Liverpool vs Leeds in 7 goal twitter vids
Muchas muchas graciás a Telemundo Deportes en el Twitter quienes pusieron los goles para que nosotros, quienes ya cortaron la cuerda, puedan verlos en su majestad¡
At the Leeds presser this week, after the obligatory over-the-top compliment for the opposing team and manager (he called them a fair champion with a consistent style of play, practically a love letter from El Loco), Marcelo Bielsa offered this w/r/t facing the champions in their world famous fan favorite home stadium Anfield:
Anfield es Anfield sólo si está lleno
Anfield is Anfield only if it’s full
Bielsa’s plan was to take it to last season’s champs at home and win his way. This, spelled goalfest. Unfortunately, my family and I cut the cord and I’m wary of paying for Peacock since they can’t even get their app onto a Samsung TV. So this meant only one thing: Watching goals on Twitter, (again, thanks to Telemundo Sports!) and extrapolating therefrom!
Goal 1: Mohamed Salah Penalty
Not much to say here, I suppose, not a lot novel about the champs winning a penalty at home on opening day against a newly promoted side, (though we are, as El Loco duly noted, in a natural experiment on the proposition that most of home field advantage is down to the refs’ fear of the crowd). Mo Salah smashes this one into the top of the net, his placement giving him a 100% chance according to xPG by PenaltyKickStat. 1-0 Liverpool up.
Goal 2: Jack Harrison in transition
Leeds hit back through Jack Harrison (MLS what whaaaaat), who collects a fantastic long ball over the top in transition, and just burns two Liverpool defenders cutting inside before hitting that inside corner low and hard. The shot by itself counts for about 0.06 naive xG, so it’s already a fantastically low probability event without the scorching of two title winning defenders. Equalizer against the run of play 1-1, Leeds peg Liverpool back.
Goal 3: Virgil Van Dyke header off a set piece
VVD ghosts his marker and comes in for a Robbo (Andy Robertson) near post corner kick. The flying Dutchman’s able to build up a good head of steam by the time he gets his head to the ball right in front of goal, but we should also note that the boxing out by the Leeds defenders cannot exactly be described as robust. This one’s right off the training ground. 2-0 Liverpool go back up.
Goal 4: Patrick Bamford capitalizes on a final third giveaway
I think Telemundo is overly critical of Alisson, the goalie here, sure he was indecisive, but in this case between him and VVD, it took two to tango. The opportunity comes from another well placed ball over the top to that limbo between the goalie and the back line. I say well and not perfectly placed because no one was running into that space…yet. You see Bamford speedily drifting into Van Dijk’s blind spot, and when the big center back tries to make that sloppy-cuz-rushed one touch pass, Bamford pounces and beautifully crosses Alisson with a cheeky lob. Another final third giveaway taken advantage of. 2-2 Leeds keeping pace.
Goal 5: Salah screamer off a poor clearance
Another set piece goal, this time a free kick in the opposing third, with exquisite delivery from Robbo. This time, the Leeds defense is caught being a little too wary of VVD’s dummy run and they fail to notice Mo Salah hanging back to let his defender drift away following the flight of the ball. That ball is bound for a sea of white, and even still Pascal Struijk rushes off a soft back-of-the-head (i.e no way he can see where it’s going) clearance that goes right to Salah’s feet.
Now, saying the ball landed right at his feet belies the difficulty of what he still had to do and the practiced deftness with which he did it. Three quick actions: cushioning it with the bottom of his right foot to control, shifting his weight onto that right foot, then smashing the ball into the inside top corner with his left. Another one off the training ground. 3-2, Reds back up.
Goal 5: Mateusz Klich inside the box on the counter
TAA (Trent Alexander-Arnold) throws the ball to Leeds in well inside the Liverpool half and the ball ends up at Klich’s feet, and he ends up playing a super long one-two with Hélder Costa out on the wing. The return pass is inch-perfect but coming in hot, so he pops it up ever so slightly with his cushioning first touch, it floats there in front of him long enough to adjust his planted foot and smashes it across goal outside foot for top- and inward spin. Another final third giveaway, another chance taken. 3-3 Leeds won’t stay down.
Goal 7: Mo Salah Penalty
“:sunglasses emoji: The night of the ‘Pharaoh’ in Anfield!”
Not much to say here, I suppose, not a lot novel about the champs winning the winning penalty at home on opening day against a newly promoted side. Mo Salah whacks this one to the left side, his placement giving him somewhere between 62-91% chance according to xPG by PenaltyKickStat. 4-3 Liverpool win a thriller.
All of Liverpool’s goals came from set pieces, something on which they clearly spent a lot of time working like the seasoned pros that they are. All of Leeds’ goals came from open play, most of them on the counter, which shows how ruthless and clinical this upstart team can be in their execution.
Liverpool were a well-tuned orchestra to Leeds’ practiced jazz band. Both knew exactly what and how they were going to play from the beginning of the performance, but whereas Liverpool knew exactly what notes they were going to play from triumphant beginning to victorious end, Leeds took their cues on the fly and they took them from whatever player with whom they were playing. And seven goals in one game (last season the Premier League averaged 1.6 goals per game), that’s some beatiful music.