5.8.07  ROTTERDAM TOURNAMENT
Feyenoord 1 Liverpool 1 (www.lfc.tv)


Liverpool have missed out on the Port of Rotterdam trophy after a 1-1 draw with hosts Feyenoord on Sunday night.

A 73rd-minute strike from skipper Steven Gerrard cancelled out Royston Drenthe's opener on the stroke of half time, but it wasn't enough to deny Porto, who win the tournament on goals scored following their 3-0 victory over Shanghai.

The result completes preparations for the long campaign ahead, and while the disappointment of missing out on silverware may spoil the journey back to Merseyside, it's fair to say pre-season 2007 could hardly have differed more from its predecessor.

A year ago Gerrard and co went into the Premiership opener against Sheffield United on the back of three straight friendly defeats, including a disappointing 5-0 reverse to FSV Mainz 05. Just five goals were scored in as many run outs, while 10 were shipped at the other end.

So, while pre-season is never an entirely accurate marker of how things will pan out in the months that follow, there's surely reason to be optimistic ahead of next weekend's curtain raiser at Villa Park.

In eight friendly matches, the Reds have notched up six wins, a draw and a single penalties defeat to Portsmouth. Seventeen goals have been netted - just six conceded.

Against Feyenoord, donning their new black European away strip for the first time, Rafa Benitez's men got the game off to a lively start. Just 21 seconds had passed when Gerrard hit the first of his many shots on goal. Minutes later Dirk Kuyt, still a hero in the De Kuip Stadium following three years and 71 league goals for Feyenoord, hit a smart volley narrowly over.

The Dutchman thought he had scored on the quarter-hour mark after a thunderous drive which hit the crossbar before seemingly bouncing over the line. Unfortunately neither the referee nor his assistant were close enough to see it.

Instead of being a goal up, Liverpool went in at the break one down thanks to a sucker-punch strike from Drenthe on the stroke of half-time, the young striker pouncing after Andwele Slory hit the post.

Harry Kewell was booked immediately after the break for reacting to a foul from Danny Buijs. Jermaine Pennant, Xabi Alonso, Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Alvaro Arbeloa later added their names to the book in what turned out to be a fiery second half.

Alonso forced a fine save from Sherif Ekramy with just under an hour gone, but the travelling Kop had to wait until the 73rd minute to see their team equalise.

Substitute Ryan Babel set Gerrard off on a trademark striding run into the box before the skipper squeezed the ball past Ekramy.

Pepe Reina made three fine saves late on to keep the scores level, most notably a penalty from Buijs after Arbeloa was wrongly adjudged to have handballed inside the box.
 

Teams

Feyenoord: Ekramy, de Cler, Bahia, Vlaar, Lucius, Sahin, De Guzman, Van Bronckhorst (c), Slory, Drenthe, Makaay. Subs - Biseswar, Bruins, Buijs, Buijs, Hofs, Lensky, Mols, Timmer, Wijnaldum

Liverpool: Reina, Riise, Agger, Carragher, Arbeloa, Kewell, Alonso, Gerrard (c), Pennant, Kuyt, Voronin. Subs - Babel, Benayoun, Crouch, Finnan, Hyypia, Martin, Mascherano, Sissoko, Torres


Liverpoolfc.tv Man-of-the-Match: Pepe Reina