Everything Red
Illustration courtesy of Jennifer Universe
The ball curved through the air, a blue and white blur standing out in front of the empty stadium seats. The players in red break, pulling defenders along with them. As the ball makes its descent, one player stands out, unmatched, his long black sleeves against a rainbow of reds and blues. It happens all in the matter of seconds as the ball finds the head of the Brazilian goalkeeper who directs it past his opponent and into the back of the net to give Liverpool a 2-1 lead over West Bromwich Albion four minutes into added time.
“Would you believe it?” the sultry Arlo White yelled over the broadcast as the Reds clatter into their keeper, tackling him into the ground. “Allison the goalkeeper has saved Liverpool’s season and their hopes of finishing in the top four!” Roberto Firmino and Thiago embraced Allison on his shoulder as Mo Salah rubbed his head. After standing up, with Firmino’s arm around his torso, Allison pointed up to the sky for his father who had passed away 3 months earlier in February. His tears mixed with the rain. The players knew how much it meant to him. The team coming together for a moment full of dramatics.
Liverpool FC had a rough campaign in the first half of 2021, especially by the standards of a wealthy club in England that won the Premier League the year before. They entered the year at the top of the English Premier League on January 1st, nearly halfway through the 38-game campaign, but due to a string of injuries in defense and midfield and a lack of confidence in the attack, Liverpool dropped all the way back to eighth place in the twenty-team table. They found themselves so far back behind league leaders Manchester City that they had no chance of repeating their 2020 season as champions of England, so their hope landed in a quest for finishing in the top 4 of the league and qualifying for the UEFA Champions league.
On that day, I sat on my couch in my New York City apartment, heartbeat racing as if I had just run a 5k but instead was just slipping off the edge of my seat. I gripped a throw pillow into impossible shapes as Trent Alexander-Arnold walked over to take that final corner of the game as Allison jogged up from his own box. When it went in, I threw the pillow across the apartment, screaming into thin air. A goalie scoring a winning goal, the thing that producers of the 1981 film Victory told Sylvester Stallone was too unbelievable to write into the script, really happened.
The late winning goal by Allison, the only goalie to ever score using his head in the Premier League, on May 16th, 2021, was that final push of hope to get them back into European football. By season’s end a week later, Liverpool had placed third in a remarkable display of determination and qualified for the Champions league.
It’s part of the beauty of the sport for players and fans alike. A momentous goal in Liverpool’s history witnessed without a single fan in the stands. A quiet stadium, seats decorated with flags, a closed set for greatness only witnessed by players.
When Liverpool won the Premier League in 2020, three months after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Premier League initially halted games because of the virus, the players lifted the trophy in an empty Anfield, their stadium, or more aptly, their fortress. It wasn’t how the team, or the city had wanted to celebrate the first league title in 30 years. But that didn’t kill the mood of the people of Liverpool. On the night they won, fans in the streets gathered outside the stadium, their mass of bodies silhouetted by the red flares, singing the anthems. Even in the face of infection, nothing could stop them from gathering, climbing on the gates of a closed Anfield, waving flags, and coming together in jubilation.
I watched Liverpool lift the trophy in an empty Anfield from my New York couch, a dark stage inside their stadium, I watched from my couch, a Roberto Firmino jersey wrapped around me. Jordan Henderson shuffled his feet with the trophy in his hands before lifting it to the heavens, fireworks crackling off above the stands. Even alone, away from the parties of Liverpool, I felt like I was still a part of the celebration.
“This club means everything to the people. So, it’s our job to show that it means absolutely everything to us as well,” manager Jurgen Klopp said after lifting that league trophy. As a fan of Liverpool since the early 2000s, seeing them lose for so many years and struggle through the tribulations of English soccer, it truly felt like everything to see the win. They were a chosen family, enjoying the players like Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, and Dirk Kuyt. Then over time, I grew more invested in their history, their play style, their traditions. The weekly boost of joy I get from watching Liverpool is so strong, I feel completely biased that there is no better team to support than Liverpool FC.
I truly mean that when I’m getting myself out of bed at 7:30 AM EST on a Saturday when I should be in bed until at least lunch time for Liverpool. Even the grogginess won’t stop me from taping my eyes open, A Clockwork Orange style, to see Liverpool in action. I love singing along when I hear the fans chant “Si Senor” or “Thiago Alcantara.” And the way they play is so dazzling. Not just the individual skill of a no-look goal from Firmino, the calm defensive wall of Virgil Van Dijk, or a sleek pass from Trent, but also the team play that shows how harmonic the 11 players on the pitch are with each other. When they won the league, I thought nothing could break them.
Nick Hornby, a lifelong Arsenal supporter (I feel bad for anyone who isn’t a Liverpool fan) wrote in his book, Fever Pitch, “I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring with it.” I was unprepared for seeing Liverpool struggle to make it into the top 4 of the league, let alone win it.
Before January 2021, the start of Liverpool’s season collapse, the team had gone unbeaten in 68-straight games in the premier league. Then a 1-0 loss to Burnley ended the incredible run. It was as if without the fans, the team was missing part of its soul. The fans are such a big part of the team that home games are a spectacle. 53,000 seats empty because of 53,000 fans standing in front of them. The roars can be heard blocks away, the sounds of Liverpool’s anthem, “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” the Carousel musical number revamped by Gerry and the Pacemakers. Each player has their own individual song. The fans stay even longer than the final whistle to cheer on the manager’s fist bumps to the crowd after a victory.
The nearly 53,000 who get to sit in the stadium are just a taste of the support for Liverpool. The team is one of the 10-most followed fan bases by social media numbers. Of course, the most fans of the team are in England, the home of the club, but in second comes Egypt, most likely due to Egyptian star Mohammed Salah. The talent, determined physicality, and humility that Mo Salah brings into every game gives a sense of pride for a player from their own country. Even the halal truck that sits outside of my TD Bank in Queens has a picture of Mo Salah with the caption, “The Egyptian King.” Other countries get boosts from hometown heroes like Naby Keita from Guinea or Luis Diaz of Colombia. Botswana gets a boost from sponsorship of companies like Standard Chartered Bank. Even here in New York, the city I have called home for eight years, has multiple Liverpool specific pubs. Carragher’s Pub sits downtown, a haven for fans and transplants to enjoy match days and sing along with the home fans. Fans of the sport have found their family in Liverpool FC.
When I went to see Liverpool play in Baltimore for the first and only time in my life, I was 15. My brothers and I drove down from Pittsburgh to watch a summer exhibition match against Tottenham Hotspur. We avoided eye contact with the crowds of comic con for a fandom of our own, instead of cosplay, fitted in the out-of-date Fernando Torres jersey I got for Christmas years earlier, my first piece of Liverpool memorabilia. While waiting in line for overpriced, soggy French fries, another Red supporter came up to me and said, “You need to update that jersey,” and then kept walking. Torres, nicknamed El Nino, was a club favorite who left just months earlier for rival Chelsea. The random man’s remark was not a dig at me and not necessarily a dig at Torres. It was a masked emotion, the man’s way of saying, “I miss him.” When I yelled back, “I know I need a new one,” I was also saying, “I miss him too.”
The hard times of Liverpool in 2011 when I was seeing them play in a makeshift field where the Ravens play American football had passed when Jurgen Klopp came in and they started winning trophies again. At the start of the pandemic, I had become addicted to them winning, as had other fans I can imagine. Watching Allison score that headed goal was a sign of hope for what’s to come.
This past season, Liverpool returned to winning ways. Halfway through May, Liverpool had won their second domestic cup of the season against Chelsea, claiming the FA Cup in penalties after the game-clinching kick from the spot by Kostas Tsimikas, the Greek Scouser. In February, Liverpool had won the Carabao Cup against Chelsea also in a penalty shootout, their first trophy since lifting the premier league cup in July 2020. With just a few weeks to play Liverpool looked destined for glory, an unprecedented Quadruple. Four trophies, one season. Only Scottish side Celtic have achieved the feat in 1967. Liverpool just had to surpass Manchester City in the Premier League and defeat LA Liga Champions Real Madrid in the Champions League final.
Nearly a year after Allison’s goal, on April 27th, 2022, Liverpool took the pitch in a sold-out Anfield, 53,000 seats filled, not with flags but with fans. Only the away corner was populated with the 3,000 yellow-clad traveling fans of Villareal. The first leg of a doubleheader aggregate matchup was a tightly contested game in the first half, Liverpool controlling possession for the majority of the game but unable to find the net. The closest opportunity came from Thiago, whose shot from outside the box ricocheted off the left post.
It didn’t take long for the Reds to take the lead in the second half off a deflected cross from skipper Jordan Henderson. Two minutes later, Mo Salah threaded a pass to Sadio Mane who poked in the second goal. The fans around the stadium joined in collective cheers, arms pumping in the air, lungs depleting every breath in excitement. At the other end of the field, Allison alone in his half of the field, fell to his knees, gloved hands held high above his head, pointing to the sky, his voice joining the chorus of Anfield supporters. It felt like the team, and the fans, were on the way to European glory.
Unfortunately, by the final week of the season, Liverpool’s hopes for eternity were crushed. A final day Premier League victory looked like a possibility after Manchester City went down 2-0 to Aston Villa, managed by Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard, with help by a goal from former Red Phillipe Coutinho. It felt almost poetic. But the reigning champs proved their resolve, scoring three unanswered goals to clinch the title, besting us by a single point. Six days later, Liverpool couldn’t find the back of the net in the Champions League final, the game decided by the single goal from Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr.
But, the day after the loss in the Champions League final in Paris, instead of downtrodden faces and despair, the players took to the streets of Liverpool to celebrate their season and two domestic cups, surrounded by 500,000 fans. Their bus, filled with plenty of drinks and cheer, complete with Calvin Harris himself, producer of adopted Liverpool anthem “One Kiss,” slowly made its way through a sea of Red, proud fans that didn’t care that the team lost the two biggest trophies in a week. Despite trolling from opposition fans, nothing could stop the passion for the Reds.
The magnitude of what Liverpool achieved last season is nothing short of extraordinary. They played 63 games, the most possible games they could’ve featured in, only losing 4 total, with a goal differential of +99. Compare that with my High School Volleyball team that once won a single set out of 90, is remarkable. They did it all with fans in their home stadium, cheering them on through it all. It feels right, the team playing well and having the support of the fans. It reminds me of what the game means to the fans and what the fans mean to the game.
One of the best indicators of what the sport meant to fans came in April, when Liverpool hosted Manchester United, one of our biggest rivals, in the Premier League. Earlier in the season, Liverpool thrashed the Red Devils 5-0 on their own field, thanks to a hat trick from Mo Salah and goals from Diogo Jota and Naby Keita. Six months later, Liverpool was fighting for the Premier League title and Man U found themselves in the same place we were a season earlier, fighting for a place in the top 4.
A day before the game, one of soccer’s biggest stars, Cristiano Ronaldo announced that he and his partner lost their son in childbirth.
“It is with our deepest sadness we have to announce that our baby boy has passed away,” Ronaldo wrote on his social media. “Only the birth of our baby girl gives us the strength to live this moment with some hope and happiness.”
It was a heartbreaking moment for any parent and the outpouring of support came in from fans, players, and teams all over the globe. Naturally, Ronaldo sat out the game. Liverpool, much the favorite to win, took an early lead in the 5th minute courtesy of brilliant passing and movement from the team. Sadio Mane found space near midfield and was able to pass a through ball to a sprinting Mo Salah who led a first-time connection to Luis Diaz awaiting the pass to square his right foot and blast it past David De Gea. The movement was a beautiful team goal that got us off on the right foot.
Two minutes later, as the clock struck 7:00 minutes, all four corners stood in applause, the Liverpool and Manchester United fans alike, honoring Cristiano Ronaldo, who wears No. 7, and his family for an entire minute. Rows of fans clapped in unison. The Liverpool fans took up singing their anthem.
“Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart, and you’ll never walk alone. You’ll never walk alone.”
Robert English is a writer, essayist, film critic, and sports enthusiast based in New York City.