The Kop Comes to Asia 2009 Liverpool Tour: Liverpool 5-0 Singapore

Football: Torres on target as Liverpool crush Singapore

Liverpool arrived at Singapore in the second and last leg of their Asian Tour. With the boost of news that talismanic captain, Steven Gerrard was cleared of his bar brawl, Liverpool turned on the style against a sorry Singapore team.

Prior to the match, Singapore striker, Mohd Noh Alam Shah expressed to reporters that anything could happen against Liverpool. Boy! Was he right...Singapore was no match for a Liverpool motivated by news of their captain's successful courtroom battle.

Seeking to end their Asia tour on a high, Liverpool looked much better tonight than they did against Thailand. Granted, a lot of the younger fringe players played but Liverpool on this tour had looked as if the players were still on summer vacation. Preseason have not sparked life into this Liverpool team yet. No wins going into this match against Singapore testifies to that.

But tonight, Liverpool looked the business and it was literally a five-star winning performance. Particularly pleasing for me was Krisztian Nemeth scoring twice and looking every bit like a potential Liverpool Kop favourite.

Torres and Daniel Bennett in action - Image from Reuters

Dirk Kuyt celebrates with Torres - Image from Reuters

Liverpool now go back to Merseyside and will continue their preseason friendlies with a match against Espanyol scheduled at Barcelona on the 2nd August 2009. After that, Liverpool will play two further friendlies (against FC Lyn and Atletico Madrid) before the opening EPL match against Tottenham Hotspurs on 16th August 2009.

Channel News Asia has the better and more comprehensive report on the Liverpool-Singapore friendly.

SINGAPORE: Liverpool crushed Singapore 5-0 on Sunday for their first win in four pre-season games with Fernando Torres and Andriy Voronin among the scorers.

Albert Riera and promising young Hungarian striker Krisztian Nemeth also found the back of the net in the morale-boosting win.

The Reds needed a victory to ramp up their preparations for the new season where they will start as one of the favourites to clinch their first title in 20 years after a credible second behind Manchester United in the last campaign.

To the disappointment of fans here, Steven Gerrard missed the match after remaining in England following his acquittal over an alleged assault but Torres played 30 minutes in a return from his summer break.

And in a potentially significant move, Real Madrid target Xabi Alonso came on with 13 minutes remaining.

The unsettled 27-year-old didn't play any part in their 1-1 draw with Thailand last week but held talks with Rafael Benitez on Friday to discuss his future and his appearance was an encouraging sign for Liverpool fans.

The Reds arrived here after a sluggish performance against Thailand which followed a 0-0 draw with St Gallen of Switzerland and a 1-0 loss to Rapid Vienna.

Despite this Benitez had insisted their pre-season plans were progressing well but he will be relieved to finally get a victory.

Ryan Babel had an early chance when he rose to meet a cross from Daniel Agger only to direct his header straight at goalkeeper Hassan Sunny.

Agger was in the thick of the action and fired a 30 yard drive just over the bar soon after as Liverpool pressed their advantage.

They had most of the possession but badly missed Gerrard's penetrating runs and were fortunate to take the lead on the stroke of half-time when Voronin unleashed a 20-yard strike that beat the diving Hassan.

They doubled their lead 10 minutes into the second half when Riera chested down a Javier Mascherano cross and tucked the ball into the net from six yards.

Nemeth, one of the most talked about players in the Liverpool reserves, got his first goal for the senior side when he coolly planted his shot beyond the goalkeeper after Dirk Kuyt put him clear.

Singapore were flagging and crowd favourite Alonso was instrumental in the next, starting a move that Torres finished with an easy tap in before Nemeth completed the demolition with seven minutes left.

Liverpool fly back to England later Sunday with a friendly against Espanyol on August 2 their next action, a game that is expected to see the return of Gerrard.

Report from AFP/yt

Also, my buddies at SoccerUpdated have posted some brilliant video highlights of the Singapore leg of Liverpool's Asia tour. Go over to SoccerUpdated for more news.

The Kop Comes to Asia 2009 Liverpool Tour: Liverpool 1-1 Thailand

Liverpool Football Club continues their preseason preparations for the new season with a tour of Asia. The tour billed as "The Kop Comes to Asia" will see Rafa Benitez and his boys play friendly matches against Thailand national team (22nd July) and Singapore national team (26th July).

Nando "El Nino" Torres visting the King's Palace in Bangkok

During a press conference, Malaysia's The Sun has this report,

BANGKOK: Liverpool insist they are not just in Asia to cash in on the lucrative commercial opportunities the region offers, but to give their fanatical fans a chance to see them in the flesh.

The Reds arrived here on Monday, minus Steven Gerrard who is embroiled in a court case back home, to play Thailand today before jetting to Singapore for the second-leg of their Southeast Asian visit.

Clubs in the past, notably Real Madrid, have been criticised for planning worldwide tours purely for the financial reward.

But Liverpool commercial director Ian Ayre insists his team want to leave behind a legacy.

“We have a duty to contribute to these football markets and to our supporters over here,” he said on the club website.

“We have in place a strong legacy programme encompassing many different initiatives and which can be broken down into different areas.

“For example, we have a knowledge transfer programme at which Rafa will meet coaches from Thailand and Singapore, I will be meeting representatives from the local businesses and the medical team will also be having sessions.

“We will be running a kids programme with open training sessions to try and show people what we do and how we do it.

“The important thing is that when our plane lands back in Liverpool there will still be things going on in our name over here which we can continue to support.”

As with Manchester United who are currently in South Korea, Liverpool has a huge fan following in South East Asia and Asia in general. APAC accounts for one-third of the number of internet visits for Liverpool and Manchester United news are extraordinary from Asia.

Fast forward to the friendly match between Thailand national team and Liverpool.

Bangkok's Rajamangala Stadium is packed with 70,000 eager fans thrilled at the chance to see their Liverpool heroes.

Ryan Babel scored Liverpool's first goal of the pre-season as the Reds were held to a 1-1 draw by the Thailand national team. The Dutchman scored with a neat first-half finish and the Reds looked to have held on until Panupong Sutee stunned Rafael Benitez's men with a late equaliser.

The young forward was a threat throughout, almost doubling his tally on 12 minutes, but this time the Thai stopper denied him with a fine save with his feet. Krisztian Nemeth could not produce an end result after he had tricked his way past two defenders.

As with the other two matches, Benitez made wholesale changes to the team, with only Babel returning for the second half. After a period of forgettable football, the hosts stunned Liverpool with a well-taken equaliser from Sutee on 71st minute.

The Thai forward showed a cool head to slot the ball past Peter Gulacsi after he had created the opening with a brilliant one-two. Albert Riera, Pepe Reina, Alvaro Arbeloa and Fernando Torres all came on late in the match. Torres immediately made his presence felt by delivering a through ball to Andriy Voronin who puts the ball wide. Voronin still does not look comfortable in the red of Liverpool.

A disappointing game given the fact that Manchester United's Malaysian stop-over and match were highly entertaining stuff. Let's hope the Singapore friendly will be a whole new ball game.