Z/Web

Terrific cup tie. This was the final, so a winner would be determined one way or another. No replays. Liverpool started things off well, and everything looked good when Robbie Fowler put in a top-notch goal. His keeper, Vesterveld, put in a long ball which Heskey nodded down, right to Fowler, who delivered a brilliant shot. Three touches and the ball was in the back of the net! Birmingham held on, fighting for every scrape, and the game was filled with lots of near chances and close shots. But it looked like it was to be Liverpool’s day. Then, with two minutes of injury time expired, the ref suddenly called a penalty kick against Liverpool. Disaster! Birmingham’s main penalty kick taker was injured on the play and off the field, so Purse stepped and finished beautifully, as though there was no pressure at all. That sent the game into 30 minutes of overtime. During the overtime play there were some critical saves, and one foul that should have been another penalty kick for Birmingham, but the ref didn’t call that one (it was far more blatant than the first). Finally, the game went to penalty kicks. The first kicker for Birmingham missed his, putting them behind, but several Liverpool kickers later, one missed, and the two teams were even again. They went to a sixth kick, and Liverpool scored, but then, sadly, Birmingham’s player missed, meaning they lost the game. It was hard for the player — he’d done excellent during the game. So Liverpool win their first hardware in years, and take home the Worthington Cup!

Author: John Waters

Director: John Waters

Waters’ big budget pictures just aren’t as much fun as his low budget spoofs. It’s partly the nature of his type of humor: he tends to take one premise and do a whole film, and the more Hollywood movies just can’t support a one joke premise. This one is a great idea: a mockery of independent and big budget moviemaking via a renegade filmmaker who kidnaps a Hollywood A-list starlet and forces her to be in his film attacking Hollywood. There are some great lines, a fair amount of crudity, some excellent satire, but in the end it seems like a lot of fuss over nothing. Waters fans will enjoy it, of course, but the average viewer won’t find too much too cheer.

Surprisingly good game. Coventry scored early, to the shock of everyone, when Bellamy put in a ball the Charlton keeper fumbled. But Charlton were back minutes later when Rufus put in a similar silly goal at the other end. After the mistakes, there were good goals in the second half, starting with Charlton’s Johansson volleying in a shot just seconds after the kickoff to put them ahead. But Coventry somehow found a way to equalize when Hartson’s missed kick caught just enough of the ball to allow it to trickle over the goalline. Crazy. Final: 2-2.

Good game. Watched the first half last night, where Celta started things off quick with a goal from Karpin, but Stuttgart came back with a goal in the dying seconds from Blank. But though the German team controlled the second half, they couldn’t score, and it was Mostovoi who made the most of his slight chance to put the Spanish club ahead. Final: 2-1 Celta Vigo.