--- title: "The 2000’s Men – Part 1 : Harry Kewell" canonical: "https://readliverpoolfc.com/columns/the-2000s-forgotten-men-part-1-harry-kewell/" type: "post" language: "en-GB" author: "Ste Hoare" section: "Columns" published: "2015-03-14T09:23:22Z" modified: "2015-03-14T09:25:43Z" --- # The 2000’s Men – Part 1 : Harry Kewell The reasoning behind me starting these series of articles is pretty straight forward; I was having a conversation with some mates about some ex Liverpool players, and we just kept bringing up random names. It was then that I had the idea of writing some pieces about some of those players. They won’t be players who were ‘superstar’ players, but they won’t be crap either. This series will focus on decent players who didn’t quite make the leap that seems to be needed to be held in Liverpool folklore. Harry Kewell was an extremely talented footballer; he just suffered from the injury bug at Liverpool. A lot of people will say that his career on Merseyside was a failure, but I’d disagree. I will say that he never lived up to expectations, but if you look objectively, Liverpool signed a player for £5m and he went on to play 139 games, score 16 goals and picked up European and FA Cup winners medals. The overriding memory of Kewell however is him limping out of three cup finals with injury and that seems to annoy a lot of fans. That’s probably a bit harsh, it’s not like the guy purposely got hurt. Having said that; manager Rafa Benitez seemed puzzled by Kewell’s frequent fitness problems. > “*One day Harry is ok and the next he says he is unfit. One day he says it’s his groin, then it’s his ankle. Another day he says he can play*.” Let’s put injuries aside for the time being, and look at how Kewell performed when he was on the field. A regular feature of these articles will be me going through the top five goals for these players, and here’s what I came up with for Harry Kewell: **5. vs Birmingham City – 30th November 2003** Liverpool were level at 1-1 at home, when the ball fell to John Arne Riise on the left hand side. His ball in was met by Kewell, who unleased a bullet header past Ian Bennett in the Birmingham goal. **4. vs Everton – 30th August 2003** This was Kewell’s first Liverpool goal, not a bad place to get it! DA ball was hit long, Everton’s goalkeeper Richard Wright rushed out but Michael Owen beat him to the ball. Owen went for goal from a tight angle, it was headed away but it fell to Kewell who finished first time with his left foot to make it 3-0 to the Reds. **3. vs Levski Sofia – 26th February 2004** Not the most famous of European nights at Anfield, but still a decent win nonetheless. Liverpool were leading the 3rd Round 1st leg tie 1-0 thanks to Steven Gerrard. Just four minutes after the Reds took the lead, the ball came to Kewell on the right hand side. He cut inside on his left foot and curled a beautiful effort into the far corner to double the lead. **2. vs Tottenham – 14th January 2006** This was Harry’s first home goal for over two years, and it was a pretty good one too! Steve Finnan crossed deep into the box and found the Kewell at the back post. The timing of both the cross and the run were superb and Kewell unleashed a beautiful left-footed volley past Paul Robinson from about ten yards out. That was the only goal of the game, and was a result that kept Liverpool in third place in the league. **1. vs Everton –25th March 2006** This was a bit of a mad game! The score was 2-1 and Liverpool were down to ten men after Steven Gerrard, wearing an ‘08’ on his shirt to celebrate Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture status, was sent off in the 18th minute. Everton had been playing with a man advantage for a long period of the game, but they too were down to ten men as Andy van der Meyde had been dismissed. The game was there for Everton to try and sneak a point, but that hope was ended when Kewell cut inside from the right hand side before unleashing a curling and dipping left footed shot that gave goalkeeper Richard Wright no chance. It was a great goal that capped off a great win.