Z/Web

Director: Jackie Chan

A Jackie Chan “chop suey” action flick. Set in 19th century Hong Kong, this is the convoluted story of navy and police out to stop some pirates. The navy guys hate the cops, and vice versa, and the first half of the film is mostly them fighting each other. The pirates really don’t get involved until the last third or so of the film. It’s basically a rather confusing plot, but who cares? All you watch a film like this for is some cool action, and this has some neat stuff, including a little of Chan’s patented action humor. Not as good as some of his more recent stuff, but above average.

The action started with a bang when Diego Forlan scored for Independiente off a great cross into the box just six minutes in. Horrors! The mighty Boca behind? How could this be? Well, Boca didn’t just sit still, but they couldn’t score. Then, an odd thing. It must have been hot (remember, it’s summer in Argentina now), because 33 minutes in the ref called a halt to the proceedings so he could get a drink! I’ve never seen that before. The brief break must have helped Palermo, because he soon had a header bounce off the crossbar. Unfortunately, that was to be Boca’s best chance in the first half. Boca missed a point-blank chance in the second half, and just couldn’t seem to score. Then Independiente got a player sent off (second yellow). But the advantage only lasted a few minutes for Boca, because they soon had a player sent off. Apparently that wasn’t enough, so they had another player ejected a couple minutes after that! With only nine players, Boca was really behind, and then Forlan, amazingly, got his second when his shot was not completely stopped by Boca’s keeper Cordoba. With just a minute left in regulation, it was all over: Boca would be handed their first defeat of the season! Good teamwork increased Independiente’s lead in the final seconds when they did a little passing exchange in the box to wrong foot the keeper for an easy tap-in. Final: 3-0 Independiente. Unbelievable!

The game started off competitive, but soon Liverpool dominated. Finally, in the 28th minute a through-ball to Heskey allowed him to go one-on-one with the keeper and he easily scored. The Greek club fought back, but other than the occasional free kick, didn’t threaten the Liverpool goal much. In the second half, Liverpool started off mostly on the defensive, but then fifteen minutes in Nick Barmby headed toward the enemy goal with the ball at his feet. The keeper came out, pushing Barmby toward the corner. Barmby dribbled past the keeper and put in a shot from a ridiculous angle… and somehow the ball curled, hitting the near post, then bouncing to the inside of the far post and in! After that, the game was in little doubt, though the players on both sides fought hard. Final: 2-0 Liverpool (they advance on aggregate).