I love Liverpool, and even assuming they trot out Keane and Barry, sadly I don't see them making the leap.
I fully expect a repeat of last year: strong out of the gate (Sam's excellent rundown aside), stumbles in CL, refocus on CL and stumbles in EPL. They cannot take on both as currently (or assuming-ly) assembled.
ESPN was terrible - downright awful - until the final. They cut from play for too long especially to close ups, frame traveling balls in the corners so you cannot see the action ahead, and those f'ing graphics that cover a third of the screen are absurd - especially when they are ads for future coverage.
I hate soccer on ESPN, but most of the problems above were magically not problems Wednesday.
Maybe it was my email to ESPN after the semis.
I can't stand Tommy - he rarely has a clue what he's talking about, and stands by his own poor commentary too often, but he wasn't nearly as disappointing for the final.