I've felt many different things today, but none is anything close to what I now feel for Liverpool's Karius, the guy that is being faulted for their lose to Real Madrid. Of course, Karius's tonight's outing was nothing short of embarrassing to both himself and his esteemed club. The goals poured in so cheaply, safe Bale's bicycle stuff, that Real Madrid rode roughshod over them. My heart is with him right now, as he's all and about Kiev in tears; I saw him walk the length and breadth of his fans' stand apologizing to them for having screwed up so badly. And the looks in his teammates' eyes say they're utterly disappointed at him. Sadly, tonight he walks alone.
It is saddening that everyone quickly forgot that there was gonna be just one winner eventually. It pains me that everyone suddenly forgot that he was fielded as start and finish keeper for Liverpool's most important match of the year; wouldn't he have been up and doing all along? How could he have known that Benzema was gonna mess him up with that ingenious goal? Trust we're all in no doubt as to the invincibility of Bale's bicycle kick. And then the last one; that goal was just there. I insist that to make Karius the 'only' reason why Liverpool lost is unfair. Why the hell couldn't the other 10 guys score more?
Ask me to leave a word for Karius this night and I won't bother saying a word. I'll simply point him to Zidane. The man who gets to fall asleep this night with all assurance that he's made some good history for Real Madrid and UEFA was unceremoniously dismissed from a world cup stage some years back. He chose to act differently; he moved on. Trust me, we owe ourselves the duty of moving on. Many things are not our fault; they just happened because something's gonna happen anyway.
One last word: It wasn't Loris Karius tonight. It was life. And we're all living it - one way or the other.