Clarification on the field
The poor pitch conditions were indirectly the result of the Taylor Swift concert. Swift’s stage was laid over the artificial turf on which the Giants and Jets play. Then organizers laid sod on top of that. Laying sod on top of artificial turf can work (see the 1994 World Cup), but they didn’t have a lot of time to pull it off this time, and the result was quite evident.
So Liverpool, who should’ve beaten Dortmund on Sunday but missed too many chances and couldn’t keep track of Christian Pulisic, will take the win here.
But it’s not convincing.
“They’re facing Manchester City,” you say. “Why should it be convincing?”
Because Manchester City played a lot of young kids, even by preseason standards. Liverpool only took control of the game when Salah and Mane came in, and even then, the first goal should’ve been annulled.
Still, it was an entertaining effort on both sides despite a steady rain and the pitch that Taylor Swift and her stage marked up.
Thanks for joining us. See you in a couple of days. Here’s your match report in the meantime.
Updated
FULL-TIME: Liverpool 2-1 Manchester City
The referee adds more than two minutes to the three-minute stoppage time after that penalty, but it’s over.
Updated
GOAL! Liverpool 2-1 Manchester City (Mane 90+4 pen)
The kick goes near the middle. Hart goes elsewhere.
Updated
90+2 min: PENALTY! Salah chips the ball into the air for Solanke, and Manchester City’s Tosin Adarabioyo clatters into his back. The referee hesitates but then makes the correct call.
A man in a Liverpool shirt is wearing a Yankees cap, apparently forgetting which baseball team owns which EPL club.
90+1 min: Again, the crowd show displeasure at Man City playing the ball backward. They seems more content when it goes forward. They don’t seem to mind Liverpool playing it back.
90 min: Mane crosses for Salah, but Humphreys slides to intercept. The Man City defender has been involved in so many plays in this game -- some good, some not.
89 min: Manchester City patiently play the ball around. The crowd impatiently whistle. Then it’s another Liverpool free kick. The ball has barely crossed midfield in the last few minutes.
87 min: CHANCE! Solanke springs Mane, who rounds the keeper but touches the ball a bit too far and can’t collect it for the shot before it rolls past the post.
86 min: CHANCE, and how did Mane miss that? Salah lofts a ball across the box for his fellow Liverpool attacker, and the unmarked Mane hits it back across the face of goal.
85 min: Liverpool’s Grujic swipes the ball from Gomes, who pulls him down and gets a yellow card. The ball is played into a mass of about 15 people in the box, and it does not go goalward.
84 min: CHANCE! Mane plays the ball ahead to Salah, who’s running between two defenders but looks most likely to get to it .. until Joe Hart comes streaking out his box and slides to knock the ball to safety.
82 min: Every time I stop watching and look at my laptop, Salah does something. Except now.
Someone emails to ask when Manchester United is playing. I believe your favorite search engine can tell you, as I’m a bit distracted at the moment.
80 min: Salah’s free kick sails a few feet high.
79 min: Manchester City’s Garre gets past Camacho, but the Liverpool defense copes with the threat.
Then Salah takes off the other way and plays it to Solanke, who is brought down just outside the box.
Indeed. And it’s been an entertaining affair since he walked onto the field.
Immediate impact. 😁 #LFCPreSeason #ICC2018 pic.twitter.com/j9timTwdbZ
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) July 26, 2018
73 min: Bernardo Silva with the slightest of touches on Grujic, who wants to take the free kick quickly but is not allowed to do so.
Liverpool maintain possession and play it back to Grujic at the top of the box, whose strong 9-iron lofts the ball beautifully to the green. Assuming there’s a supporter wearing green somewhere in the 20th row.
Mahrez is out.
71 min: In the last two minutes, we’ve had a Joe Hart misadventure, a Solanke rocket straight at Hart, and more rain.
67 min: CHANCE! And maybe Salah should’ve scored that one instead, putting a header wide off a Mane cross.
And CHANCE! Salah is inexplicably wide open and hits the bar from 12 yards out.
If you’re tracking former NYCFC man Jack Harrison, you can stop now. He’s out.
65 min: Mahrez takes that free kick, and Kelleher snags it with confidence.
Updated
64 min: Mane surges into the box and .. falls hard. No call. Are we sure the ref’s whistle is working? Yes it is -- Moreno concedes a needless free kick to the left of his box.
GOAL: Liverpool 1-1 Manchester City (Salah 63)
Well, that didn’t take long.
Camacho, who also just came on (we think), crosses to Salah. He was offside, but the AR didn’t spot it.
60 min: CHANCE. Mahrez with a nifty move to set up Luke Bolton, who goes for power and should’ve considered placement.
Liverpool all over the place at the moment, even with a bunch of megastars facing off against Mahrez, Sane, Hart and a bunch of kids who look ready for the prom.
But here comes ... Mo Salah.
More on Liverpool’s keeper and our vocabulary debate ...
@duresport With a name like Caoimhin I bet Liverpool’s new keeper grew up calling it soccer.
— Hurley (@LaughCryHurl) July 26, 2018
GOAL! Liverpool 0-1 Manchester City (Sane 57)
Manchester City immediately go the other way.
Bernardo Silva, whom we’ve confirmed is not a goalkeeper, plays a well-weighted ball to Sane, who accelerates away from van Dijk and puts a perfectly placed shot past the Irish teen Kelleher, who had no chance.
Updated
56 min: GOAL ... no! Solanke puts the ball in the net from a scramble off the corner, but he and perhaps a few others are offside.
55 min: Clyne surges down the right, and the cross finds Mane. Gomes, wearing 81, slides through Mane. Free kick Liverpool from just outside the penalty arc. Looks like five players want to take it. Van Dijk knocks it off the wall and out of play for the corner.
53 min: And from Man City. Joe Hart isn’t on Twitter? That’s a pity.
CITY SUBS!
— Manchester City (@ManCity) July 26, 2018
➡
Joe Hart@LeroySane19@BernardoCSilva
Claudio Gomes
⬅@C1audioBravo @LukasNmecha @Brahim @Jasondenayer #mancity
Meanwhile, Dortmund is up 2-0 on Benfica. They can almost taste the champagne from the International Champions Cup.
52 min: Ah, thank you, Liverpool ...
#LFC half-time changes...
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) July 26, 2018
➡️ Kelleher, Mane, Solanke, Woodburn, Klavan
⬅️ Karius, Gomez, Wijnaldum, Lallana, Sturridge
Watch @ManCity vs #LFC live on @LFCTV GO: https://t.co/BxfzKkm3b4 pic.twitter.com/KTImvwsQxM
And Kelleher is pressed into service to save from Sane at point-blank range.
51 min: ESPN’s game stats say Bernardo Silva has replaced Claudio Bravo. Unless Joe Hart changed his name at the half ... no ...
50 min: One-way traffic here. Woodburn gets involved for Liverpool.
49 min: Solanke apparently had a shot of some kind while I tried to sort out the substitutions.
Replay of the Liverpool chance shows Humphreys essentially saved his own shot. Own Goal was, after all, the Golden Boot winner in the World Cup.
47 min: We have a Joe Hart sighting! He’s in goal for Man City. (Well, of course, it’d be strange if he were in goal for Liverpool.)
And it’s a save ... by Humphreys, as confusion in the Man City defense gives Mane a chance.
46 min: Mane’s in for Liverpool. So is Solanke. And Woodburn. And a goalkeeper who looks like he’s 12.
Of the game, Bolton writes: “On the game side of things, LFC defense should really have the better of this City attack, especially with Fabinho operating as the screen in front of a back 4 which will most likely start against West Ham (due to Lov’s WC involvement and Matip’s injury).”
Indeed. Now we’ll see how things change when each team makes 15 substitutions that we won’t be able to sort out until the 60th minute.
Meanwhile, Thomas Bolton pounces on my “better organized then Australian Rules Football” comment to say this:
“And yet our AFL pitches were organised to a fine standard to host Chelsea in Perth compared this NFL pitch in NJ which looks like someone’s tried to raise this year’s crop of potatoes in the past week.”
But did Taylor Swift play in Perth in the past week? I thought not. So there.
Updated
So to sum up -- Manchester City’s young attackers have looked better than Liverpool’s veteran defenders, though Liverpool also have had some nice moments from its young attacker.
Maybe the kids just get more amped up for these games?
HALFTIME: Liverpool 0-0 Manchester City
I’ll answer emails and tweets, but I’m also going to relocate to a larger TV in the hopes of seeing actual numbers.
Jules asks about the score. It’s 0-0.
43 min: Did Jones deserve a PK? Replay isn’t conclusive -- Humphreys certainly stuck a leg in front of the Liverpool attacker, who tried to swing his legs around the obstacle and may have taken a little knock in the process of falling.
If we had VAR, this game might have three PKs by now.
42 min: CHANCE. As usual, something happens after I say nothing’s happening. Jones gets his head on a Clyne cross ahead of Humphreys, and it flashes over the bar.
Gerry in NJ writes: “Hey Beau – if you ask Glendenning and Doyle they may be able to corroborate that in Ireland soccer is called soccer to differentiate from the kinda organized riot that is Gaelic Football.”
It’s better organized than Australian Rules Football, at least.
The game has slowed a bit, as you can probably guess.
Excuse me, but I’ll make the Taylor Swift jokes around here. (Already did, in fact.)
A lot of talk about the pitch...#LFC just have to shake it offhttps://t.co/GfeuiUrIUE
— Liverpool FC News (@LivEchoLFC) July 26, 2018
38 min: Gomez brings down Nmecha. Maybe. The Man City attacker hit the ground a bit too easily.
The ball is 25 yards out, a bit to the side. Mahrez drills it, but Karius saves comfortably.
36 min: Young defender Humphreys sends his clearance only a few yards, and Wijnaldum eagerly pounces and shoots. The ball will probably land sometime tomorrow.
35 min: Daniel Sturridge is down after bumping legs with a Man City defender. They don’t bring out the magic spray, but some devices are retrieved from the trainer’s bag. The ensuing free kick is headed clear.
34 min: Liverpool get a bit more possession, and Jones tries a left-footed 20-yard shot that Bravo saves.
Meanwhile, in other preseason action ...
69’ ANOTHER Travis Worra save! This time he denies Pablo Piatti.
— Richmond Kickers (@RichmondKickers) July 26, 2018
Kickers 2, Espanyol 1. #LaLigaWorld
32 min: Corner to Liverpool, as the impressive homegrown youngster Curtis Jones plays to Milner on the left flank. His cross is deflected.
Liverpool don’t do much with the corner -- oh, wait, they do, as the ball pops to Lallana at the top of the box, and he pokes a knuckling ball just wide of the post.
30 min: Yellow card to Virgil van Dijk, who grabs, holds and finally trips Mahrez. We’ll have yet another free kick. This time, young Ukrainian Zinchenko takes it and rips a 35-yard shot on the ground wide of everything.
28 min: Can we see VAR, please? Man City’s Luke Bolton gets in past Andy Robertson, who slides into his feet. Bolton sportingly stays up and attempts to get to the ball but can’t. That’s two decent shouts for a Man City PK.
From the ensuing corner, Karius punches the ball rather weakly, like a 48-year-old sportswriter hitting a punching bag, and Jack Harrison blasts the ball right back at him. Either side of Karius, and the ball’s in the net.
26 min: Milner crunches a Man City player so thoroughly that I can’t identify him. ESPN color commentator Paul Mariner, a familiar name to English fans of a certain age, wants the referee to take control.
24 min: A small injury break gives everyone a chance to get some water. Or maybe Guardiola called timeout. The animated Man City manager calls over a couple of players for instructions.
I’d say they should sign this fellow to flesh out tonight’s lineup, but they’ve been impressive so far.
22 min: Liverpool pad their pass-completion stats. They get a few touches 25 yards from goal, but that’s as close as they get.
21 min: I’ll paraphrase what Lorraine Berry said via Twitter: “The pitch is a blah-blah disgrace.” And so is ESPN’s camerawork, she says. It does seem as if the camera is mounted to a passing aircraft.
19 min: A promising cross to the onrushing Denayer, who spent last season on loan from Man City to Galatasaray. He can’t quite get it.
Liverpool haven’t seen much of the ball aside from watching it fly through their box. They get forward but release a harmless shot that Bravo collects.
16 min: Another Mahrez free kick doesn’t find any takers in the box.
15 min: Fabinho brings down Jack Harrison. Mahrez sends the free kick to no one in particular.
So far, the Manchester City attackers, many of whom would be eligible for an Under-20 tournament, are owning this game.
Nice to see the traveling journalists are enjoying themselves:
'It's not exactly 100mph' observes @JamesPearceEcho, fresh from a second plate of fried chickenhttps://t.co/QR5c4Pjxpx
— Liverpool FC News (@LivEchoLFC) July 26, 2018
12 min: CHANCE! And how did Man City not take the lead. Lukas Nmecha receives a pass beautifully and sets himself up for a strong 16-yard shot. Karius, who could use a few good performances to settle his nerves and at least be Liverpool’s No. 2 man, makes a strong save, but it goes back to Nmecha. The challenge is late, and Man City have a shout for a penalty.
11 min: It’s a clever buildup for Liverpool until Clyne decides to test his ability to hold the ball against four defenders. Test failed.
9 min: Mahrez crosses for Harrison, an event that would’ve made no sense two years ago. Lallana is forced to clear for Liverpool.
“What are Liverpool actually champions of?” asks Michael Anderson by email. Our hearts, Michael. And Merseyside, presumably.
8 min: Manchester City’s young attackers (add up any two of them, and your correspondent tonight still has 10 years on them) press Liverpool’s defense. Could be interesting on a rather nasty pitch.
5 min: Commentator Ian Darke says one reason for the poor pitch condition is ... a series of Taylor Swift concerts.
We can only hope both teams will shake, shake, shake, shake, shake it off, shake it off (clap clap clap).
And the hostility begins ...
@duresport which the English shortened to soccer? Are you stupid? Only Americans call football soccer. The rest of the world call it football. Association football? Hey Guardian, can you guys never use this writer again. He's ignorant.
— faborola (@faborola) July 26, 2018
Google it.
3 min: Milner saves a ball on the far sideline and crosses over everything. Liverpool maintain possession, knocking it around the whole pitch and parts of New York before a rash direct ball sails out of play.
Kickoff: Not many formalities here. The divots/patches on the pitch are mesmerizing.
The last time #LFC faced Man City in 🇺🇸
— Liverpool FC News (@LivEchoLFC) July 25, 2018
🔴 Sir @kennethdalglish
🔴 @007
🔴 Austin Powers pic.twitter.com/P7jDPyFbpX
For the record, Mike Myers is Canadian, his role in starting the Comedy Store Players notwithstanding.
Weather update
The good news: It’s a mild 24 degrees Celsius (mid-70s Fahrenheit).
The bad news: The radar is greener than the MetLife grass, with a menacing line of red and yellow currently off to the west.
Shaqiri isn’t playing tonight, but he is with the team ...
First training with the Reds!🔴👌🏽💪🏾 #XS23#usaTour#YNWA @LFC pic.twitter.com/PAQyqFe7Vq
— Xherdan Shaqiri (@XS_11official) July 25, 2018
Absentees
Liverpool are missing the aforementioned Origi, Markovic, Matip and Keita, along with new goalkeeper Alisson, Dejan Lovren, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jordan Henderson, Danny Ings and Xherdan Shaqiri.
Manchester City laugh at that list. Kyle Walker, Danilo, Vincent Kompany, John Stones, Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne, Fabian Delph, David Silva, Fernandinho, Nicolas Otamendi, and on and on.
The second half of this game might feature Mo Salah and Sadio Mane running at Manchester City academy players. Maybe Liverpool will score in the second half?
It’s a homecoming of sorts for Jack Harrison, an Englishman who came to the USA as a teenager and played at Wake Forest (college soccer, for those outside the USA) before joining NYCFC. Manchester City, as a reminder, is the majority owner of NYC. (The FC, not the whole city. They’re not THAT rich.)
Manchester City lineup
Almost unchanged from their 1-0 loss to Dortmund.
CITY XI | Bravo (c), Mahrez, Denayer, Zinchenko, Harrison, Nmecha, Foden, Garcia, Diaz, Bolton, Humphreys
— Manchester City (@ManCity) July 25, 2018
SUBS | Hart, Sané, Bernardo, Adarabioyo, Roberts, Muric, Touaizi, Pozo, Dele-Bashiru, Garre, Gomes, Bernabe, Matondo, Wilson, Ogbeta#mancity pic.twitter.com/Z4SkYeTPXf
Good evening.
Liverpool and Manchester City will be playing a game of association football, which the English shortened to “soccer” to differentiate it from rugby and any other “football” games that broke off from the sprawling village-wide kicking (a ball, shins, etc.) affairs in the 19th century.
They will be playing in MetLife Stadium, the New Jersey football (that’s gridiron football) stadium shared by the New York Giants and New York Jets.
The Twitter feed for MetLife Stadium is MLStadium, which would make it seem as if it hosts Major League Soccer games. It doesn’t. The New York Red Bulls play soccer in New Jersey, but they’re a little less than 10 miles away. And New York City FC, which is majority-owned by Man City’s City Football Group, plays in New York at a baseball stadium -- Yankees Stadium.
Should we point out at this point that one of the top 19th century football (soccer) clubs in the USA appears to have turned most of its attention to cricket? No?
In more current news, the pitch (field) at the ground (stadium) has some sort of issue. Was it run over by massive tanks? Or are those crop circles?
Pitch at MetLife Stadium ahead of Manchester City v Liverpool game — needs a bit of work... pic.twitter.com/Ob3zhuysNP
— Mark Ogden (@MarkOgden_) July 25, 2018
Liverpool lineup
Five players added since the loss to Dortmund: Georginio Wijnaldum starts, while Mo Salah, Sadio Mane, Marko Grujic and Pedro Chirivella are on the bench.
Keita was terrific in that Dortmund game. Joel Matip went out injured. Not sure yet why Divock Origi and Lazar Markovic, both starters against Dortmund, are not listed here.
Naby Keïta misses out against City as a precaution due to a sore neck. #LFCPreSeason #ICC2018 https://t.co/DE3FScJIqq
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) July 25, 2018
Updated
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s some news from the Liverpool camp from our Andy Hunter.
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