liverpool

  • Sunday, June 21, 2020

Las Vegas - Kick it off in England with the Merseyside Derby at Goodison Park. Why the Merseyside Derby? The River Mersey goes right through Liverpool, and both teams play in Paul McCartney's city. They are separated by Stanley Park, and it's less than a mile from Goodison to Liverpool's Anfield Stadium. You could walk it in twenty minutes or drive in four minutes. This is a FIERCE rivalry, kinda like the Yankees and Red Sox, with Liverpool being the Yankees, and Everton the Red Sox. Liverpool has 18 league titles, still trailing the Yankees 27, while the Toffees have sniffed just nine crowns, just like the team based in Boston, but have not finished on top since 1987.

And Toffees? Yea, Everton has had many nicknames, including The Black Watch, The Blues, The School of Science, The Dogs of War and The People's Club. My fave is the Toffees, because, well, just because.

Each team has some pretty cool A-list supporters. The Reds can claim Brad Pitt, Daniel Craig, Clive Owen and Samuel L. Jackson among their most loyal fans.

The Toffees counter with royalty like Sir Paul McCartney, Dame Judy Dench, tennis royalty with John McEnroe, and acting royalty with Matt Damon and Sylvester Stallone. We've heard a rumor that the Beebs, Justin Bieber, has also been part of the Toffee family. Edge to Everton.

Fenway Sports Group owns Liverpool, which is enough of a reason to root for Everton. But as you might guess, I have an Everton jersey, it's gorgeous, Google the logo, and that's another reason to root for the Toffees.

However, numbers don't lie, and ALL the numbers favor the Reds. In one of the most RIDONKULOUS seasons we've ever seen, Liverpool has a SICK 27-1-1 record. Good for 82 points, 22 clear of second place Manchester City. They've scored 66 goals and allowed just 21 for a mind-boggling +45 goal differential. Then we looked at Everton and the numbers are pretty ugly. The Toffees are sitting in 12th place with 10 wins, 12 losses and 7 draws for a total of 37 points. They've scored 37 goals and allowed 46 for a subpar -9 goal differential.

Everton have not beaten their Merseyside rivals for nearly a decade (a run of 18 league games and 21 across all competitions) with the most recent league meeting seeing the Toffees on the wrong end of a 5-2 score at Anfield back in December.

As much as I wanna taste a little Toffee at +$460 bones, it's not possible. My wallet would SCREAM, and call me an IDIOT! So, gimme a full Benjamin on the Reds, and also gonna tickle Real Madrid over Real Sociedad in the battle of the Reals.

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