ome great times and not so great times especially in the lastfew years. Yes! We won three trophies in one particular seasonand that was great but even then there was still somethingmissing. With the history of this great football club LiverpoolFC has the best record when it comes to winning the EnglishLeague. They have won the European Cup more times than any otherBritish Football team and on this day May 25th 2005 they foundthemselves with another golden opportunity of clinching thiswonderful Cup with the big ears, now called the Champions Leaguetrophy. So there I was anticipating this match which had theelements of being a classic football spectacular. In one corneryou had the mighty team from Italy, AC MILAN. With a starstudied team of great soccer professionals from Paolo Maldini,Andriy Shevchenko and the talented new Brazilian play makerKaka. In the other corner ...

...you had my team Liverpool, who somehowwith an awful Premiership league campaign behind them where theycould only finish fifth behind their city rivals Everton andmiss out on an Automatic Champions League place for thefollowing season but Inspired by two scousers, club captainSteven Gerrard and the irrepressible Jamie Carragher through outthe season, found themselves in the most lucrative footballmatch in world football. It was a dream not only for the playersbut for all the Liverpool fans all around the world to see thisgreat football club back where it belonged, at the top of theladder in world football. So on this night two great teamssteeped in history battled for a place in history. Going back tomy day I rang a very good friend of mine and asked her if shewanted to watch the game with me at a local bar...she said, yes!It was to be her first time watching a game like this and shewas very excited by it all because everyone was talking aboutit…so we met up the and walked down to the bar. As we entered wecould see that the place was streaming with Liverpool fans butyou did have the odd Milan fan or two hiding and keeping a lowprofile in the corner of the bar. So we found a nice spot to geta good view of the game and ordered some beers. You could feelthe Anticipation of it all by the look of the Liverpool fans inthe bar, some where very cheerful! Others looked just happy tobe there. I was calm from the outside but on the inside I was amess. The big screens on the walls which seemed bigger than theyactually were had everyone’s attention, even some of the barstaff would have a little peak at the screens, the place wasbuzzing. My friend took out her cigarettes and lit up one, shewas lucky to have that comfort, all I wanted at that moment wasmy beer to arrive and the game to start. Then as we watched thePlayers came out, there was a loud cheer from the bar crowd andone set of lads starting to sing ‘You’ll never walk alone’. Istarted to feel a little better and starting to sing along withthem but only in my head. Then the game started and all I wasthinking was that we must try to put as much pressure on theMilan players from the get go. Then we gave away an earlyfree-kick but at that moment our beers arrived and the girl whobrought it to us took my attention for a second or two and inthat moment Milan had scored a goal…There was a hush of silencenow from the bar and as I looked around I could see people intotal shock at what had just happened. Me I was thinking thatstupid left back of ours Djimi Traore is an awful player and notfit to wear the Liverpool shirt. My friend tried to give me somemoral support by smiling and saying, don’t worry I still thinkLiverpool will win…I just looked sternly towards the screen withdistain. The game was all Milan’s; they were winning all thetackles, getting free-kicks in dangerous places. The Liverpoolplayers look tired, unsure and beaten almost, it was not apretty sight; they were chasing shadows it seemed. I just keptlooking around the bar trying to ignore just what was happeningand then it got worst. What looked like a penalty to Liverpoolwas denied and within seconds Milan broke away and scored. Thenjust before the half time break Milan broke away once more andscored a third, by now everyone in the bar was silent andstunned but the odd Milan fans I mentioned earlier were singingaway happily in the corner. I was gutted! I look at my friendand said, lets go… She looked at me and said, Ok! And as wewalked out I looked back and glanced at my fellow supporters andhoped that Liverpool would not be embarrassed and come out inthe second half and show some heart. As we walked home to myhouse I told my friend that I would cook for her and that wecould watch the rest of the game at my place. We arrived at myhome just as the second half was about to start, I turned on theTV and then took out a bottle of red wine, opened it and pouredtwo large glasses and gave one to my friend. She sat down andsuddenly said, you know what Mark, ‘It’s never over until thefat lady sings’. I think Liverpool can still make a come backand win she added. I just looked at her again thinking this girlknows nothing about football because if she did she would knowthat Milan would never give away three goals to a team that theyhave just outplayed for 45 minutes and with their defensivenature it would be totally impossible for Liverpool to make acomeback. So I smiled at her and told her to drink her winewhile I prepared the dinner. As I was cutting vegetables in mykitchen, I could hear her shouting at the TV, which was strangebecause she did not do this in the Bar. So I took a little peakfor myself and noticed that Liverpool had made some changes, TheGerman midfielder Dietmar Hamann was now on the pitch and thisgave me some hope that Liverpool could keep the score decent atleast. But what it also did as well was make Steven Gerrard freeto roam and move forward. Then there was another scream from myliving room, my friend was jumping around I came in quietly andLiverpool had scored. It was Steven Gerrard, the change intactic had worked, Liverpool seemed more up for this game nowand the players looked different somehow but Milan remainedconfident then two minutes later the game turned on its head,the ball was played to Vladimir Smicer and he drilled the ballhome from 20 yards and Liverpool where back in the game, I camerunning into the room screaming with joy at what had justhappen. The air was electric once more, I could not leave theliving room and all of a sudden the game changed again. TheMilan players looked shell shocked because within a few minutesLiverpool was on level terms. Gerrard dashed into the Milan’spenalty box and was fouled. It was a certain penalty, at thispoint I was on my knees yelling at the ceiling. I am sure myneighbours could hear everything. Even my friend was jumping forjoy shouting, I told you, I told you!!! She was right! Sheproved one thing to me and that was all the Soccer Pundits and Iknew nothing about Football! Could they do it, could theyactually win this match? No team had ever come back from threegoals down to win a Champions League Final. I had to stopcooking at that point and told her that dinner will just have towait and so we drank more wine and watched the rest of the matchwith our hearts in our mouths. It seemed that both of us hadturns in screaming at the TV and this would continue right upuntil that now famous Jerzy Dudek ‘Hand of God’ save whichdenied Shevchenko the winner for Milan in the dying seconds ofextra time. We were both quiet and I had my head in my hands atthat moment…The referee blew for full time and the game wasover. At that point I had to get up and walk around the house,nervous like hell! I walked back into the living room, listeningto the commentator remarking about how Liverpool had won on apenalty shoot out against Roma in 1984 and our goalkeeper at thetime Bruce Grobballar saved two penalties by putting off theRoma players as much as he could and now it had almost seemedlike deja vous. Who would be the villain and who would be thehero, it was now a lottery! I needed more wine so I opened upanother bottle, my friend could not drink no more she was justadamant that Liverpool would win. She remarked, look at theMilan Players they don’t look happy! I had a look and noticedthe same thing!They seem beaten before the first spot kick. Shewas right, our goalkeeper did everything he could to put offMilan’s first spot kick taker Serginho and it worked! He missed,blazing the ball high over the bar. It was our turn next and Iwas not worried because it was our Germany International DietmarHamann and as predicted he scored. I was calm but still nervous,it was their turn once more, surely they would score but onceagain Jerzy Dudek’s antics on the goal line did the job and hesaved very easily. We would be now 2-0 up if FrenchInternational Striker Djibril Cisse would score and aftersuffering a broken Leg and missing most of the season he showshis class and calmly placed the ball to the right of Milan’sGoalkeeper Dida’s goal giving him no chance. It was in our handsnow, just two more spots kicks and we would be Champions ofEurope. Kaka would score from his spot kick...then our heartswere in our mouths when our left mid-fielder John Arne Riisemissed his spot kick, it was now 2-1 but still in our favour andbefore we knew it, Danish international Jon Dahl Tomasson madeit 2-2. So up stepped the Czech Striker Vladimir Smicer, playingprobably his last game for Liverpool FC and his best game everin my mind for the team, he calmly slotted the ball past thegoalkeeper to make it 3-2 to us…My friend and I was so tense,the room was silent apart from the TV. Then Milan’s leading goalscorer stepped up to the plate, Andriy Shevchenko, the man whowas denied the winner before the end of extra time. As heapproached Dudek threw him the ball, he look anxious and nervousand did not look confident. Somehow I knew he would miss and hedid…For a split second my heart had stopped and I sanked to myknees and just started to scream with ecstasy, my dream had cometrue, the Players dreams were for filled! My football team hadwon. Life could not be any better…I was emotionally drained byit all and was sure all the people in the stadium, the viewersand all the millions of people around the world were too. Myfriend and I were just hugging each other and kissing. I keptsaying, that its time to get drunk and forgetting that I wassuppose to be cooking dinner for the both of us! So we continuedto watch the rest of the coverage on the box and as StevenGerrard lifted the trophy and the commentator shouted out‘Liverpool Are Kings of Europe’ a tear came to my eyes. In thatmoment I was in wonderland just like those players. As far as Iwas concerned they were Legends now no matter what they did forthe rest of their lives, from this moment on they would alwaysremember and treasure. I started to also think about all thosewho had lost their lives going to see Liverpool play, all thedisasters that had occurred during football matches. My heartwent out to them…its moments like this that makes it possible tosee just why football is so important to the man and woman onthe street. We relate to it in so many ways. We support ourteams because we choose to and win, lose or draw all theemotions that this sport and all the other sports may muster areworth it for moments like these. So when it was all over and asI tried to figure out what had just happened, one thing dawnedon me and that was it’s the Simple things in Life that I cherishthe most and watching my team play is one of them.2005-06-04...