By LFC Vancouver member Keith Perkins, 02 May 06.

Last Wednesday we faced West Ham in what many commentators described as a dress rehearsal for the FA Cup final. Were they serious? I knew right away that neither team would be playing as if this was the big match itself, and also that Rafa would use the opportunity to rest a few players following the Semi-Final win over Chel$ki (no I won’t get tired of saying that!). This was the first of our last three League matches for this season and were really meaningless as we had third place wrapped up, and had little chance of catching Man Ure in second place. It was no surprise then to see a few of the squad players coming out to face the Hammers. Fowler and Morientes started up front with Cisse on the right in place of Gerrard, and Hamann, Warnock, Traore, Kromkamp, and Dudek, all getting the opportunity to show their stuff. Everybody dreams of playing in the FA Cup final, and so it was up to these lads to prove their worthiness to be selected for the big one.

Rafa’s problems of selection took a couple of unexpected turns with first Cisse showing that he can score goals by netting two, and possibly putting himself in contention for a spot in the Cup final starting eleven. Later in the match, Garcia came on as a substitute for Fowler and promptly had himself sent off for violent conduct. The sending off comes with an automatic three match ban, and with all appeals having been rejected, he’s out from now until next season. The most important thing from this match though was the three points gained with a 2-1 victory. Only two more matches to go, but three points behind Man Ure who have a game in hand.

Last Saturday’s match at home to Aston Villa was looked forward to as one that would let us celebrate in style as we close out the season at Anfield with a win. That looked like it was going to be easier than I thought as we opened the scoring after only four minutes. Rafa’s selection problems were further added to, with Morientes showing what we all know he is capable of, but so frustratingly seldom produces. Alonso played a perfect through ball to Morientes which split precisely through the Villa defence right on to Moro’s toe. Instead of blasting it goalward, which is what many players would have done, he calmly used his first touch to control the ball, taking the pace out of it and simultaneously tapping it to the left to go around the ‘keeper and place it into the empty net. A fantastic finish to a superb set-up.

For some reason we appeared to struggle after that. Too many missed passes, losses of possession, and general mistakes seemed to put the match to sleep. Neither side seemed to be interested in really making a game of it. The second half started with the surprise announcement that Milan Baros had been replaced by Juan Pablo Angel; the surprise being that Baros was actually playing in the first half – he managed to hide completely. The next surprise was that Villa now looked interested and not ready to accept defeat. An equaliser at 58 minutes further inspired them and for a while it looked like they might just steal a second.

At least they did for about three minutes, until a well placed right side out-swinging corner from Alonso found Gerrard, running into the box from the right wing to volley it low inside the near post. Now it was the other way around with the Reds waking up and attacking. Gerrard picked up a second five minutes later with a 25 yard screamer into the top left corner. That could be his best goal of the season even if it’s not the most important one. His performance in this match adds weight to the idea that he thoroughly deserves the PFA Player of the Year Award, as well as showing Sven Gormless Eriksson how important his role will be this summer (especially with certain players missing – see below).

Three more points then and we now find ourselves tied with Man Ure on 79 points, but having played two more matches. Chel$ki did us a favour by thrashing them 3-0 on Sunday, giving themselves the Premiership title in the process. The big news from this match was not the title win (we all knew it was coming, if not today then surely by next weekend) but the injury to Rooney which turned out to be a broken metatarsal. That must put a dent in Eriksson’s plans for the summer, not to mention SAF’s plans for the last couple of games. So now we’re tied for second with only one less match played. That match came this past Monday with Man Ure at home to Middlesbrough. Amazingly, even though Boro must be thinking about their upcoming UEFA Cup final, and manager Steve McLaren has the distraction of the England manager’s position, they held the mancs to a 0-0 draw. Now they are one point up on us, with both of us having one game remaining.

Way back in ancient history (May 2001) we had the strange scenario of not only winning one cup final in March (League Cup win over Birmingham) but also had to look forward to three more finals for our final three matches of that season. Those were the FA Cup Final against Arse-nil at Cardiff, the UEFA Cup Final against Alaves in Dortmund, and then a final League match away to Charlton. The reason that the last match of that Premier League season was considered as a “final” was simply that winning that one (which we did, 4-0 thanks to an outstanding second-half performance from Fowler) would grant us entry to the Champions League - which is where we belong, of course. Failure to win would have left us with three trophies, but only the consolation prize of another season in the UEFA Cup. The following season we didn’t win any trophies but we did manage to finish second in the League, which gave us automatic qualification to the Champions League group stage.

Right now, we have a similar situation as those past two seasons combined. We want to win the FA Cup of course, but we could have had another meaningless match before then, away at Portsmouth. For that final fixture, we could have rested a lot of players and had one last opportunity to give Morientes, Cisse, Traore, etc., one more chance to show their worth to the club before the summer transfer window opens up. Instead, we now have what could be a crucial game in terms of our final League position. We can finish in second place, but only if one other result goes our way as well as our own. We should be able to win against Pompey and take the necessary three points. We’ve beaten them twice already this season: once at Anfield (3-0), and once at Fratton Park in the FA Cup 4th round (2-1). Of course that means nothing now, but at least they managed to secure their Premier League status last week so that we are not faced with a team desperate for survival.

Finishing second would avoid the potential pitfalls of the qualifying round and also allow for an extended pre-season. That in turn could provide an opportunity for a trip to Asia that was cancelled last year owing to the number of qualifying rounds that we were required to play. Such a tour could be a marketing dream with tens of thousands of new supporters buying club merchandise. That should never be underestimated in terms of how much money it brings in to a club. Just look at Real Madrid’s cashing in on the Beckham name, and now Ronaldinho at Barcelona. The automatic qualifying spot also means that the players involved in this summer’s World Cup would have the opportunity for a longer rest before the Premier League season begins; remember that that was Houllier’s excuse for the poor showing in the 2002-03 season.

So it all comes down to this: We are one point behind the mancs, and both of us have one more game to play. We are at Pompey this Sunday while they are home to Charlton. If we win and they don’t, then we finish second and go directly to the Champions League (and they don’t).

Drop us a line and let Keith know what you think of this article

As most of you might have found out via email last week, author Paul Tomkins has offered LFC Vancouver members a discounted rate on his new book Red Revival. Paul wrote last year's "Golden Past, Red Future" which was an excellent read, and his articles appear on the official site on a weekly basis as well as other sites such as RAWK.

If you're interested in buying it let us know and we'll do a bulk order. We'll save money on shipping from the UK this way, and all together it should come to $25 CDN which is reasonable, hopefully even less (it's hard to say without knowing how many books will be ordered). If we get 10 people interested we'll go through with the order, and we'd like to thank Paul Tomkins for the offer.

Also, let us know if you're interested in tickets to the inaugural game of the Whitecaps tournament that goes on sale soon, featuring Cardiff as well as the Indian national team and China's U20 team. We could get a deal on those as well. And let us know how you'd feel about discounted Whitecaps tickets for LFC Vancouver members.

If anyone has anything else to say (buy/sell, jokes, rants, raves, whatever) drop us a line.

P Gill

send us an email if you have anything to announce, sell, or would just like a rant/rave.