Barstool’s Capital One Cup Preview – The “Yaaaaaaay (Says Clubs Already Out)!” Edition
Hi haters,
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: League Cup games kinda suck. But some soccer is better than no soccer any day of the week, especially on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when not as socially acceptable as Fridays and Saturdays to rely on alcohol to help pass the time, so let’s take a look at what action is on tap for today and tomorrow.
SHOT IN THE DARK / PICK
As a quick reminder for those of you who didn’t know and/or forgot, the League Cup’s cockamamie structure switches to a home-and-home format in the semi-finals, which has the effect of making things all the more difficult on clubs still in the competition. One of the four still standing – City, Everton, Liverpool and Stoke – is going to raise a trophy at the end of February, while the others will have wasted a ton of energy and missed out on a bunch of rest that could end up causing irreparable damage to their form in the league. This is particularly relevant for City and Liverpool, which are still alive in the Champions and Europa Leagues, respectively, and will thus be facing that many more games over the next couple months.
Pro tip: if only because of that fact alone, the chances of one of the unfavored clubs slipping through at this stage of the competition are probably slightly better than one might think.
The key is going to be in who the managers decide to rest, particularly with this being only the first leg. Given that, I’ll hold off on offering a pick for City vs Everton at the moment and focus instead on today’s game…
Pro tip #2: if only because of that fact alone, and because first legs of home-and-homes are typically played more conservative than you might think/hope, I’d be a little hesitant to bet the house on there being a massive number of goals.
Stoke (+200)
Liverpool (+155)
Draw (+215)
Truth be told, and as nonsensical as it might sound, I’d be more inclined to pick Liverpool to crash out if they were in BETTER form at the moment. As it is Klopp may be feeling some added pressure despite the recent win over mighty Leicester on account of the club’s poor showing in the 3-0 and 2-0 losses to Watford and West Ham. The fact is though that the Reds are essentially playing without a striker up top with Origi and Sturridge (always) hurt and Benteke dropped due to incompetence. Given that, plus the home side’s good run of form, plus the fact they have Geoff Cameron back – say what you will about him in the World Cup but he has played well this season – plus the fact that I allegedly hate Liverpool*… I’m going with Stoke to win 2-1.
Meep meep!
*this is extremely false… I hate all teams aside from Tottenham equally**… except you, Arsenal, I definitely hate you most of all
**waaaaay deep down I probably hate Tottenham the most… who can really tell the difference between love and hate these days anyway?
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So there you have it: a craptastic soccer preview for what could be an okay game but is still being played as part of a craptastic competition. I’ll be back with another craptastic preview of City versus Everton tomorrow. Don’t miss me too hard.
A+
Holler,
Sam U.L. Army