Liverpool FC Forum

[jonnymac1979]

I don't know what's wrong with me tonight.  I've just downloaded these two clips and watched them, and I sh!t you not, I'm filling up.  I'm completely overwhelmed by everything that has happened to my club over the last two weeks, that it's all I can think about, day and night.

My brother bought the DVD immediately from eBAY as soon as a bright spark had put it up there which he'd recorded from SKY Plus and I've watched it three times.  I am downloading as much as I can take in, my e-season ticket has took a battering, and my eyes cannot stop streaming tears of joy at what has happened to our great club.  I mean it, I never ever in my wildest dreams thought I'd ever feel as good as I do right now over football.  I'm not a weepy cryer, it's taken me quite by surprise what is happening to me whenever I see pictures or clips of our magical night.  I'm not ashamed of admitting it.  I love what's happening right now and it's very emotional.

If I'm going to be brutally honest with myself and you also, I didn't ever think we had a chance of winning it.  Sure, I'm a positive thinker, I don't like to criticise my club, I am currently wrestling with the thought of criticising Harry Kewell but I want to see him 100% fit to play before I gauge whether or not his appetite has gone.  I am giving him that chance.

But when we made the last 16 and drew Bayer Leverkusen, I would have been happy to say that in a new managers' first season, we got to the last 16 in the top competition in Europe.  Not bad going if we lose.  To destroy Bayer Leverkusen over the two legs though was beautiful.  I celebrated like a lunatic.

To do the same to Juventus was terrific.  We had made the last four.  Again, if we went out, nothing to be ashamed of.

The Chelsea game at Anfield will stay with us all forever for obvious reasons.  Still, I  didn't expect it.  I wouldn't allow myself to think we would win it in case of crushing and bitter disappointment. 

Afterwards, something spiritual had reached inside me an convinced me that whatever was going to transpire in Istanbul, we would not leave Turkey without that cup.  One way or another, we were going to do it.  I definitely felt it before the final.  It wasn't there for the Carling Cup final against Chelsea, or there when we won all the Cups under Houllier, but something told me we were going to win this one.  That's all I can say, I haven't got the words to describe the feeling.  The nearest words I can think of are fate and destiny.  I held no fear for AC Milan.

I was surfing through the Telegraph website earlier, and there was a picture of Vladimir Smicer, just after he had scored our second goal, and you all know the image I'm talking about.  You could see the raw power and emotion on his face, he was roaring, and it was one of the moments of the night, possibly when Milan, whose bottle had gone after Gerrard's goal (see Gattuso's comments), realised the balance of power had shifted, knowing there was nothing they could do about the shift in power being played out in front of their eyes as we steamrollered over them to get ourselves back into the game, aided and abetted by the twelfth man on the terraces. 

It's a photograph of Smicer for fu*k's sake and the hairs on my arms were standing on end.  But it's a symbol of victory for Liverpool Football Club.

The memory of this match will never ever die.  Look at the wallpaper/screensaver I have made.  The poem that the mysterious Baz has written is one of the most powerful and uplifting pieces I have ever read in my life.  Admittedly I don't hold an interest in poetry, and I know nothing about it, but it moved me to tears.  I keep filling up every time I read it.  Read it and you will see what I mean.

The two clips I am including in this post are just the latest that have moved me.  And I am sitting at my brothers PC on a Friday night when I should be out partying like most 25 year old men, and all I want to do is look for the next clip, the next interview, the next shot of Steven Gerrard lifting the European Cup, maybe from a different angle, the next picture of our modest, talented and world class manager Rafael Benitez just hinting to everyone with that knowing smile of his that he knows that we have fulfilled our destiny by bringing the Cup home again for keeps this time, that you would be a lucky person indeed to ever witness anything as dramatic, tortuous, uplifting and inspiring as May 25th 2005 in Istanbul and also, he knows that this is just the beginning of the journey, we have not seen anything yet, not by a long way.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you a montage screened by Sky Sports at the end of the broadcast.

And Sean Connery with an emotional rendition of The Beatles'  In My Life.

[Leonmc0708]

We are living the dream JMac, and its amazing.

I feel so emotional everytime I see a picture and watch a video clip. UN INGBELEIVEABLE.

No more tails of Gay Paris and Wembley, we have been there, we have seen it, we walked amongst those legends.

One other thing about those clips, no matter how much you hate to pay £40 a month, and hate Murdoch, SKY do it so much better dont they ?

[jonnymac1979]

SKY do it so much better dont they ?

First class.  ITV always seem to go to a commercial break at the wrong time, SKY want to saturate your brain with football.  No competition.

[zarababe]

.. JMac my sentiments exactly.. this achievemnt has had such an impact on me too... I listen to the spanish commentators goin mad every day.. watch the match /goals (recorded from ITV) everyday.. the moment of glory when we lifted the cup .. and yes socuring the pages of the European press too for there reporting of the match.. this has been simply the most awesome of achievements.. I even went out and spent money on a Beatles CD for that wonderful song 'In My Life'.. every Executive meeting I've been to since.. I've chatted about the awesome game.. befor getting down to business..

Tears.. ay.. your all a bunch of big girls blouses.. and me... well I'll lend you all me hanky .. after I've wiped the tears that stream down my face everytime I see those great clips...

[Ciggy]

God John your post nearly made me cry as much as that famous poem, tomorrow i am going to buy some really boss paper to print it on on some cr@p thin A4, that poem is getting embossed on it, and going in a frame for all to see and read.
Excellent post John I am pretty much the same Ive got about 50 clips now in one folder and I just watch them over and over, i cant get enough of them.
Youve got that Eseason ticket can you download the clips from there of the players talking on the bus? Ive only seen the carra one, but I know they all done interviews, will be made up to see them all escpecially xabi i think he was awestuck at the amount of people that turned out for the parade.
Cheers John.

[Dalglish]

Another spine tingling post and the forum at it's best..............

In a sea of soundbites on here sometimes you come across a post or two which portrays the raw emotion and touches on what it REALLY means to support this great club.....this is such a  post

As you know John I wasn't able to make Istanbul for personal reasons but it's the first final i've missed since the FA Cup Final in 92 but you know something , I didn't feel robbed or ever had regrets for not having been there. When I attended the parade the following day and stood on the corner of St John's Market and Lime Street and watched as the Bus inched slowly up the hill from Willaimason Square, the night was drawing in yet the trophy glimmered and glistened in the night air and in that moment for me at least it was the culmination of a dream i thought would never be realised in my lifetime ........

The EUROPEAN CUP for fecks sake !!!!!!!!!

The one with the big ears was being shaken violently by Garcia who was going mental yet I stood quietly, reverantly almost and took in the sight..............and what a  glorious sight

I thought about my time watching LFC, the trials and tribulations, the agony and the ecstacy, the wins and the losses. The long drives home after a shocking performance, the bewildering analysis on matches that had gone wrong and the exhiliration when it had gone so very very right as it did in Istanbul. I thought about the defining moments in my life watching LFC, my survival at Hillsborough and my subsequent loss of confidence in crowds and my self imposed exile from football for 3 years, the treble of trophies in 2001 when in one week i saw us win the FA Cup on Saturday, travelled to Gernany and saw us beat Alaves on a mad night in Dortmund and then over to Charlton to see us win 4-0 and qualify for the CL.....I thought about the KOP against Chelsea of which Mourinho was forced to quip "The power of Anfield , I felt it". And there in the cold night air standing on Lime Street with thousands of fellow fans and the Champions League trophy for company I too felt the power of Liverpoool Football Club and the tears flowed ...........


Where do you begin to fully explain the events of May 25th 2005 except to say "Some men are born into greatness and some men have greatness thrust upon them "

To see players of average ability like Smicer be transformed in a moment from Lamb to Lion is hard to explain except to say he fulfilled his destiny on that night as did so many others..........

In years to come people will ask what the side of 2005 meant to me and I will reply " They were the team that reminded us all of how great and rich in history and tradition Liverpool football Club really are.


Walk on .................

[zarababe]

simply wonderful Ian..

[JohnBull]

It was going to take something VERY special to eclipse Rome for me. That was a night which effected the rest of my life. Until them I never really knew what REAL joy was, thousands of us walking around Rome for days just smiling.
In some ways we HAD to be 3-0 down at half time, it HAD to go to penalties, our path to the final HAD to be the hardest possible. The match HAD to be one that could NEVER be repeated.
I'm made up for my 6 kids that they now know what it all means to look down on every other team and know that WE did it. That no matter what happens from now, Liverpool FC have spanned two and a half decades with the biggest trophy in club football and it will remain in our trophy room for ever.
On Derby night a good mate of mine, Clive Hartley, was murdered by some knobhead outside of the Kingfisher pub in Kirby. Clive lived for our team and had just celebrated in his usual way by pouring half of Stella over his Liverpool Badge tattoo on his arm. Now Clive had said all along that we would win the Cup and from then on every game took on a special significance for his brothers and mates. We buried him with a stainless steel LFC Crest on the coffin and the pallbearers (even two bluenoses)all wore the Red colours.
The final was on the 25th but we actually picked up the cup after midnight, the 26th local time. Clives birthday ? - the 26th May. Just a game ? - my backside!

[JBG]

Fantastic posts in this thread......this is what it should be all about.

May 25th 2005 will always go down as the greatest night of my sporting life. Like Daglish I had an opportunity to go to Istanbul (I had a package with Lonsdale lined up) but a combination of work and personal commitments meant I had to pass. At times watching the game I wished I was there and reading Leon's fantastic post I felt more than one twinge of envy, but as Daglish said, I think the utter and sheer magic and majesty of the night transcends all of that. I'll never forget kissing the floor of our living room when Smicer scored, and racing around the house when Xabi turned home the rebound of his penalty high into the Milan net.

I've often had arguements with Man UTD fans who claim that while we may have the trophies, they have the glory (i.e. Busby Babes, Munich, Best, Law, Charlton et al) and while I've always disagreed with that, from the moment Smicer's shot smashed into the far corner of the Milan goal, the word "glory" was etched onto my lips. I knew that no matter what happened, we could be proud of ourselves for giving such a shot at salvaging our pride, dignity and honour, and nobody could say that Liverpool lay down and took their beating.

When Xabi turned in the rebound and we clawed it back to 3-3, even though there was another 30 odd minutes on the clock in normal time, I just knew we were going to win this match. I actually thought we might nick it in normal time, but Milan recovered, and really brought the game to us in extra time. Some quarters have criticised us for playing for penalties in extra time, but what else were we to do? We were 0-3 down to one of the top 2 or 3 three teams in Europe who were on fire, but we gave it everythings and somehow came back from the dead. In extra time the players were playing as if some otherworldly entity was guiding them.........I'm an atheist and don't have a spiritual bone in my body but that night I could have sworn that some higher power was willing us on. We had nothing left, our tanks completely empty, bodies utterly spent.....yet we hung in there. Smicer was chasing down clearances and pulling up with cramp....yet somehow kept going. Gerrard reverted to right back to nullify the rampant Serginho, and the greatest warrior of them all, Jamie Carragher, was hurling his battered and cramped body at every cross that entered our box. The sight of Carragher cutting out a left wing in-swinger, then going down in agony with awful cramp in his groin, being tended to, before somehow gathering his last reserve of life to pull himself together to defend the resulting corner was quite possibly the bravest and most remarkable thing in football.

The final played like a Jerry Bruckenheimer movie: Jerzy Dudek flapped awfully at a few crosses earlier in the game and got badly caught out in the first minute of the second half when a right wing shot bounced off him, suddenly ran to the nearest phonebox and donned his "Invincibles" garb! Some claim that his magical, wonderous and astonishing save from Shevchenko was a fluke, more a case of a combination of luck and bad finishing than good goalkeeping, but I don't believe that. The save occured in the 119 minutes of an absolutely titanic match. It was the final game of a punishing, traumatic season. Dudek didn't spring up from the ground to block Shevchenko's second chance because he was fresh and it was the first game of the season against Tottenham again. No, like Carra he must have been shattered, yet somehow found the determination, concentration and inspiration to thrust himself one last time into the breach to plug the gap........marvelous, amazing, captivating stuff.

Then it was the penalties.....again the Bruckenheimer moments! One of my earliest sporting memories is that of Brucie acting the clown in the Olympic Stadium in 1984, his famous spagetti legs putting an earlier generation of Italians off their game. Dudek's antics would have made even the great Clown Prince himself blush.

Liverpool win the European Cup......once again with a crazy, erratic goalie acting the to completely mess with the heads of Italy's finest.

You simply could not make that up.

Come what may next season (and for the record, I think that it will be a good season for us, if a bit of an anti-climax) ALL Liverpool supporters will have that glorious Turkish night to keep our hearts warm on the lonely Saturday afternoon's when we lose to Birmingham and Man City (hopefully there wont be many of them from now on).

Come what may, opposition supporters can never sing at us "Champions League, you're having a laugh" because on 25th May 2005, at about 1.00am local time, millions of Liverpool supporters across the world had possibly the greatest laugh ever experienced in club football.

A brilliant, brilliant night, one that will forever remain legend, even when all of us have shuffled off our mortal coils and are long forgotten.

[84-1106852058]

What can I say a superb post Jonny Mac,and excellent contributions from all.One thing that has stood out in a number of posts is the belief that we were destined to win.We have all said about certain games,Oh we will beat them.This was something different,this was as though no matter what this trophy is comming home.Half time the fans once again showed there class,and the difference beetween supporting Liverpool FC. and any other team.Anybody who had any doubt had it removed in that magical 6 minute spell.Once the scores were levelled commentators were saying things like, I wonder,and you never know.We knew
We knew the moment the ball struck the back of the Greek net.
This was always going to be our final,from crazy coincidences to divine intervention,I  heard it all.For me the greatest thing was FAITH.To see Phil Thompson at half time refusing to give in was typical of our fans stubborn,knowledgable, and right.

[dawson99]

love all the stories, wish mine was half as good but it is in its own little way. i'll write it out and post it. my own personal ooters perspective, full of milan and everton fans, slippery nipples and local chavs lol

[anfieldadorer]

The latest "heart-attacking" game i saw was the UEFA final. But this final one has been the most emotional game i've ever witnessed in my life. It was for the first time i cry in my life for watching football. I couldn't help crying and crying again everytime i saw the article during the two days after the final. Damn, my eyes are now wet again.
Sweet post JMac.

[Dalglish]

Read this and weep.............

[zarababe]

... what

[Dalglish]

Read this and weep.............

It was a reference to Johnny Mac's initial post , do I have to explain EVERYTHING to you