FOOTBALL can really suck sometimes. The season is poised delicately, Fergie is fuming and Benitez is beaming, a rivalry is taut, tense, eletcric, yet the title will be decided without Manchester United and Liverpool playing each other again.

They cannot directly alter each other's destiny. They can only watch each other. Damn, rivalries are not supposed to be like this.

Rivals are supposed to confront each other on a pitch, not pray for each other's downfall long distance as these teams will be doing. It's about a collision of athletes, each trying to overwhelm the other at close quarters right to the end.

Basketball has its play-offs, the top teams exchanging sweat over seven games, forging tactics and psychologically dissecting each other.

Individual sport does it best, athletes eyeball to eyeball over a net, nothing and no one to lean on but their own courage. It's Lin Dan against Lee Chong Wei, Nadal versus Murray, on different courts, countries, time zones, month after month.

But football will argue that their way is special. Liverpool collides with United only twice a year in the EPL and by not overplaying a rivalry it in fact makes it tastier.

As contests go it is never stale, never old, and time between matches adds an edge to the encounters, giving it a sort of sharp and heightened tension. It is always worth waiting for. Indeed, this last encounter abruptly altered an entire season.

Now these teams can only look at each other but not touch. They cannot tackle each other physically, but they can wound psychologically and posture triumphantly.

Liverpool will feel morally superior after two defeats over United. United will feel it is the nobler team for they are chasing an unprecedented history with the quintuple.

The former are 13-1 in their last three matches (Real Madrid included) and will feel "momentum" is their friend, but only till their next loss.

The latter will take solace in the fact that only that fellow called Houdini did better under pressure than them, but still their dressing room will be nervous.

Every weekend henceforth will be a trial, a party, a wake. A United fellow I know said that his team's recent losses were good for football because it made for a more competitive end to the season.

I tried not to giggle. Meanwhile, some Liverpool fellows were last seen trying to look humble but failing miserably. Sometimes watching fans is more fun than the game itself.

In the next few weeks, a soap opera will unfold, and those not affiliated with Liverpool and United are promised terrific entertainment.

The sanity of two managers will be questioned, former loyalists from both sides will kick up a fuss, fixtures will be complained about, referees excoriated, and every quote about each other will be examined a hundred times for a hidden insult.

All along, the Third Musketeer will be smiling. Arsenal plays both teams in these last days and could end up deciding it all. Hell, this could be fun.

It will be tough for United for they held a strong lead and to lose it all will be an astonishing choke. It will be difficult for Liverpool because they have no control over their destiny, they must wait for United to slip if they are to win it all.

It is just too much tension. Why don't they just forget the waiting and play each other thrice, home, away and at Wembley, and settle it once and for all.