Reina Sees Red

the first real footie game I watched was between the reds and the blues almost one year ago. everyone was cheering for liverpool, so i decided to go against the tide and cheer for chelsea (and thus began my infatuation with joe cole). it was a boring game - a nil nil draw.

today, however, was something else.

the game started off in favor of liverpool - they were dominating, controlling the ball, but it only takes one break for chelsea to capitalize. cole earned a corner, and gallas put it away. thus began liverpool's descent.

the key factors?

- john terry's defensive genius against giant crouch. i now know why and have a great respect for terry. he's brilliant.

- jose manuel reina - in a bizarre move, commits himself to tackling eidur gudjohnsen in the corner, and getting pissed at the fact that gudjohnsen's hand ball is not called

- seconds later, arjen robben's constant yapping in reina's ear (reminiscent of esa tikkenen) provokes reina to slap robben accross the face, in clear view of the ref, standing a mere 10 feet away.

so, robben dives, and reina gets a red card. not a good thing for liverpool if they want to secure second place in the premiere league. he might as well have stated his loyalty to man-u.

interesting game though. much more lively than the last time i saw these two teams meet.