Fun, Fear, Friendlies

There may not be any mid-week Liverpool match to look forward to, but at least there are a handful of international friendlies. To sort of half look forward to, I guess. Because it’s football, and what would you rather be doing? Working? Doing chores? Eating a nice meal with your family? So, yeah. Friendlies. Yay?

Consider this your matchday-like substance slash open thread. Please feel free to curse away in the comments section if anything interesting happens in whatever match you may be watching, and in any case, here’s the lineup of today’s matches from a Liverpool-centric point of view.

As always (or at least until the US government shuts them down as a threat to homeland security), the usual stream sources will have you covered if your local cable or satellite provider doesn’t:

ATDHE
FromSport
MyP2P

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19:15GMT/2:15PM EST Denmark v. England

Just lay back and think of England, love. Because comparing watching the English national side to thoroughly unenjoyable, borderline consensual, performed entirely through a feeling of duty sex just seems right somehow. But hey, Chrisitian Poulsen starts for Denmark, so there’s that to look forward to.

Anyhow, Daniel Agger will also start for the Danes as the two sides face each other in Copenhagen, while for England Glen Johnson is expected but Gerrard will not be involved after pulling out with a “slight knock” that everybody assumes isn’t a slight knock and more a finger stuck up to the English FA after the injury filled soap opera that was the last international break.

The last time these two countries met was an ugly 4-1 defeat for England under the Svenster in 2005, so hey, revenge or something. Or not. Because it’s a meaningless friendly and nobody really cares.

19:30GMT/2:30PM EST Netherlands v. Austria

Elsewhere, Dirk Kuyt’s expected to play in this home friendly for the Dutch, and we all get to cross our fingers that he isn’t our new blonde striker who always gets injured while on international duty. But I probably won’t be watching this. Because yeah.

19:45GMT/2:45PM EST Northern Ireland v. Scotland

I know there’s been occasional interest in the Scottish national side here on the Liverpool Offside, but all I really know is that Danny Wilson will be involved for his second international in a row. Whether he starts or not isn’t clear yet, but his is one of the few cases where I can honestly say I’m left with no mixed feelings about his involvement at the international level. Give it a couple of years and him having earned a starting role at LFC and my feelings on that will have likely changed, but for now it’s unquestionably a good thing.

20:00GMT/3:00PM EST Argentina V. Portugal

One of today’s two marquee matches to get people watching whether they have a horse in the race or not–and to possibly make you forget for a minute or two that these aren’t even international qualifiers, they’re friendlies and as such of less importance in the grand scheme of things than even club pre-season friendlies–only has one Liverpool horse in the race this time, as the on form Raul Meireles will start in Portugal’s midfield while Maxi Rodriguez isn’t in Argentina’s plans as they look to build towards the future.

20:00GMT/3:00PM EST France v. Brazil

Today’s other marquee matchup. Or perhaps the marquee match up. It’s one way or the other, in any case, and in this case Lucas will anchor the midfield for Menezes’ Brazil while thankfully not having to fly half way around the globe to do so.

With Brazil hosting the next world cup, they’ve got nothing but another three years of international friendlies to look forward to once the Copa America wraps up this summer. In the meantime, though, it’s a chance for Lucas to shine again with his national side and it only means a quick hop across the channel.

20:30GMT/3:30PM EST Spain v. Colombia

Remember the days when watching Spain play was mandatory if you followed Liverpool? Well, now you get to watch Pepe Reina sit on the bench. But hey, I suppose it’s always enjoyable to watch Barcelona put on a show, and at least now we won’t have to sit on pins and needles waiting for Torres to blow up a hamstring playing for his country. That’s your problem now, Chelsea. Enjoy it.

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Well, there you go. I’m sure I screwed something up in there somewhere, because frankly I didn’t put a tonne of effort into the whole research side of things. So if you don’t feel like cursing about something that happens in one of today’s matches, I suppose you could always curse at me over that. In any case, enjoy the football. Or fear it. Or go spend some time with friends and loved ones if you’re that sort of person.

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Category: International Duty, Team News