Winter Snow Storms, United & Barca - 2007

The next opportunity I had to get back to Liverpool came in March of 2007. My mate Steve, who I had met at the 2005 semi final vs Chelsea, sent me an email to tell me that he had spare tickets for two upcoming home games. The first a dream league encounter vs Manchester United on Saturday the 3rd, and the 2nd game, the Champions League Quarter Final 2nd leg vs FC Barcelona on Tuesday the 6th!! How good is that lineup?? "I'm in!!"

One slight snag with this one. Our group at work was hosting a ski trip in Golden, British Columbia, about 3hrs west of Calgary until the Friday before the first match. It was still very much winter in the Canadian Rockies, so I had to skip out of my duties early to get to the airport in time for my flight. I arrived at the Calgary airport ok, but that wasn't the problem, my problem was in my connecting city Toronto. They were experiencing one of their worst storms of the winter. But still, I wasn't panicking, I had plenty of time to make my connecting flight.

Well, time started ticking away and we still hadn't left Calgary. When I finally arrived in Toronto I had to sprint to the gate. I searched and searched but didn't see my flight.....had it left? In fact it hadn't, it was delayed. But not in a good way - it was Friday night in Toronto, which meant that we needed to get a move on if I was going to get to London in time to get my rental car and drive up to Liverpool for the Saturday early kick-off vs United.

Even the unexpected treat of a first class upgrade didn't take away the sting of missing the match against United.

I landed in London about 45 mins before kickoff, which obviously gave me no chance of making it to Liverpool for kickoff. So I jumped on the Heathrow express and headed to Central London to find a pub to watch the match. I ended up watching the game with 5 crazy Polish dudes that seemed more interested in fighting at football matches, then the actual game of football. United ended up winning 1 - 0, so it made me even more miserable.

I have only seen Liverpool play United once before, and that was at Old Trafford on January 22, 2001. That was the day that Danny Murphy scored an amazing free kick to give Liverpool its first away win against United in 10 years!! That was also my first experience of being an away supporter at a bitter rivals stadium. As a visiting supporter you have your own entrance into the stadium, once inside you have your own concessions and booths to make your bets on the game. Oh ya, if you like to bet, you can literally bet on any crazy combo you want for the game. First scorer, last scorer, when its scored etc. and each player has their own line for scoring the first goal of the game. Tip: never put a fiver on Carragher at 500-1 to score the first goal - there is a reason why it pays 500-1....

When you walk into the stands to go to your seat, you notice quickly that your entire section is lined by security staff and that you are being filmed by the police. So no messing around, or you will have some issues...

At the end of the game you are asked to wait for about 30 mins while the rest of the stadium empties out. When you are finally released, you walk out the stadium and you are basically in a parade route that is lined on either side by police officers on foot and horse back. And yes, the horses have their riot gear on....

So, back to that sweet Danny Murphy strike....

Unlike the 2006 trip to the FA Cup Final, at least on this trip I still had the Champions League 2nd Leg Quarter Final against FC Barcelona to look forward to.

Some classic Liverpool fans parade a picture of LFC Manager "the Rafa-Tola" before the match.

Sweet Spanish mullet! A few Barca boys defacing John Lennon.

I don't know if it was a build up of the events of the previous few days, but I found the Barca match super emotional. During the attached rendition of You'll Never Walk Alone (YNWA), I was absolutely bawling. I could barely sing the words as I had streams of tears running down my face. I promise that this will be the last time I post a clip of YNWA in this blog. But my point here is, if a player can't get motivated with this kind of fan support, they are probably in the wrong line of work....

The game ended up being a tightly faught match with Barcelona winning 1 -0. However, due to a magic thing called "the away goal rule", Liverpool advanced to the semi finals as they had beaten Barca 2-1 away in the 1st leg. So over the two games it was 2-2, but Liverpool wins the tie breaker because they had more away goals....

So it was a bizarre night - I cried like a baby at the start of the match; and even though my team lost, we actually won. A very odd concept to grasp, but I was a happy kid on the plane ride home the next day.

Istanbul, Cardiff and the case of the missing tickets...

Following that legendary night at Anfield, Liverpool went on to win arguably the greatest final in European Cup history on May 25th in Istanbul, Turkey. I was offered two tickets for the final from Phil, the English fella that I had bought the semi final ticket from (he must have thought he had a sucker after what I paid him for the Chelsea game....), but sadly I had to turn them down as I had already planned a family vacation in California for that week.

Instead, I took my newly purchased Stevie G jersey with me to California and parked in front of the TV on match day. We were up against Italian giants A.C. Milan, arguably the stingiest defence in Europe at the time, led by the iconic Paolo Maldini.

What a disaster, by half time we were down 3-0, the dream of lifting a 5th European title was over. Or was it?

All it took was 6 minutes in the second half to turn the game into a night to remember. At the 54th minute Liverpool scored their first on a long range header by who else but the inspirational Steven Gerrard.

Two minutes later, substitute Vladimir Smicer fired a long range, low drive into the corner of the net 3 - 2. The Liverpool players and the 20,000 plus traveling supporters started to believe. Four minutes later, at the 60th minute mark, Gerrard was pulled down by Gattusso in the box - penalty! Xabi Alonso missed the penalty, but followed up and scored on the rebound, 3 - 3!! The remaining 36 minutes of regulation time and 30 minutes of extra time changed nothing. The game was settled with penalties when Liverpool's Polish keeper Jerzy Dudek stopped Ukranian striker Andriy Schevchenko's week penalty attempt. Liverpool's 25 year old captain, Gerrard, raised the cup marking the clubs 5th European Cup victory. As a 5 time winner of the competition, the trophy now resides permanently in the museum at Anfield.

One of the items on my "Master Dream List", is to see Liverpool in a cup final. Having missed out on Istanbul, I wasn't going to miss out on the FA Cup Final on May 13, 2006 in Cardiff, Wales. This time around I was able to convince one of my best friends, Corn, to come with me. He had never been to a match before and was up for the adventure.

Well, an adventure it was. I lined up the tickets from a Leyton Orient fan who had been allocated tickets, but had no desire to see either Liverpool or West Ham play in the final. All was well until his tickets didn't show up in the post. The week before the final, there was a major problem when 1,600 tickets were stolen somewhere along the postal system. Citing potential security problems, the FA and the Stadium authorities refused to let anyone in the ground that had tickets for the stolen section - you guessed it, our two tickets were located in that section. I placed an emergency call to Phil the guy that sold me the Chelsea semi final ticket. He didn't have any tickets, but he did contact BBC Sports telling them our tale in hopes of finding us a way into the stadium. We came all the way from Calgary to Cardiff, Wales and we were headed to a pub outside the grounds to watch the match on TV.

If there was ever a cup final that could top the 2005 Istanbul game, it would probably be the 2006 FA Cup Final against West Ham United. Just Like Istanbul it was that man Steven Gerrard that led the way, setting up one goal and scoring two. His second goal was the game tying goal in the 91st minute, and possibly one of the greatest goals ever in a cup final. Tied 3 - 3 after regulation and 30 minutes of added time, the game was decided on penalties with Liverpool winning 3 - 1. As excited as I was, I wasn't where I wanted to be. I wanted to be inside Millennium Stadium with the other 71, 000 people....

The Passion Grows....

Anfield - Home to Liverpool F.C.

After playing in that first game I was hooked. I didn't want to play any other sport. Like they say in poker, I was all in.

Although I had not played much football growing up, I was always interested in the game and had a fondness for Liverpool Football Club. I was lucky enough to witness my first live game at Anfield (Liverpool's home ground) during the 1990 - 1991 season. I was in the very passionate standing room only section at the end of the ground nicknamed "The Kop", so named due to its steep nature, resembling a hill near Ladysmith, South Africa that was the scene of the Battle of Spion Kop in the Second Boer War.

In 1994 many stadiums in England were switched to all-seaters following the Taylor Report on the Hillsborough Disaster, the horrific incident which saw 96 Liverpool fans crushed to death in the old caged-in, pen style standing room only section of Hillsborough Stadium. Having watched my first ever game in the old standing room only Kop, I can tell you that it was exhilarating, but I must admit, I feel much safer when I am in the Kop today....

I have been very fortunate to have had the ability to fly over to England from Canada to see LFC play on several occasions over the years. Seeing the games in person has just fueled the fire more. The passion that the supporters have for the club is astonishing. I struggle to express to people what it feels like to be a Kopite at one of these big matches. It's just something you have to witness for yourself to "get it".

One of my highlight games was the 2005 Champions League Semi Final, 2nd leg match vs Chelsea at Anfield. The build up to this game was as good as it gets. Chelsea was managed by one of the most outrageously arrogant men in world football, Jose Mourinho. He was the guy that everybody loved to hate. His press conferences were priceless. One of his famous quotes is him referring to himself as "The Special One".

Liverpool was one win away from a return to a European final. The Reds Captain and local boy Steven Gerard, was quoted just days before the match as saying, "Anfield is the best place for big European nights by a mile. It is an incredible atmosphere, and we need that - we know exactly what role the fans can play, and we know how the team must play." "It could be awesome. It is going to be a great spectacle for everyone, I just hope come the final whistle we will be celebrating."

With that kind of build up, I HAD to go to that game. I tried desperately to find someone to go to the game with me, but to no avail. The game was on Tuesday May 3rd in Liverpool. On Sunday May 1st I woke up at my home in Calgary, Alberta and I was in a foul mood. My wife Stacey asked me what was wrong. I told her that I was gutted that I couldn't find anyone to go to the game with me. Annoyed at my mood, she told me "You're the one that is passionate about the team, if you want to go to the game, go to the game!". That was all that I needed to hear. I ran downstairs got online and searched for a game ticket, an airline ticket, a rental car and a hotel. By 10:00 that night I was on a plane headed for England. The game was everything that the build up promised and more. Liverpool ended up winning on what is now referred to as the "phantom goal" scored or not scored by Luis Garcia.

Sitting in traffic after the match, I listened to former Liverpool legends (who have lived it all in Liverpool's glory days in the 70's and 80's), rave about how that was the greatest atmosphere that they have ever witnessed at Anfield... The next morning, Wednesday May 4th, I was on the plane heading back home for dinner.

It was one of the greatest nights of my life, and to this day, I get goose bumps and teary eyes every time I share the story.

Here are the last few seconds just before the full time whistle. The crowd is singing the clubs world famous anthem - You'll Never Walk Alone.

Finding Football

As a little boy I played a variety of sports, I loved them all, but never really focused on one. Soccer, or footy as it will sometimes be referred to in this blog, is a sport that I played for one season as a 12 year old. I really liked it, but growing up in western Canada in the late 70's early 80's it really wasn't a very popular sport. So I started the search for something else...

Like many boys, I was interested in what my dad was interested in, and at that time it was baseball and the Montreal Expos. So I traded my footy jersey and cleats for a baseball jersey and glove. I ended up playing competitive baseball until I was 21, then I packed it in (I must be stubborn, because it took me eight years to realize that I was a horrible hitter).

So there I was, for the first time in my athletic life without a sport to call mine. I stumbled around for a few years playing slow pitch (barf), fast pitch (meh), cycling and ball hockey. I loved the ball hockey, can't remember why I stopped, but it was super fun.

I think I was 27 and was well into my career when I had a desire to play footy. When I found out that my best friend at work played on a team, I constantly bugged him to let come out and play. "Have you ever played before?" he asked. "Well, for one summer when I was 12, but I was really good and scored 5 goals. Can I come to practice?" For whatever reason, he finally gave in and invited me. The first few practices were tough, way more running then I was doing on my couch...

The big day came and it was time for me to play in my first competitive footy game. Here I was, a 27 year old rookie that really had no soccer skills at all. I was pretty fast, but was a disaster with the ball, so they put me where I would inflict the least damage to our side - they made me a striker. Well this is meant to be an inspirational blog, so I am pleased to announce that I scored for my new team the Wolves in my first competitive footy game. That game changed me forever....