never

never again will i see a game quite like that. i was fairly indifferent to liverpool before today. i liked rafa benitez, xabi alonso, sami hyppia and luis garcia, but now i love damn near the whole team -- even stevie g (who will be staying put in liverpool now, i've no doubt).

liverpool were done at the end of 45 minutes. you don't give up three goals to milan and come back. milan just closes up shop and that's that.


celebrate good times 

well, when captain courageous is on the field things can change rather quickly. stevie g takes a cracking cross from riise and BAM! it's 3-1. at least liverpool had a goal, they weren't shut out so they could go home with heads held high.

but then old vlad smicer hits a nice little shot into the bottom of the net, just beating dida, one minute later and the game is 3-2. holy shit...they could tie this thing.

and then stevie g breaks through, gets tripped up (or did he?) by gattuso, one of the few ac boys i like, and we suddenly have a penalty kick. xabi steps up, and you could tell he was nervous, even though he was trying to conceal it. he fires the ball at the net, dida saves, but xabi isn't finished. other players will take the kick and become paralyzed by the save. not alonso. he followed the ball in, took the rebound and made the game 3-3.

extra time...and jerzy dudek starts his shutting up of shop. sheva heads a fireball into the ground: dudek saves: sheva gets the rebound on his boot and laser beams it into the net but...NO!: dudek hits the thing up and out and there's no joy in milan tonight.

cause then it is on to penalty kicks where dudek takes a page from old spaghetti legs and drives the shooters to distraction. serghino skies it over the net. dudek stops a weak shot by rui costa. thomasson scores. kaka scores. a couple had to score. and then comes shevchenko. he won't miss. he can't miss. the penalty kick score is 3-2 for liverpool; sheva must score to keep it alive. he steps up, and the usually unflappable sheva looks flapped.

and dudek does it again.

game over...liverpool are the uefa champions for 2005. fucking sweet!