You'll Never Walk Alone

My love affair with Liverpool FC began on a fateful night sometime in 1985. My father woke me up in the middle of the night to watch the Champions Cup Final in Heysel Stadium, Belgium. A bit of information for all of you non-football fans, Champions Cup is the holy grail of European Football. It is pursued by the elite clubs of every nation in Europe. Anyway, that night Liverpool was up against the Italian giant, Juventus. I don't remember much about the match, but i remember a Juventus player executed a perfect penalty kick that turned to be the only goal of the match. Liverpool lost, but somehow my fascination for the club grew.

In the following years i tried to gather every scrap of information, mainly from second-hand newspapers as my family never subscribed any and back then TV live matches were somewhat of a rarity, i could get about the Merseyside Club. I learnt that that night 38 Italian fans and one Belgian died in a post match clash and Liverpool was banned from entering continental competition for several years.

I missed the days of Ian Rush, Peter Beardsley and John Barnes and the glory days when they won the English Premiere League. However, i was with them when Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, Jamie Redknapp, Patrick Berger and the industrious Gary McAllister brought the club to near-glories. The days when SCTV and TV7 provides live matches on weekly basis and www.soccernet.com bring the latest news.

What i like about Liverpool is that they are more 'human' than any other clubs I know. Manchester United, Arsenal, Bayern Muenchen, Ac Milan, Juventus and Real Madrid are superclubs in that they can afford to have the most talented players in the world and they rarely lost. I mean if you watch them play, you know that they will eventually win the game so it's just a question of how the goals happen. But with a club as inconsistent as Liverpool, you never know. They lost 0-1 to Division II Burnley, yet they won againts the undefeatable champion Arsenal 2-1 at Anfield. For me, every Liverpool match is a potential thriller. I would stay awake reviewing the should haves, the would haves and the if onlys long after they lost a match, or reminsicing every glorious moments when they won.

I'll never forget the classic 2001 UEFA Cup Final match between Liverpool and Deportivo Alaves, deemed by most people as they greatest final match ever. Liverpool was the favorite to win the cup compared to the Spanish minnow and it seemed that the judgement was justified when they took a 2 goal lead with only 20 minute on the clock. The Spaniards however reminded them that the match was not yet over when they scored a goal just before half-time. Yet, the odd was back in Liverpool's favor when they widened the gap by scoring another goal. 3-1 to Liverpool. Alaves grabbed a lifeline 30 minutes from time following a mistake in Liverpool defence. Liverpool yet again extend their lead 15 minutes from the end of normal time. 4-2. However, the minnows turned mighty as they clawed back into match and scored two goals in 5 minutes to deny a normal time finish. The drama continued to extra time. The two finalists attacked each other with gusto, then 3 minutes from the end of extra time it happened. Following Gary McAllister's freekick an Alaves defender deflected the ball into his own net. Liverpool won under the golden goal rule. I can still remember the commentator on TV said "Not like this!" It is indeed a great pity that a valiant club such as Alaves lost because of an own goal.

The year of 2001 is a the closest Liverpool get to glory for 90s Liverpool fans such as myself. That year in addition to the UEFA Cup, they won the FA Cup, and finished 2nd in the premier league that enabled the to qualify for Champions' League. However, everything seemed to be going downhill from there. I watched their lacklustre performance as they were clobbered by Arsenal, MU, Southampton, Middlesborough. I watched them thrown out of competitions in early stages having beaten by lesser clubs like Watford or Swiss' FC Basel. One of my darkest day is when i found out that Michael Owen was tranferred to Real Madrid.

Liverpool today is a struggling club even to finish in the top 4. And this months they just suffered 3 losses in a row for the first time in 6 years. However my heart is with them. To me Liverpool is more than a football club. It reminds me how life actually works. That no matter you get trundled, trampled upon and clobbered, life goes on and eventually you will realize that glory is just around the corner.