The Sammis begin on Tuesday
Here he is: Sammi Hyppia, hero of the Quarterfinal 2nd leg. He’s older, he’s slower, but he’s hoisted the Reds’ last European Cup and he’s a winner. He makes up in smarts and experience what he gives away in youth.
Tuesday the 22nd at Anfield 14:45 ET. Wow, soccernet is now using ET or Eastern Time. Getting these match times right for taping is not easy for a dopey American. Usually it’s 17:45 UT or GMT. That’s “Universal Time” aka “Greenwhich Mean Time” which is the time zone the UK is in. They are 5 hours ahead. So you deduct 5 hours to get it to New York time and then deduct 12 hours to get rid of the goofy military time they use there and you have, what? 2:45? As in Pee Em? Ok, got it.
The 2nd leg is the following Wednesday at Stamford Bridge. For the uninitiated, in the Champion’s League (winner gets the European Cup), the knock out stages are a home-and-home series in which the two game scores are combined. But away goals break ties. The final is a one game winner-take-all game at a neutral venue. That game goes extra time and PK’s if there is a tie. The knock out rounds (Round of 16, Quarters and Sammis) don’t go extra time unless the aggregate score is tied (and away goals don’t break it) after the second leg. Then you need a winner so sure, you’ll do the extra time and PK’s ritual. And I say ritual because who plays for the win in extra time? Everyone’s knackered and the subs are to align for kicks and no one wants to get hit on the break trying to go forward and win there. Everyone wants to get to that magical flip of the coin that is PK’s. Can you blame them? It seems like it ought to easy on paper, no? And who can forget Jerzey Dudek in Istanbul doing the Grobbelaar wobbly knees act. What a night that was. Buckle up. Here we go. YNWA.








