Liverpool Live : Club World Cup 2019
It was the mid summer of 1998 when it happened the first time. We were visiting my aunts place in Bengaluru from our current station of Delhi for summer vacations. I was about 8, had woken up in the middle of the night (12PM if I recollect, which was way into the night for the 8 year old me) to answer the nature’s call.
There I saw in the pitch darkness of the night, the glow of tubelight Television emanating from the living room below. There I saw my two elder cousins watching TV which was almost muted. It piqued my curiosity and that curiosity hasn’t ended to date.
That curiosity was that of football (soccer for the americans amongst you), and the main character grabbing my attention was none other than Michael Owen, and it was the match between England and Argentina at World cup 1998 which was to be baptism into the endless world of football fandom.
This made me follow Michael Owen from then on. In the 90s and 00s of India mostly spent in tier 2 cities ,without cable TV at home, it was hard work. A combination of scouring all the newspapers, the sportsstar and other magazines, and sneaking into classmates’s homes with cable TV helped me keep in touch with football.
There was a perenial question I remember from those times, every adult who got to know I like football used to ask “Beckham or Ronaldo”. Answer was always Ronaldo, Ronaldo Nazario the original one.
Then 2001 happened, I happened to watch the FA cup between Arsenal and Liverpool, and my love of Michael Owen soon got converted to Love of Liverpool. Istanbul 2005 just cemented that. Steven Gerrard post that took over my favorite Liverpool character of all time, now that has list has extended to a list of 2, and including Jurgen Norbert Klopp.
With this background of close to 2 decades of following this sport and the football club which has given my the highest of highs and lowest of lows, I was presented with once in a lifetime oppurtunity. Watch them live.
Liverpool were champions of Europe for a second time in lifetime. Unlike the Miracle of Istanbul back in 2005, this felt more of a consolation rather than eurphoria. The reason was missing out on the Premier league for 29th consecutive season, after getting 97 points, which has ONLY been done twice. Unfortunately by Manchester City in the same season with 98 and 100 point season during 2017–18.
This kindergarden level number counting by the one of the best humans to be born started to change my mind.
Then started the 2019–20 season and it felt all different. It was unlike the seasons that followed the 3 second place finishes over the last decade. There was no slack, no whining, it was all back to business of ruthlessness and my appreciation of the team and achievements just grew.
After failing at an attempt to get the tickets to the European Super Cup at Istanbul, I managed to get my hands on the Club World Cup tickets at Qatar in December 2019.
Thus began the journey of the first time I was able to catch my team in person. The location was Doha, Qatar.
Liverpool’s semi-finals was supposed to open one of the new stadiums for the FIFA World Cup 2022, the education city stadium. Pity though that the clearances did not come early enough, and the game was shifted to Khalifa International Stadium. An impressive stadium in it’s own right, but no way able to recreate the atmosphere of a pure football stadium. This made me recall my time at Donbass Arena in Donetsk back in 2011, when I was able to watch AS Roma take on Shaktar in the Champions League.
Since I stupidly did not snap up the finals tickets, I signed up for the Semis involving Flamengo as well. The Brazillian team who had just won the Copa Libertadores in dramatic fashion.
I flew in from Bengaluru and landed early in the morning. After getting a local SIM at the airport I had to wait a bit for the metro get started at 6AM. There was free transportation in Metro on match days for the fans.
Went about exploring the town as soon as I was able to drop off the bags at my hotel. Walked around Souq Waqif. Souq Waqif is the only place in town worth hanging about and spending hours on end, lazing around in the cafes/market around. Then I proceeded to the museum of Islamic art, whose architecture was pretty unique and it’s sea side location added to that.
Met up with the colleagues who had travelled with me at the Souq, took in the sights and sounds and had falafels. The market was all decked up for the Qatar National day which is held on 18th of December.
After a quick stop over to freshen up at hotel, I was off to the stadium.
The metro ride was filled with the Esperance fans singing their hearts out, which I was quite enjoying but was faced with stares of weirdness from most locals. The security check was thorough, even were asked to remove the shoes!
The matchday ticket on the day allowed us to catch two matches :
Esperance de Tunis vs Al Sadd, the 5th and 6th place playoff
Was able to see the legend Xavi live, but on the touchline instead of on the field, the state of Al-Sadd was sad, considering they were the only representatives from the country. It was Esperance fans who were stealing the show with songs and pyros(illegal BTW! and I get the shoe check now)
Al Hilal vs Flamengo, Semi Finals 1, Asia vs South America winners.
The stadium filled up with Brazilians soon after the first match, and man they were setting up some scene. It was a sight to behold and a small sample of how passionate the South Americans are for their football. These were the folks whose home stadium was Maracana, one of the most iconic stadiums in the world.
The passion of the Brazillians towards football was insane. Having last won the continental title back in 1981, incidently they had slapped Liverpool 3–0 back then in the earlier incarnation of the club world cup. News around the town was that 15000 of them had travelled across the atlantic and africa. A 17h flight at the very least.
It was great that Al Hilal took the lead because the fight back and the comeback win made it one of the most memorable sportings events I have been in till date. After taking a 1 goal lead, Al-Hilal could not cope with the South americans, who ran out deservedly 3–1 winners.
It though was about to be eclipsed on the next day.
Day 2 : Liverpool semis
I slept in late after exhausting day 1 which involved travel, on air/foot and on the metro. After having done a lot of walking/sight seeing I wanted to be in full force for the pre-match and the match.
After having a swim at the hotel, I Left hotel about 2PM to get lunch along with the colleagues from office who had travelled with me.
Soon after that we proceeded to the Fan Park.
There we caught up with a bunch of Liverpool fans from around the world. Malaysia to UK to the Canada. Then we were treated to a rocking performance from Jamie Webster of Boss Nights. Sang Liverpool songs for a whole long hour along with Hundreds of other Liverpool fans and just imagined what the atmosphere at Anfield would be on the European nights. Allez Allez Allez!
Proceeded to the stadium soon after this singing songs and hanging out with the Liverpool fans.
There was long security lines at the stadium, but just made it to our seats as Liverpool were coming out to warmup, and the roar was enormous. Unsurprisingly the hero to the locals, who filled in the majority of the stadium was arab world’s own Mo Salah.
Keita scored early, Monterrey equalised, but Bobby Firmino came on late to win the match.
Alisson’s two saves were towards the corner/end I was watching from, as was the Firmino winner. All in all pretty great trip, only wish was if I could have stayed for and enjoyed the finals.
On the way back to the hotel, the Flamengo fans had already started off the pre-match build up. I was regreting the lack of finals tickets and poor planning on my side, but oh well this day I will remember as long as I am alive.
The last day was spent doing touristy stuff, went to the National Museum of Qatar. It has a very unique architecture shaped like a desert rose. The presentation of the gallery halls and the video based presentations were pretty engaging to be honest.
Also visited the downtown west bay, which has all the swanky new glass skyscrapers and the corniche.
And thus a quick yet memorable trip came to an end.
The day I returned home, Liverpool became Champions of the world by beating Flamengo.
Next time, I have to catch Liverpool at Anfield. A matter of when rather than if. Fingers Crossed.
