Liverpool 2 Southampton 1
Liverpool win the second game of the Premier League season despite the long week with the incredible victory in the double-overtime in Istanbul earlier in the week. What a relief. And Man City dropped points to Tottenham, a tie. Glorious stuff. Here are the highlights.
Part I – My Evolution into becoming a Liverpool Fan
For all the Americans in the audience, the thing we call football should be called Tackleball. Could we maybe get a campaign to make this change to avoid all the confusion. The thing we call soccer is football everywhere else. There is a reason for this although it has nothing to do with the kicking of the ball with a foot.
In medieval times, there was all this jousting and polo and such. Only nobles could play those games because common folk could not afford the horse and gear to participate. Football, played by common folk, describes any game not played on a horse. And growing up, while there were horses around, we weren’t allowed to play with them.
I discovered the game at around seven or eight because of a boy that lived a couple of doors down. We were the same age, both book smart and adventurous. His parents had been missionaries in Brazil. He loved Pele more than anything in the world.
I learned about the Ginga style of play because of him. This was his passion. Mine was music and art and writing. At the time, I loved the Beatles. They were from Liverpool. That was the seed that ultimately made me the Liverpool supporter I am today.
As it turns out, over the years, Liverpool has been home for many Brazilian players. The current ones are just world-class, one and all.
Alisson, our golden-glove but currently injured, goalkeeper.
Fabinho, a force to be reckoned with in the midfield and getting better every time he plays.
Roberto Firmino, part of the Liverpool terrifying front three who is a playmaker like none other, selfless and with such amazing stamina.
It’s been 30 damn years since Liverpool FC won the league. This translates “Liverpool has never won the Premier League”. It’s time. Winning in Europe for 6th time was nice and all. Ok, it was amazing, a great way to end the 2018-2019 season. Losing the Premier League by 1 point to Man City, dream-crushing, clinical as Hell robots, sucked a lot. It hurt.
I did a tarot drawing for 2019 on New Year’s Eve in 2018 as a way to concentrate on the upcoming year. In review, January we saw the Magician – a sign of new beginnings.
I have two weaknesses. Gummy bears and Liverpool FC. The worst the gummy bears do is expand my aging waist. I can live with that and I can keep writing. In fact, the sugary goodness of the little bears can push me through hard endeavors like a query or a synopsis. Oh how I despise writing a synopsis.
Liverpool FC, however, can distract me to the point that my book languishes in the background. How I wish they had a proper women’s team when I was coming along. I would have left school to play for them. How I envy these young women.
Liverpool is playing Chelsea today. The writer explains. She’s been a fan since 1986, back when she was in school in the UK. There have been lots of underwhelming years in the interim. Many groans which Frankie understands nothing about. Early mornings in tears, but since this Jurgen Klopp fellow has shown up, Liverpool is starting to look like the team it was when the writer first became aware of them. At a Chelsea vs Liverpool match back in her university days after a raucous breakup with a Man U fan. So she cheered for Liverpool to annoy her ex, but as she watched them play, well, it was magic. It fueled the love of a game few played back in the states, one she played better than most of the boys back home. The writer played into her university years, and later coached in the US, sharing her love of the game with a new generation, all the way until her daughter was eleven years old. Her daughter feels much like the pug. This game too much distracts the writer.
Ok, a pug can do nothing about the nervous writer. Peace will resume only after the appropriate match has been played. Frankie is going to take a nap. Then she will remind the writer, there’s a deadline. A contest to enter. A novel to finish. Whether Liverpool wins or not. Frankie hopes her diet is not displaced by a Liverpool loss. Now the writer glares at the pug. This is a hopeless situation. You’d think the writer was in love. Like in the real world in love with an enter football team. It’s pathetic.