Blaine Tulley

Sunday morning, 26th of July: On five hours of sleep, I pull myself from my bedroom, cross the hall to the living room and land on the couch. It's a journey of maybe 20 feet, but it feels like Stage 20 of the Tour de France. I am a zombie on NyQuil dragging bags of concrete behind me. Liverpool […]

A fledgling sportswriter's first attempt at covering a big match. I arrived at Gillette Stadium yesterday unsure what to expect. I mean, I knew AC Milan were about to face Inter Milan some four thousand miles from their usual sparring ground. I knew attendance for the event would be staggering compared to the NE Revolution's regular season draw. […]

Steven Gerrard was cleared of affray today when the jury at the Liverpool Crown Court delivered a verdict of not guilty. Gerrard insisted he had been acting in self-defense when he punched Marcus McGee at the Lounge Inn in Southport after an argument over the music in the club's CD player. Gerrard apologized about the incident, […]

It was the Merseyside derby... in Thailand? Watching Liverpool FC and the Thai National Team come out of the tunnel side-by-side was eerie: the hosts wore all-blue kits and Chang Beer is their sponsor. I had to double check the tv menu and make sure I was actually watching this morning's pre-season friendly and not an FSC Premier […]

I am anticipating some serious Craig Bellamy antics in the upcoming season. It's to the point where, if he stays at City, I'll almost be dissapointed if we don't see something on par with The Golf Club Incident (on par... sorry, couldn't resist). I'm not saying I condone personal injury—but serious property damage from a swinging […]

It's the little things. I've been fully enamoured with the concept of the shirt swap since I first saw it in action. Mind you, I'm an American and a latecomer to world football, and we don't have anything like this in American sports. I've never seen a baseball pitcher record the last strike of the last out of a […]

Was I dreaming or did I really see Sir Alex on television this week, complaining about the high prices of players in today's transfer market? This man once helped set the standard for the ÜBER-BIG SPENDING. He would never hesitate to bring in enough top players for nearly two starting XIs worth of winners. He was always willing to go […]

4.) Manchester United 1-4 Liverpool – 14 March 2009 Even after the mind-shattering come-from-behind win on 13 September (see Part 3), I couldn't let myself feel too optimistic about the trip to Old Trafford. (Going into the biggest matches, I try to remain spiritually pragmatic.) 1-1 at O.T. would be a wonderful result. Another 2-1 […]

In Parts 1 & 2 I nominated Manchester City 2-3 Liverpool and Portsmouth 2-3 Liverpool for Classic Match consideration. These nominees come from a supporter's perspective. I invite others to say what they deem a potential classic from their own perspectives in the comment section. I'll cover one more match tomorrow... 3.) Liverpool 2-1 Manchester […]

Yesterday I covered the Perfect Drama Classic. Today, I'll look at the You Were Right I Was Wrong Classic... 2.) Portsmouth v. Liverpool – 7 Feb 2009 I try to be the biggest proponent of Rafa Knows Best whenever I can. Though I am at times puzzled by some of his decisions and have my own staunch opinion […]

In Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby tells us what a match requires to be "really, truly memorable." He wants as many of the following as possible (and I paraphrase): goals, bad refereeing decisions, a noisy Crowd, rain etc, opposition misses a penalty, opposition receives a red card, a disgraceful incident. I'm with him on everything except maybe the […]

In Part 1, I described how the 2006 World Cup drew me into football. With the World Cup finished, I was hungry for more. I turned to the English Premier League to slake my thirst... Part 2: Inhaling the Premier League... When the World Cup ended I went into withdrawel. I bought a Playstation2 and […]

After hearing from fellow Americans who follow the Premier League, I've been pondering the idea of coming to English football as an outsider. Here's how my own love affair from distance got started... Part 1: Inhaling the World Cup... Back in 2006, my inner football junkie came alive when I discovered the World Cup. Something […]

As a Liverpool supporter I have a soft spot for Michael Owen. Now, for the sake of full journalistic disclosure, I must admit I came to the party late. I'm an American who, seduced by the 2006 World Cup, went looking for an English club to support. Through the right mixture of Steven Gerrard, Peter […]

Click here for Part 1 Last season, Gerrard and Torres missed substantial chunks of play. And Liverpool suffered for it. When they were both fit, Liverpool hit some astounding results: v. Real Madrid: 4-0; v. Chelsea 2-0; v. Villa 5-0; and @ United 4-1!!! They even managed strong results against big sides with one or […]