Not as Stoke(d) as I once was

Ouch, babe.

20 corners
27 shots
11 shots on target
1 offside
0 goals

Unbelievable. At about the hour mark, I was deeply regretting my decision Friday night to respond to Carl's question about who Liverpool was playing Saturday by unleashing what I foolishly deemed the "Stoke fist pump." It's basically a straightforward, left-handed fist pump. The person executing the "Stoke fist pump" embellishes it with a wry smile, as if to say, "Here comes three more points, kiddo."

Wrong.

Christ was it awful. Immediate post-match reaction actually kind of felt, in many ways, worse than if they had lost to United the previous Saturday. Just an awful, awful feeling.

The one offside among those stats above, of course, was the decision that took away Gerrard's second-minute goal from a free kick. I didn't see it. No one else really saw it. But it was called, and it held up.

Double ouch, babe.

Credit to Stoke, I guess, for executing their plan. Don't try to score, kick or head the ball into touch or out for a corner at every opportunity, then just put 10 guys behind the ball and hope for a point. At first, I thought it was comical as a sign of how poor Stoke was that with no one even close to them they were knocking the ball out at every opportunity. It was all part of the plan – and it worked.

Triple ouch, babe.