hyppia fera son 350eme match pour lfc dimanche

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hyppia fera son 350eme match pour lfc contre man utd dimanche.
il nous a coûté £2,5m,il a été transferé en mai 99.

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Sami reaches 350 games for Liverpool

Sami Hyypiä will make his 350th Liverpool appearance if he gets on the pitch at Old Trafford against Manchester United on Sunday.

The Finnish international signed for Liverpool back in May 1999 for the princely sum of £2.5m from Dutch side Willem II. The centre-half has a cameraman and ex-Liverpool secretary Peter Robinson to thank for his move to Anfield. The cameraman covered a lot of football over Europe and was aware that Liverpool were after a strong centre-half. He knocked on the door of Peter Robinson and recommended Hyypiä to him. The message was passed on to Gérard Houllier and after a couple of scouting trips Liverpool had their man.

He made his debut in the opening game of the 1999/2000 season away at Sheffield Wednesday, wearing the number 12 shirt as part of a defence that also included Vegard Heggem, Jamie Carragher and Dominic Matteo. The game not only saw Sami’s debut, but also those of Titi Camara, Dietmar Hamann, Erik Meijer, Vladimír Šmicer and Sander Westerveld. Hamann’s debut was cut short with ankle ligament damage in the first half, while Titi Camara marked his debut with the winning goal six minutes from time.

Sami went on to miss only one game in his first season. That was the second leg of a League Cup tie against Hull City. He scored two goals in his first season, one against Manchester United in a 3-2 home defeat, and the first goal in a 4-1 win against Sheffield Wednesday, also at Anfield.

With club captain Jamie Redknapp struggling with a long-term injury, Sami took over the armband for the 2000/01 season and helped the club to one of their most successful seasons in a number of years as the Worthington Cup, FA Cup and then UEFA Cup found their way back to the Anfield trophy room. When Jamie left for Tottenham Hotspur in April 2002, Sami took over the captaincy on a permanent basis.

For the beginning of 2001/02 season, Sami was given the number 4 shirt after Rigobert Song’s move to West Ham United during the previous season. This was to be his only full season as captain, lifting the FA Charity Shield and UEFA Super Cup as well as helping to guide Liverpool to runners-up spot in the Premiership.

The following season his form dipped and although he kept his place in the team the captaincy was handed to Stephen Gerrard in October 2002. He said at the time:

"Of course I am not happy about it. But I feel relief now that I can get used to the idea that I am not captain anymore. I don't feel myself as a worse player because I don't have the armband anymore. There was nothing dramatic over changing the captaincy. I didn't say anything because it was the manager's decision and I respect that. I believe that captaincy will bring Gerrard to a new level. He's a young and talented English player, who has a great future ahead of him. I am not happy about our start to the season. We have to play better and we will do that. If the change of captaincy helps, then it's a good decision."

Sami formed half of a solid central defence with Stéphane Henchoz over many seasons, but in the final months of Gérard Houllier’s reign he found himself partnered by Jamie Carragher. That partnership continued to flourish under new manager Rafael Benítez leading to Stéphane Henchoz moving to Celtic in January last year. He signed an extension to his original contract in July 2002, and another last summer that keeps him at Anfield until 2008. He will be 35 by then and could well still play a part in Rafael Benítez’s Liverpool after then.

He tired during the middle part of last season and that saw Rafa Benítez bring in Mauricio Pellegrino to give the big Finn a much needed rest and keep him fresh for our victorious Champions League campaign. Pellegrino played in 13 games from January to the end of the season and was obviously only a short term buy. It was a shrewd piece of business by Rafa as playing the Argentinean in domestic games gave Sami that rest and enabled Sami to be a rock in Europe in the latter stages.

Despite the win in Turkey, Rafa targeted a centre-half as one of his priority signings. He emphasised that it was not to replace Sami or Carragher, but to give them a rest every now and then as we faced a possible 60 or more games this season depending on how far we progressed in the cup competitions. A senior centre-half did not arrive in the summer, but two defenders have already been recruited during this month’s transfer window. Jan Kromkamp arrived from Villarreal, a move that saw Josemi go the other way, and Daniel Agger was signed from Brøndby IF. Kromkamp is seen as more of a right-back but Agger is only 21 and is viewed by Benítez as “our centre-half for the next decade”.

Sami has been a rock in our central defence for the last six and a half seasons, and has only missed a total of 24 games since his debut in August 1999. With Liverpool now only a point behind Manchester United and two games in hand, a win at Old Trafford would see us leapfrog over United, and would provide Sami with a great present on the only ground that has seen him get a red card.

In his 349 appearances for Liverpool he has played 235 times in the Premiership, 48 in the Champions League, 25 in the UEFA Cup, 19 in the FA Cup, 16 in the League Cup, as well as 2 Charity Shield appearances, 2 in the UEFA Super Cup and 2 in the Club World Championship.

He has scored 24 times so far with 17 goals coming in the Premiership, 4 in the Champions League, 2 in the UEFA Cup and 1 in the League Cup. He has only been cautioned 14 times and sent off only once. In fact he played for a total of 87 consecutive matches without receiving a card of any description from January 2000 to October 2001.