Blaine Tulley

Yes, I should be all wound up about the upcoming Arsenal match. Yes, that should be all I think about. But I'm still buzzing from Saturday's derby. I went from being a shifty mess during the ninety minutes to climbing the walls and swinging from the chandeliers with pure elation once that final whistle blew. […]

7:45am. That's the time to tune in here in Boston if you want to see Liverpool FC take on Everton FC. And though I could feasibly be at work tonight until 3:30am (that's if I get the closing section: worst case scenario—I could be out as early as 11pm, but I'm not getting my hopes […]

Liverpool v. Bolton. Alright. As I'm starting this it's nearly 2am here on the east side of America so I'm going to reel off a few hundred words before bed. Sorry for the brevity compared to my usual output, but kickoff is eight hours away and this writer needs some sleep. But I do want […]

I won't argue that Liverpool FC deserve something more out of the last two matches based on form. Reading were the better team in both cup ties and Stoke were just about on par with the flailing Merseyside giants last weekend. And with Torres, Gerrard and Benayoun still out for today's fixture, one feels like […]

In his chapter on Brazil in The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup, John Lanchester writes: "Most football writing is about that experience, one way or another; in the overall run of writing about football, most of it is about the epiphenomenon of being a fan rather than the phenomenon of the game itself. […]

I'm more nervous about this Arsenal match than any other time I've awaited Liverpool taking on the Gunners. Well: outside of a European quarterfinal, anyway. It's the context of this season that has me all wound up. The injuries. The results. The fall from the Champions League. With Liverpool following their best season in nearly […]

Why do I love a derby? I nervously await each Merseyside derby as if it is the most important match of the season. I bite nails. I refresh webpages. I await injury updates. I lose sleep. This doesn't make sense for two big reasons: 1.) I am not from Liverpool. 2.) The Merseyside derby is […]

Oh, Martin Skrtel. Since Sami Hyypia left, I've been cheering for Srktel to score from a corner or free kick. I've seen some sweet goals from Agger. I've even seen Carragher score (and he's only scored 5 in 594 matches). In the pub, we used to yell for Sami Hyypia to put one back whenever […]

For many, cheating is an ugly blight on the beautiful game. Players who break the rules are regularly vilified and criticized. But cheating, when used effectively, can be a great way to help your team out. It is so much easier to score from the penalty spot than from open play with all those pesky defenders […]

As a child, I could never sleep on Christmas Eve. There was a greedy little materialist in me who sneaked into the living room in the dark to count, shake and feel up all the presents under the tree with my name on them and then stayed up all night trying to imagine what the […]

My co-worker Doug has become Football-Curious. Between me talking about Liverpool every week (lately: moaning about Liverpool most every week) and an article he read about Clive Owen talking about being a Liverpool supporter, he has taken an interest in the Reds. He asks me tons of questions whenever we work together, everything from "What's […]

Liverpool aren't scaring anybody these days. Danny Murphy pointed this out during the Liverpool/Birmingham City half-time show. Unfortunately, he's too right. Against Birmingham, Liverpool spent more time with the ball than an NBA forward playing one-on-one with a ten-year-old kid. The Reds completed something like five times as many passes, and they kept the ball […]

So... to review... for Liverpool to qualify for the Champions League round of sixteen one of the following scenarios needs to occur: 1.) Liverpool beat Debrecen AND Lyon beat Fiorentina AND Liverpool beat Fiorentina. 2.) Liverpool beat Debrecen AND Lyon draw with Fiorentina AND Liverpool beat Fiorentina by at least three goals. 3.) Liverpool beat […]

In my NyQuil haze, I screwed up the math. Through some combination of the time change (which happens earlier in England than in the States) and me sleeping through my usual routine of checking multiple sites to figure out the kickoff, I was an hour off. As I slumped into the pub, sucking on a […]

My normal pre-match bravado wasn't at full strength after the four-game losing streak (Liverpool's worst run since the Spring of 1987) and going into the fixture against Manchester United Sunday I was a sleepless bag of frenetic nerves. We tend to play our best against the strongest opposition (I thought our outing against Chelsea was […]