We wanna score at Anfield!

Ever since Kristen and I found out that we'd both be in England (way back on Hundreds Night in 2009) we had been discussing going to an English Premier League match together. Well, life got in the way and before we knew it, Kristen only had a month left in the UK! So instead we had to settle for a pre-season friendly between Liverpool (aka the greatest club ever!) and Valencia (a Spanish team that I don't know anything about except that they're not Real Madrid or Barcelona and David Villa used to play for them).

I took the train up to Liverpool on the day of the match and Kristen and Ryan met me on the train in Stafford for the rest of the journey to Liverpool. When we arrived we walked down to the Docks to drop our stuff off at our hotel and then walked to Liverpool One (a huge new shopping centre down on the River Mersey across from the Albert Dock). We had lunch at Nandos, Ryan bought a new strip at the Liverpool Club store, and we then made our way to the bus to head up to Anfield.

We got a pre-match pint at the pub in view of the stadium and then headed into the stadium about an hour before kickoff to watch the warmups.


An interesting, an unexpected, bonus of the day was seeing Rafa Benitez, former Liverpool and Valencia coach, in the boxes above our head. It was cool to see that, even though he didn't leave the club in the best of terms, the Anfield faithful were very supportive of him and we chanting his "Rafa Rafael, Rafa Rafael, Rafa Rafael, Rafael Benitez" chant as he signed autographs for fans.

Pepe warming up

Jamie warming up

The Kop passing around the massive Liverpool banner

The Kop during You'll Never Walk Alone

The match was great! Liverpool got a goal in each half (one from Andy Carroll and one from Dirk Kuyt) and we got to see almost the entire team play, including new signings Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing, and Charlie Adam. The atmosphere at Anfield was great-- it was a pre-season match so it didn't really matter, but the crowd was in full force, singing, chanting, cheering for everyone. I absolutely love Anfield, have enjoyed all my matches there, and would love to come back one more time before heading back to the states.

After the match we made our way back into town and had dinner at Cafe Sports England, the restaurants owned by Jamie Carragher. After a lovely dinner we walked back towards the docks, stopping for a few drinks, and realized that we happened to pick the weekend that was Liverpool Pride. So yeah, there was quite a festive atmosphere around the city... After a few drinks we made our way back to the hotel for the night.


The next morning we wandered back to the Docks and walked along the Mersey, seeing the docks, the various maritime memorials, the Royal Victoria building, the Liverbuilding, and the rest of the riverside sights. We didn't have much time so we didn't go into any of the museums but we got to get a slight feel for the city before heading back to the train station and back home.

All in all, a great day of football, a great time hanging out with Kristen (for one of the last times while in England) and a lovely city (that I will miss terribly when I leave).