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I WAS THERE!
I was an amazing inc redible night. We were gutted at half time, but NEVER say die. For fifteen minutes after the restart Liverpool where superb and ripped right through AC, scoring 3 goals to even the score. AC recovered and it was stalemate right up to the penalty shoot-out where Dudek was superb and won the game for Liverpool.
Stevie Gerrard was immense and refused to be beaten. And the fans took same attitude.
I'm exhausted - too knackered to go down to the city centre and cheer the team.
Victorious Reds return to England
40,000 Merseysiders made the trek to Asia Minor - it was like Anfield. The Italians return tickets!!
As Mourinho said when he lost in the semi-final: "I have felt the power of Anfield!"
Iechyd da! John
19:01 26/05/2005 BST| -
The Stadium was superb and the people in Istanbul lovely, warm and firendly.
But the access roads to the stadium was horrendous - we walked the last two miles to the Ataturk Olympic Stadium as the traffic was at a complete standstill.
The airport couldn't cope either. 15,000 fans arrived at the aiprort at 2 am and it was chaos. After 8 hours there was no sign of our plane so we walked right through securityand the gate, got on a bus bound for a plane going to Luton, walked on board and sat down. The plane filled up and we took off. 3½ hr later we were back in the UK. I've no idea who's seats we took and I've no idea what happened to our flight either. There are people still stranded in the Sabiha Gökçen Airport - an airport which only has four gates was supposed to handle 50 flights back to the UK in about 5 hours
But we were happy!!
Final evokes days of old
Iechyd da! John
19:19 26/05/2005 BST| -
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Thanks, BS.
I believe there are still fans stranded in Istanbul, and John Lennon Airport have intervened to get them home on a flight to Bristol.
I was too knackered to go into the City Centre afterwards, but my son went. They reckon about half a million people turned up to watch the team parade back from JL airport via Anfield to a reception in Lime Street.
The match was fantastic! The players and the supporters were superb.
Huw (my son), Luke (Stuart's son), Me and Stuart.
"Kopites all over the world - Caernarfon Reds" The lads from Cymru Gogledd make their presnece known!
Iechyd da! John
14:12 27/05/2005 BST| -
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Well, I've sort of recovered.
I've just been sorting out my papers and love the Entry Visa into Turkey:
]
I'm going to post up more photos on the website where the current pics are, but I'm on limited bandwith and I hope I have enough. I've used 250Mb so far today!
Dudek was immense, and his double save off Shevchnko a minute or two before the end definitely included the hand of God!
When Serginho missed the first penalty, we knew LFC were in the lead. When Pirlo missed the second, we knew we were almost there.
> > Shevchenko looked almost ill with anxiety. I knew that Shevchenko was not going to score just by the look on his face as he walked forward.
We couldn't see that from the other end, but Dudek looked confident handing the ball to Shevchenko and his run up to kick the ball lack conviction.
> > Gerrard made history by willing and imploring his teammates AND the crowd to push to victory.
He's a terrific lad. And he knows we're the 12th player.
It looks like he'll be staying at Anfield - there's no way a local lad could play for anyone else.
He's promised to go back to his school and show the boys and girls there the trophy - 20kg of silver!
I'm still amazed at how many people made the journey from the Atlantic coast of Europe to Asia minor - about 2,000 miles. The Ataturk Stadium became like Anfield with the "visiting" fans in one corner. There must have been the best part of 40,000 reds' fan there.
I did video the match at home but the the tape ends just as the Italians get their medals I've not got all the final celebrations. :-(
No doubt there'll be a DVD out soon!
Iechyd da! John
19:10 27/05/2005 BST| -
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>Cymru am Byth!
>Iechyd da!
You guys! Are any of Liverpool's players from Wales? My wife's great grandmother was Welsh. My wife has been there, but she can't translate a word of it.
By the way, there are clear signs that football is moving into the American mainstream, as our younger generation who grew up playing in large numbers are now into their 20's and 30's. Our hometown newspaper used to never run positive stories on football, but the lead story in the sports section this past Thursday was about the Reds and their historic victory, and today there was a good story about England's 2-1 win v. the U.S. yesterday. Our major sports network, ESPN, now features soccer segments in their programming. And then I overheard two teenagers at the store yesterday arguing over whether Sir Dudek "knew anything about" his second save of the double save late in overtime to deny Shevchenko. We are coming around, despite those here who wish it weren't so!!
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