Celebrate Anfield ’89 with the U-18s
38 comments May 26th, 2009
We all dreamed of glory for the first-team to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of our remarkable title win at Anfield, but for sheer symmetry you can’t knock the Youth Team’s efforts. Tonight, twenty years to the day since Michael Thomas’s magic moment, they will take to the Anfield turf in a replica yellow jersey in an attempt to claim the most valuable prize in academy football: the FA Youth Cup.
After last week’s 4-1 victory at the Emirates in the first leg, it looks good for the Young Guns – so good, in fact, that Liverpool will need a comeback to match the drama of that night twenty years ago. Hopefully this evening proves to be a lot more low key, and we manage to hold on to a prized victory.
Manager Steve Bould played that night, and he is interviewed here about both that legendary fixture and tonight’s game.
Most of the senior players will now head off to join up with their respective national teams, and Arsene Wenger is understandably frustrated by the fact that Theo Walcott is likely to be on duty at both senior and U-21 levels with England. The fact remains, however, that the player wants to play and the rules are firmly in favour of the FA.
Arguably more of a worry than Theo is the participation of Cesc in the Confederations Cup, which means that come the start of the 2010/11 season he will have taken part in three consecutive Summer tournaments. It is that kind of fixture congestion that makes the lay-offs Cesc and Theo were forced to have due to injuries blessings in disguise.
The FA Youth Cup game is on Setanta Sports tonight. If it’s anything like the first leg, it ought to be very entertaining, so tune in.
Till tomorrow.
