The Reds: Walking On

As I've stated before in these lines, my affinity for English football (soccer, for the sake of clarity) far outweighs my knowledge of it. But seeing as Liverpool and Portsmouth are squaring off at Fratton Park tomorrow, it only seems appropriate that Benny and I give our early season thoughts. Now, we're only five games into the EPL season, so it's a little premature to begin any major prognosticating. For a comparison, it's much like trying to predict MLB playoff teams after only 20 games (*Brewers*cough*cough*). This being said, the Liverpudlians have surged out to a fantastic start and though they have only played four matches, they sit atop the Premiership with 10 points and a gaudy +9 goal differential. What makes this all the more impressive is that they've seceded definitively in the past couple of contests without captain Steven Gerrard and starter Jamie Carragher who are both out with injuries.

How have they done it? Well, the cupboard was fairly well stocked to begin with coming off a 3rd place EPL finish last year. Dirk Kuyt, Xabi Alonso, Carragher, John Arne Riise, Jermaine Pennant, Peter Crouch, Jose Reina and Sami Hyypia are just some of the returning players of a team that came within one game of being the best in Europe last year. Add to the mix some extremely capable newcomers including Fernando Torres, Ryan Babel and Andriy Voronin who have done nothing but sound the bell whenever their numbers were called early this season. Throw in All-World midfielder and native son Steven Gerrard (who looks to return in the near future) and you've got quite an eleven. All things being equal, this is a club that is destined for a top three finish in my humble opinion.

Chelsea and Manchester United have been the "1" and "1a" of the English Premier League landscape for the last handful of years. Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham, Bolton, Everton and Newcastle usually fill out the top eight. It seems somewhat static at the top of the table mainly because the inequity of team payrolls, which mirrors the Yankees and Red Sox story. However, baseball is a vastly different game that is much more susceptible odd bounces, slumps and cosmic forces. I believe the NBA would be overrun with dynasties like Man U and Chelsea if there was no salary cap because basketball and soccer are much closer as far as talent conquering all. If an owner buys a starting five of All-Stars for his NBA team, you can pretty much ink their travel plans to the finals every year. Same with soccer.

The only monkey wrench I can throw into this seemingly predetermined structure is that Liverpool beat Chelsea last spring in the UEFA Cup Semifinals and then again came one horrendous call away from beating them last month at Anfield. Do these things matter? I have no idea, but I love underdogs stories. The more they beat the favorite (albeit at home), the more those labels lose their meaning. I'm hoping that this realization finally arrives this year. I hate the Yankees, but respect the talent - same with Man U and Chelsea. The real point of distinction is that I no longer fear them, they don't appear to be the prohibitive favorites that they've been in the past. Once again, I could be completely wrong here. Way too soon to tell.

That leads me to tomorrow's Liverpool @ Portsmouth match. Last year, Pompey played to a nil-nil draw on the road and beat Liverpool 2-1 at home. This year, they are perched in the middle of the table after a brutal first month where they played the likes of Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal. Although Liverpool remains the favorite, Pompey isn't exactly the team you want to sleep on. Considering the fact that I'm still wading into this league and I'm without the requisite knowledge to do a Ron Jaworski type breakdown, I'm going to conservatively predict a 2-1 Liverpool victory capped by a 80th minute Torres goal. If you want my stone cold lock of the weekend however, it's Bears 31, Chiefs 14 (take the Bears giving the points and the over, like splitting Aces). That's all I got.

I'm hoping Kurt and the Preacher start sparing on the comment board after this one. Need some good Red v. Blue chatter...