31 Dec 2017
Dan and I went to Anfield stadium and watched Liverpool play Leicester.Planning had started a couple of months ago back in Brisbane. The first challenge was to actually buy tickets. The Liverpool web site had pages titled "how to buy tickets" that said a lot and lead nowhere. In the end I phoned them to be told "the only way to buy tickets is to become members or buy a hospitality pack". The hospitality packs were insanely expensive and included a meal. Upwards of $AU1000. The membership option dried up and that just left the thriving black market. There are numerous web sites proporting to sell tickets. I went with a mob called "Stubhub" because they appeared to be a subsidiary of eBay and they had a real person in Oz that phoned me. In the UK, I received an email advising of a pickup and return address for the contraband along with a mobile phone number. This turned out to be a pub and after signing for the tickets and promising to bring them back, I asked about drinks. The fellow said sure they are free. Help your self to some packets of nuts to take to the game. These guys are on a winner. I suspect they have bought dozens of season tickets and just scalp them at vastly inflated prices to people like me and when we sat down in the stand, it seemed all around us were from elsewhere on dodgy tickets. The guys directly in front were from the Netherlands for example.
The game started. It was red v blue.
The Blue guys were running around with the ball and the red guys were scratching their heads and elsewhere. The Blue guys thought OK let's have a short break so they put the ball in the little white net thing which is where you put it when you want a break.
A small rectangular group of spectators rose to their feet and cheered mightily and then turned to us and advised us on certain sexual practices.
Now it was the red guys turn to play with the ball. The ref ensured that by letting them start.
I was glad of that because it was now clear that I was supposed to be excited and cheering for the red guys and if the ref didn't give them the ball then I couldn't see how they were ever going to get their turn.
The red guys ran around for a long time with the ball. They brought it down to our end which made for much better viewing. Whenever they got close we all stood up then advised the blue supporters to check their sexuality and then sat down again with a collective groan.
Several times they wanted a break and put it in the little white net but the man on the side put up his flag and the blue goalie had to kick it back to them.
52 minutes into the game and the ball went into the net and stayed there. We were all very excited and sang songs and really advised the Blue supporters on all topics.
The ref though had to give the blue guys their next turn with the ball but the red guys soon took it back.
They played around with it until the 76th minute when they decided to put it in the net again.
The Red guys ahead 2:1 then changed tactics. Instead of focusing on the goal they thought about the clock and obviously had not practiced time wasting as the blue guys kept taking the ball back and we had to engage in some corporate groans and head shaking.
Finally after a further 3 minutes of extra time we all cheered and went home
