Soccer --> Football

I enjoy soccer.  Though my attention to MLS soccer (and my hometown’s Timbers) has increased along with the level of competition, I really only feel true awe and appreciation for the beautiful game every four years, when the World Cup rolls around.  I know, I know, there’s plenty of world-class soccer being played in the interim.  But the only thing keeping me from paying attention to the European leagues was the time difference; waking up at the crack of dawn on a weekend to catch a match required a dedication I didn’t have.  However, as soccer gets more popular in the States, it’s getting easier to follow what’s happening out of the States (springing for a comprehensive cable-television package certainly helps too).  Accordingly, as a soccer, er football fan, I feel it’s high time I choose an EPL team to support.  So after much research, blog-reading, wikipedia-scouring and quiz-taking, I’ve selected a club. 

I focused my search on middling teams, not consistently dominant big-money organizations, not perennial losers too often facing relegation, but teams with which I could grow, suffering through the lows and glowing with the highs.  I considered teams with proud traditions and hallowed grounds, symbolic imagery and mythical home-stadiums.  I compared colors and crests, locales and lore, and past and present squads.  Along the way, my list narrowed.

Many of my friends root for Arsenal and, for reasons unknown to me (maybe I’m a contrarian?), I didn’t want to jump on their bandwagon.  Everton, Newcastle and Fulham appealed to me, mostly due to their rich histories and passionate fanbases.  Still, the same can basically be said for any of the EPL clubs -- they’ve all been around forever and their supporters live and die for them. 

So I compared cultures and crowds, the people that certain clubs attract and the cities they represent.  Everton, the club, led me to Liverpool, the city, and by default, the club.  Everton and Liverpool are crosstown rivals and when the Blues play the Reds, every Liverpudlian takes sides (incidentally, they meet tomorrow on Everton’s home-turf for a match the English call the Merseyside derby).  To say nothing of Liverpool’s history of success (the club has won more European trophies than any other English team though it has never won a single Premier League title), the town also boasts a storied musical history.  Not only did a certain Fab Four get their start there, so did Gerry and the Pacemakers (ferry cross the Mersey, anyone?).  And that fact is what tipped the scales.

I’d always loved Gerry and the Pacemakers’ take on the Rodgers-and-Hammerstein tune “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”  So when playing it one evening around friends, one of whom I soon learned was a Liverpool supporter, I was informed that the song was the anthem for Liverpool FC.  They sing it at every match.  It’s their song.  Like “Sweet Caroline” is associated with the Boston Red Sox, so too is “YNWA” with Liverpool.  And as a music fan, someone who feels and respects the emotional and unifying power of an arrangement of notes paired with a nuanced vocal performance, I was sold. 

It’s an awesome, moving song, easy to draw strength from, easy to rally around.  It’s inspiring and emboldening, leaving a sea of red-clad fans with chins up and chests out.  And, if ever I get to sing it at Anfield with a stadium full of Kopites, it will likely leave me with tears in me eyes.

Liiiiiiiiverpooooool, Liiiiiiverpoooool!

"Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart, and you'll never walk alone.  You'll never walk alone."