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.
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