Liverpool FC - Manchester United week....

When I stopped to take an actual look at the stuff, I had written on this blog, I was surprised that I had never written anything football. Football here better known as soccer to Americans. Very surprised since football has been my number one love since early childhood and speaking of childhood, I picked my favorite team very early in life and this team is still the sports team closest to my heart and everyone with just a minimum of knowledge about me will know that this team is Liverpool FC. No other football team has caught my attention like the Reds from Merseyside, not the local team from where I grew up and still live today, even the Danish National team plays second fiddle compared to my life long Liverpool FC love affair.

Again speaking of my childhood, one very fond childhood memory would certainly be the day, when I arrived home from school to find a letter from Liverpool FC with photos of the players with printed autographs and more. I cannot emphasize it enough just how fantastic it was for a 7-8 year old kid to receive such an unexpected gift ( I learned that it was my father, who had written to Liverpool FC), and in this connection it has to be mentioned that this took place in the early/mid eightees, long before football merchandise was accessible outside the U.K. unlike now, where you can buy football shirts just about everywhere.

Unfortunately the above mentioned merchandise dissapeard from our house. I do not know what happened to it, it may very well have been stolen, though I do not blame anyone and I am over having lost it. I still have memory of seeing the letter fresh in my mind and I can guarentee that this will never go away and quite frankly this is much more important than looking at some old papers with signed photographs.

All in all, I have been a Liverpool fan for close to 30 years now. The first 10 years were filled with success while the last 20 years have seen the team being completely dominated by the annyoing rivals playing in red from Manchester. Domination to the degree that Manchester United now have the record for most league championships.

This weekend, Liverpool will take on Manchester United at Anfield. While "warming up" for this huge match, I somehow found a video clip from the match at Old Trafford a few years ago, the match where Liverpool won 4-1. As enjoyable as this game was for me, the clip does not focus on any match action. Instead the clip shows an incredibly dull atmosphere at Old Trafford, an athomosphere which is in stark contrast to the fantastic football served to the fans over the years.

Having seen this almost hilarious clip, I remembered a clip from one of the worst Liverpool seasons ever, 1993/1994, where the team of course also lost the last game of the season, a game which also was the last with the Kop as a standing terrace. Despite the horrific football played both the in this match and the season in general, the atmosphere was breathtakingly good. I know it was a special occasion this particular game against Norwich in 1993/1994 but I must also highlight that the game at Old Trafford was something special since a game against Liverpool is always massive and a victory here could basically secure Manchester United yet anohter league trophy.

Watching these clips brought back memories of a great trip to Barcelona a few years ago, where my brother and I way watched Barcelona play against RCD Mallorca at the famous Camp Nou. I witnessed first hand that the football culture in Spain is certainly different from what I have come to know from watching games in Denmark, England and Germany. 10 minutes before kick off you would not guess that there was a game to be played, since the stadium was almost empty (I guess the only ones present at that time must have been tourists ) and despite FC Barcelona putting on quite a show in their 6-0 victory most fans had already left the stadium before the match ended. Talk about fans, who take such fine performances as the norm.

This way of attending a sporting event must be the complete opposite of what you see in America, where the fans gather hours before kick off in the stadium parking lot, cook their own food and make attenting an NFL game an all day event. More over I find it fantastic that fans of both teams can sit side by side in the stadium without any violence taking place. That is the way it should be. I would love to try the American stadium experince one day.

Anyway, here are the two clips, I talked about.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjnXzdvc1R8

Liverpool - Norwich 1994

OK ,this is what an athomphere inside a stadium should be like. I guess this shows why Anfield and not Old Trafford is known for its match day athomosphere. As mentioned earlier, this clip comes from a special occation with this being the last game in front the classic Kop standing terrace, but if you look at clips from later years, for example the Chelsea CL Semi finals, you will still experince a WILD atmosphere. Wild is not exactly the word, I would use to describe the pre match atmosphere at Old Trafford in the next clip....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqGwoTVqzO0&feature=related&noredirect=1

Manchester United - Liverpool 2009

This is just laughably ridiculous. A few years ago, it made head lines when Manchester United legend and former captain Roy Keane criticised the atmosphere at Old Trafford as being lame, while he saluted the fine support from the Manchester United faithfull at away matches.. After watching this clip, I know exactly, what he was talking about.

I find it particular amusing at 1,08 min. in the clip, where the singer is singing "the fans are going wild" as part of the lyrics from the song, which should help pumping up the home the home crowd, but despite the singer's best efforts and this of course being a Manchester United home game against their bitter rivals, what you hear most clearly are the 3,000 Liverpool supporter singing "You'll never walk alone".....

Finally, my prediction for tomorrow will be a 2-1 Liverpool victory, but that may just be wishful thinking since Manchester United look really strong right now.