It’s European D-Day For Everton
by Dexter on September 20th, 2007
| 360 words |
Edward hopes for a better European romp than the last time.
When David “Moyesiah” Moyes was supping on Champagne following his teams miraculous Champions League qualification season he couldn’t have possibly envisaged such a painful nausea inducing set of results that awaited his men in Europe.
Rumours crept around that UEFA didn’t want both Liverpool and Everton in the tournament, that the draw was rigged with hot and cold balls, and several people bet their grannies houses on the two Merseyside teams being drawn together in the qualifying round. As it happened the two teams were only a fixture apart, did UEFA gaffe? One look at the team Everton were drawn against, the Spanish “yellow submarine” Villareal, as conspiratorial tongues wagging again. Over two legs we lost to Villareal, an excellent team who went on to be semi-finalists in the Champions League, Riquelme was one of their players too. Oh the irony.
After a gutting defeat, ending with a disallowed Dunc Ferguson goal in the last minute at Villareal, Everton took the elevator down to the UEFA cup. Our opponents? Dinamo Bucharest. The first leg was a 5-1 defeat at their place. The home leg, despite the roars of encouragement that would ricochet round Goodison, ended in tears.
Tonight Everton take on Metalist Kharkiv at Goodison in their first foray back in Europe since then, and this fixture is just as dangerous. Kharkiv are the Ukraine’s third best team, behind Shakytar Donetsk and Dinamo Kiev, two seasoned Champions League Teams… I don’t need to spell it out, another team from the former Eastern Bloc, again not well known by our scouts (Moyes has seen them play in the flesh once)…
The Daily Mail and The Sun, not the favourite two newspapers on Merseyside by a long way are having fun with a story that Andy Johnson is “furious” with Moyes for being axed for tonights game. A nice snide metaphorical kick to the balls of Moyes, just before a game he needs to win, to exorcise the unspeakable ghosts. Moyes insists that AJ is actually injured, but either way he will hope that McFadden is wearing the same boots he wore in Paris.
MartellSte - September 20th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Well we know that broken metatarsel will by no means be a pushover i just pray that neville goes to right back maybe start pinear and we try to impose our game on them and keep it on the carpet but we all no what moyes and his record is like in cup ties cum on the toffs pride please!
MikeyJ - September 20th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
We need our 12th man tonight.
Let’s make sure the lads get the backing they need to go far in this competition.
Terry - September 20th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
The Sun aren’t the favourite paper anywhere. Everytime they talk about Newcastle it’s them creating rumours about people leaving to join the Big 4 or Spurs (Owen, Taylor and Martins in recent months).
MR.C - September 20th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Quality result guys…you done your country proud tonight…They only had 9 men!
I take back everything I ever said about Andy Johnson…he’s not overated he is just crap…three penalty misses; dear oh dear!
Lard Boy - September 20th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
spurs is wear da britash flag iz fliing. cum on spurs
William Vector - September 21st, 2007 at 9:18 am
Ooooooops
jobo - September 21st, 2007 at 1:43 pm
[quote comment=”63918″]We need our 12th man tonight.
Let’s make sure the lads get the backing they need to go far in this competition.[/quote]
hahaha -
don’t make me laugh - you need to fill a stadium before making such silly comments -
Not to mention the fact that the atmosphere at Goodison is piss poor.
MikeyJ - September 21st, 2007 at 5:19 pm
[quote comment=”64256″][quote comment=”63918″]We need our 12th man tonight.
Let’s make sure the lads get the backing they need to go far in this competition.[/quote]
hahaha -
don’t make me laugh - you need to fill a stadium before making such silly comments -
Not to mention the fact that the atmosphere at Goodison is piss poor.[/quote]
Sorry but did I miss something - we were near sell out last night!
The fact that Kharkiv bring only 20 fans and our poor ticketing distrubtion meant we only filled 38,000.
Truthfully goodison can be quiet but not often.
We dont really expect football as piss poor as last night though…
im sure you’ll happily be watching your team on your sofa at the weekend though- if you turn up the volume loud enough maybe you can convince yourself you are a fan who goes to matches and can experience atmospheres of different grounds
Biscan - September 21st, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Everton in Europe.
Comedy gold.
You have to be rooting for them in the second leg, just so we get to watch more episodes of “Andy Johnson in the World’s Funniest Penalty Kicks”.
Winning post - September 22nd, 2007 at 1:32 pm
We werent the best on the night,not helped by the referee.
Come on before you jump on that,if a ref had done that in the prem it would be criticised severely.Making aj re take it was ridiculous,but as for the last min pen,it looks as tho england rugby need aj more than everton at the moment.
Nice to see a few redshite comments backing their rivals tho,:)
Jobo-forever the idiot when commenting on everton,clueless!
Bill v-give him some lessons on the people of merseyside,pride, passion,history of european nights,whichever side you follow.
If the team preformed to the standard of support it would have been 5-0 to everton.
If grav or arteta were in the team,it would have been a balanced 11,but i felt moyes got it wrong with neville and carsley,as we played a team who put 10 men (then 9,then 8)behind the ball,so no need for two defensive midfielders,neither get done over in the the middle of the park defensively,but neither could create chances for the team if they tried,which they do but badly.
Looking very wary at the away leg but with arteta or grav and a simlar line up,we can win their,i have no doubt.But we have to get it right from the off,cos they will defend the 1-1 from the off.
wishywash - September 22nd, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Everton need to realize that Liverpool FC are the only club on Merseyside capable of winning trophies in Europe.
Everton just make a show of themselves everytime they step foot in a european competition which thankfully is not very often.
Anonymous - September 26th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Yeah your right wishywash for once, we should concentrate on the league,because weve got more chance of winning that than any other team on merseyside,come on the peoples club,take advantage of rafa clueless tactics and management in what is the bread and butter for a manager,and lets win the league within the next few years.Tranmere have more chance than liverpool with the rate they are going as far as winning the premiership.
“Its our year, its our year”, hahahaha, hilarious, same said every pre season what a dillusioned bunch.:)
William Vector - September 26th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
You’ll eat your words Anonymous…. but WP is right, the ref’s retake was ridiculous so I had to feel some sympathy for los caramelos. I switched off at 1-0 and was really surprised by the final score - I’m sure you can turn it round - they didn’t look all that - but away in the Ukraine is not a very hospitable place