivals,
are. Now players such as Kuyt, Aurelio and Pennant know what it is
like to play in such hostile atmospheres against Liverpool.
We lost the tactical battle, I believe, in major part due to the
psychological impact (or should I say trauma) suffered by our
players on this day.
Lesson learnt. Let's move on with life. We are reminded that the
team which brings on the greater passion to the pitch will be
justly rewarded.
Sincere congratulations to Everton for their lion-hearted and
lion-jawed display.
