Anfield overview.Laurence Griffiths
When it comes to Liverpool, their overwhelming legend should not be ignored.
Its stadium, Anfield, keeps it alive and its grandstand par excellence,
The Kop
, magnifies it to unsuspected limits.
The mythical manager of the club, Bill Shankly (1959-1974, 783 matches) was the first to discover the magical virtues of that area of the stadium where more than 30,000
kopites would gather
in each match then
.
"When the team attacks
The Kop
, they can suck (absorb) the ball into the net," he said.
Liverpool in 26 letters
Klopp: "At least Anfield is a stadium"
Years later, Kevin Keegan, another of the historical banners, confessed the great fear of his life.
"When he played, the only thing he feared in life, the only thing, was to miss a sung goal against the boys of
The Kop
."
Fabio Capello has known the magnitude of the situation from the perspective of the rival who has suffered it.
"The atmosphere at
The Kop
is like an electric shock for the Liverpool players," he said.
Xabi Alonso has felt the strength of that fund as his own, now limited to a capacity of 13,000 fans.
“When you defend at
The Kop
,
The Kop
blows so that the goal does not go in, and when you play towards
The Kop
,
The Kop
pulls you to attack more.
It is psychological.
Noticeable.
Go if it shows, "he wrote in
Panenka
magazine
a year and a half ago.
The paranormal effects attributed to it have had very recent examples.
In that goal, Barça received the last three goals two seasons ago - two from Wijnaldum and one from Origi, the last one - that left him out of the Champions League against all odds.
Against that background Liverpool attacked in the semifinals of the 2005 Champions League, when Luis García scored a phantom goal that led his team to the final in Istanbul, where they would win their fifth European Cup after coming back from 0-3 with which Milan was ahead at half-time.
“That rostrum pulls you to attack more.
You can tell, well yes ”, says Xabi Alonso
The Spanish forward has always defended that that ball caught on the fly entered.
Gallas, the French Chelsea defender who ultimately took him up in the air, swore and perjured his coach, José Mourinho, that he had not fully entered.
The technician, enraged, resorted to the powers granted to the inhabitants of that stand.
“It was a goal from the moon or from
The Kop
.
The power of Anfield interfered with the result ”.
The "chorreo"
Also, Real Madrid knows first-hand the effects of that stand.
There it was rounded off with two goals from Gerrard and Dossena the "chorreo" win (4-0) that left him out of the Champions League of the 2008-09 season, in the round of 16.
Nobody better than Liverpool to confirm the current theory, confirmed with data, that with stadiums without an audience the advantage of playing at home is cut in half and that home victories have fallen significantly during the pandemic.
With Anfield empty and
The Kop
covered in flags, the team has lived this season the worst streak in its history at home: two draws (West Bromwich Albion and Manchester United) and six consecutive defeats (against Burnley, Brighton, Manchester City, Everton , Chelsea and Fulham).
Before knocking down the original bottom, the fans refused to leave for hours
Until the defeat against Burnley (on January 21) they had chained a streak of 68 Premier League games without losing at their stadium, since April 23, 2017. On Saturday, when they defeated Aston Villa (2-1) with a goal from Trent Alexander-Arnold in the last minute, this rare ordeal at home was over.
In the Champions League, in the group stage, Liverpool added two victories at Anfield.
Against Midtjylland (2-0) and Ajax (1-0), and a defeat, against Atalanta de Gasperini (0-2).
The home match of the second round against RB Leipzig (2-0) was played at the Puskas Stadion in Budapest due to the restrictions derived from the pandemic.
It is curious that Liverpool FC, founded in 1892, is more modern than its stadium, Anfield, built in 1884 and that until its creation it was the home of Everton, who came into the world in 1870. Neither was the later fabled
Spion Kop
the first tier raised in the enclosure.
In fact, it was originally just an embankment, a small hill that when it was inaugurated in 1906 had 100 steps, 344 feet long (105 meters) and 50 high (15.2).
In the summer of 1928 it was rebuilt with a capacity for 28,000 fans and a massive roof was placed over it.
This was the case until 1994, when after the Heysel tragedies and, above all, the Hillsborough tragedy, in which 96
Reds
fans died
, the English Government ordered through the
Taylor report
the mandatory remodeling of all stadiums, and that all seats were seats.
Precisely on the 15th, a day after the visit of Real Madrid for the return of the quarterfinals of the Champions League, 31 years have passed since the fatality that occurred at the Sheffield stadium.
The stadium, which started as Everton, is older than the club
Liverpool's last game at Anfield before the tie was brought down was against Norwich on April 30, 1994, and on that day fans refused for several hours to leave
The Kop
.
The
most veteran
kopites
and also the most purists assure that since then the internal atmosphere in that rostrum has not been the same again.
That although it continues to be the soul of the stadium, they consider that part of the liturgy of the past has been lost, where in addition to carrying their players on the fly, it was strictly forbidden to mess with the fans and footballers of the opposing team.
Many other traditions, however, are still alive.
From guarding the anthem,
You'll never walk alone
, which is now sung before, during and after the game, to creating songs for each player.
And above all, “never leave the stadium before the end of the game.
The
kopites
are not spectators, but participants ”.
Now that they are out, the one who misses them the most is their team.
Liverpool, for the first time in their history, walk alone.
Without Anfield and without
The Kop
.
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