Liverpool v Crystal Palace
AN ARTICLE BY MIKE
<Today Crystal Palace. A name that evokes pleasant childhood memories of a beautiful crystal adorned palace wherein resides the handsome prince who searches the kingdom for a beautiful princess to make his wife. Fairy tales aside, the reality however is that it no longer exists and CPFC is located close to the railway depot in the mundane borough of Croydon. The southernmost suburb of London and start of the M23 motorway that takes you past Gatwick Airport and on to sunny Brighton on the south coast.
Originally constructed in Hyde Park in 1851 the Crystal Palace was an enormous cast iron and plate glass structure built as an exhibition centre which attracted 14,000 exhibitors from around the world displaying technological and engineering progress of the Industrial Revolution. Opened by Queen Victoria the exhibits ranged from the Koh-i-Noor diamond to the first installation of public flushing toilets which were used by 827,000 people who each paid a penny for the novelty of using them. I’m sure there were other more relevant exhibits to view as well. After the Exhibition the Palace was deconstructed and removed and rebuilt on Sydenham Hill near Croydon where it remained and continued as a cultural exhibition centre until it was razed to the ground in a huge fire in 1936. It is no more. Today the park on which it once sat is a leisure area which boasts a Dinosaur trail and many have searched in vain to spot the Hodgsonsaurus Rex said to be roaming the park.
There is nothing I could find that was interesting about Croydon apart from once being the location for London Airport until 1959 and its excessive violent crime rate. So enough with the history lessons and to the football. Palace have now got themselves a new manager in Paddy Viera who was a beast of a player in his day and is looking to take the club places. Something which is needed after Roy play-it-safe Hodgson who plied his usual footy philosophy of not getting relegated but not progressing either. Kind of like the fulcrum of a see-saw. They have lost their loaner Conor Gallagher from Chelsea which won’t help them this coming season but on the plus side they’re rid of Benteke to DC United for the decent sum of $34m. They’ve made a couple of young signings in Richards (Bayern) and Doucore (Lens) both of whom play for their national teams as Viera tries to build the team he wants and including Ayew, Zaha and Edouard in attack they look a decent side capable of a top ten finish.
As far as this match goes, without their raucous home support, although they will probably make themselves heard at some point in the game, I don’t see anything for them. I think our boys will come out focused and clinical with the imprint of Klopp’s boot on their backsides and that coupled with the Anfield support first game of the season see nothing but a win.
Ali, Trent,Joel,Virg,Robbo,Harvey,Fab,Hendo,Luis,Darwin and Mo.
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