West Ham 2 Liverpool 3

This is yet another strange match report and is as much a description of my attempts to watch the match as it is about the match itself.  With no ESPN, I’d be relying on internet streams and, as I decided to start typing this while the match was in progress, you’ll have to forgive me if I get the tense wrong from time to time.

Twenty minutes in to the match, I missed Torres’ opener.  I was struggling to get a working stream despite trying a recommendation from a mate which was working fine for him.  On the plus side, I also missed the stress of West Ham hitting the post early in the match.   I was still relatively calm at this point as at least things were going to plan.   Then, just to annoy me, my laptop started making a plonking noise while it tried to connect to a stream.  Fortunately, it didn’t last long.  Unfortunately, the stream didn’t connect either, and West Ham equalised from a penalty, scored by Alessandro Diamanti, on 29 minutes.  I don’t know what was making me angrier at this point, the fact that they conceded a goal or that I couldn’t watch them concede it.

Liverpool re-took the lead on 41 minutes with a goal from Kuyt, turning in a Gerrard header.  At least that’s what Sky Sports News said, I still couldn’t see the game.  Then, just to make the first half utterly miserable, Carlton Cole made it 2-2 on 45 minutes.  It was a struggle not to smash my laptop to bits and go to bed in a huff.

Still struggling during half time, I thought I’d have a quick look at what was going on in some internet forums.  Jamie Carragher was getting a shocking amount of abuse, and, while he might be having a few off games as he gets older, some people have very short memories.

By quarter to seven I’d given up on the streams and decided to listen to it on Five Live.  Listening on the radio keeps you up to date with the facts, but it’s hard to get a feeling for the game.  From what I could tell, it was a fairly balanced match at that point.

In an unusual move, Kuyt came off, on the hour, to be replaced by Ryan Babel, presumably to add a bit of pace to the attack.  It’s not very often that Dirk is substituted and it’s less often that Babel plays well.

Having been lulled close to sleep by the relaxing commentary, I barely realised that Torres had scored on 75 minutes.  Could the Reds do enough to stay in front this time?  The answer was almost immediately no, as Cole forced a save from Reina straight from the kick off.

Something shocking happens on 84 minutes when a pundit talked sense.  Mark Bright said that ANY team would struggle if they lost their best two players.  This is something that people with brains have been saying for years, but many pundits believe it only applies to Liverpool.

Then, before I knew it, the match was over and Liverpool had picked up the win.  From what I could tell, West Ham were excellent in the first half but faded a little in the second.  From a Liverpool point of view, it’s another three points in the bag.  Now I just need to watch the highlights later to see if anything that I have written makes sense.