Sports Sunday!
First, for those that celebrate, a very happy Greek Orthodox Easter. Χριστός Ανέστη, Καλή Ανάσταση, kai, Καλό Πάσχα!
Well, we had sports on Sunday, didn’t we? For me, it started with the Premier League. First, it was Brighton & Hove Albion that faced off against Aston Villa. Villa are in 4th in the Prem and fighting for a Champions League spot. Brighton ended up with a 1-0 to dampen Villa’s mood. On their tail is Tottenham Hotspur who traveled to Anfield to face Liverpool. Unfortunately for my Reds, while they are mathematically still alive to win the Premier League, they realistically will not as Arsenal and Manchester City would both need to lose their remaining two (Arsenal) and three (City) matches, and Liverpool would need to win their remaining three fixtures, including Sunday’s versus Spurs.
In any case, Sunday’s match is the reverse fixture from the match earlier in the season in London when Liverpool were unjustly and controversially not awarded a goal as it was called offside. As replays have shown, Luis Diaz was not offside prior to scoring and the goal should have counted. VAR and the match official miscommunicated with one another resulting in the goal to not be given. Liverpool ended losing that match 2-1 on a Joel Matip own goal and finished with 9 men. It was the worst refereed match of the season and the worst VAR fiasco in history. Of course, this is not the only time this season that VAR denied Liverpool a goal or penalty.……DON’T GET ME STARTED!
So back to Sunday’s match, Spurs actually started off the match brightly and it looked like Liverpool were going to struggle again. But Spurs went full “Spursy.” The Reds found their stride and scored the opener through a Mohammed Salah header (which is rare!) in the 16th minute. The ball came from the left side, crossed by Cody Gakpo and found Salah’s head at the far post to give Liverpool a 1-0 lead. Liverpool doubled their lead through a Andy Robertson goal in the final minutes of the first half. It started as a nice give and go with the ball eventually falling to Salah. His shot however was saved by the Spurs keeper, Guglielmo Vicario but the rebound fell to Robbo’s foot and he tucked it away. Two nil at the half.
The second half was more of the same for Liverpool, counter pressing Spurs at every moment. Spurs defender Emerson gave the ball away to man of the match Harvey Elliott who delivered a ball to the back post where it was met by a leaping Gakpo to make it 3-0 in the 50th minute. The forth came just 9 minutes later for Liverpool and it was an absolute worldly by Harvey Elliot. Elliott cut inside and curled a screamer of a goal in the upper 90, a goal that will surely be up for goal of the season for Liverpool. Vicario had no chance whatsoever. 4-0 to the mighty Reds at Anfield. Spurs, to their credit, did pull two goals back to make interesting but it was Liverpool’s day in Jurgen Klopp’s penultimate match at Anfield. My favorite moments from the game didn’t come from field, although, Harvey’s goal was an absolute gem! No, they came from the supports. The song that will no doubt be sung at Klopp’s final match was as loud as ever, “I’m so glad, that Jurgen is a Red. I’m so glad, he delivered what he said. Jurgen said to me, you know, we’ll win the Premier League you know, he said so. I’m in love with him and I feel fine.” The final match at home for Liverpool will be against Wolves in a fortnight. There will not be a dry eye, including from Klopp. An end of an era.
After the Liverpool match, I caught some of the NBA game seven match up between the Cavs and Magic. The Magic jumped out to an early lead (a big lead at that) and it looked as though they were going to crush Cleveland. But of course, in the NBA, your lead is never safe. Cleveland went on a fantastic run in the second half and ended up winning by 12. Orlando couldn’t throw the ball into the ocean, especially in the second half. They shot only 33% from the field in the game.
Finally, it was playoff hockey time. Rangers. Canes. Collision course! It was game one of the Eastern Conference second round match up. This series is going to be epic and probably not good for anyone that is a Rangers fan with a heart condition. Mika Zibanejad……sir….have a game! 2 goals and an assist in a Rangers 4-3 victory.
It started just two and a half minutes in when Zibanejad scored his first, which was assisted by Roslovic and Fox. About a minute later however, Jaccob Slavin tied the game for Carolina. Halfway through the 1st, Zibanejad strikes again with a power play goal that should be put on a loop for all to see. Chris Kreider got the puck down low and found Zibanejad with a no look backhand pass. Mika made no mistake and burried it to make it 2-1. Six minutes later, Vincent Trocheck scored on the power play with assists from Zibanejad and Kreider to make it 3-1 Rangers in the first. The second period saw a stalemate with no goals so it was 3-1 going to the third.
Just a couple minutes into the third, Carolina cut into the deficit with a goal from Martin Necas who found himself alone in the middle of the Rangers zone, putting the puck past Igor Shesterkin. Artemi Panarin “Bread” restored NY’s two goal lead with just over 11 minutes remaining. But Carolina pressed the rest of the game. This is what I meant earlier - if you have a heart condition and you are a Rangers fan, maybe don’t watch the last period if the Rangers are winning. Seth Jarvis made it 4-3 late in the third. Trocheck then takes a delay of game penalty for the Rangers when he tried to bat the puck out of the zone, but ended up going over the glass (still a stupid rule, but I digress!), which meant that Carolina would be on a power play to end regulation. However, Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov took a tripping penalty just moments later resulting in a 4 on 4. Carolina couldn’t take advantage and the Rangers sweat out a tough third period to win game one!
So anyway, Sunday was filled with a lot of sports and some lamb and lemon potatoes with tzatziki sauce to celebrate Greek Easter. For all the bad that is going on in the world, it’s good to have sports as your getaway. Sports make you dream, it gives hope and it unites. What a nice day of sports on Sunday! Until next time.