My First Liverpool Match….in Chicago

Well, what can I say? I finally was able to attend a Liverpool match in person, albeit, a preseason friendly. But that doesn’t matter to me in the least. And I got to do it with the people I care about, my wife Sarah, and our two kids, Cameron and Wesley. All Liverpool supports (yes, that is absolutely my doing and will have none of it!).

We hopped on a bird to Chicago the day before the match. Direct flight from Syracuse, ya know. Easy trip, but a bumpy getting into O’Hare because of the torrential rains they were having on that Saturday. Our plan was to spend the day Saturday wondering around Chicago, even though it was raining. We were mostly prepared with our rain gear but the rain was sideways at times which made the morning unpleasant. After a 55 minute train ride from O’Hare to downtown, we stopped a breakfast joint, Wildberry Pancakes & Cafe. There was a line to get in and of course there was no awning to wait under. We had to endure the steady rain to get breakfast. This place advertised itself as having gluten free pancakes, which was exciting for Sarah because of her Celiac Disease. Once we got in and studied the menu, we enquired about the gluten free pancakes. Well, while the batter was gluten free, there was cross contamination with other foods that contained gluten. A bit misleading to be honest. She settled for an omelet instead (cooked in a pan separately as most restaurants do). I had the fried chicken with biscuits and gravy because, why the hell not? Wesley and Cameron both had some variation of pancakes, eggs, and sausage.

Our next stop was taking an Uber ride to the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry on the south side of Chicago in the Hyde Park neighborhood. This is legit the best museum I have ever been to. If you are curious, you check out their website, www.griffinmsi.org. We spent several hours in there and if we had paid or upgraded to the experience exhibits, we would have spent the rest of the day there. In any case, if you are in Chicago, it’s worth the trip, especially if you have kids.

Our next stop was our hotel in Evanston, home of the Northwestern Wildcats. The reason we had to stay in Evanston was because the hotels were pretty well booked for the weekend and the prices were astronomical. And that was not only due to Liverpool being in town for the week, but also Lollapalooza was in town at Grant Park in downtown Chicago. By the way, you could legit just pull up a lawn chair on the shores of Lake Michigan and listen to the music without a problem.

Evanston was a small little town, but also has a couple train stops which made going to downtown Chicago on the “L” quite easy, although a bit long (1 hour train ride depending on where in downtown you wanted to go). For dinner on Saturday night, we decided to check out a pizza joint that had gluten free pizza as an option. She did enjoy it and it tasted quite good. The boys and I had a regular Chicago style pizza. I sent a picture to our podcast group chat with a caption that read, “CASSEROLE NOT PIZZA,” and the remark that I got back from Kevin was, “IF I WANTED ELIO’S PIZZA I WOULD GO TO THE GROCERY STORE.” Jason chimed in with a, “WTF is that?”

Sunday was gameday. And it was a LONG day. We hopped on the Purple Line and then transferred to the Red Line to make our way to a breakfast/brunch joint before making our way to Soldier Field. The Red Line train was absolutely mobbed because this is the line that takes you to Wrigley Field and there just happened to be a ballgame in the early afternoon against that Yanks. I couldn’t help myself and yelled, “Go Cubbies,” which got a very positive reaction from folks on the train. Mind you, I was wearing a Liverpool top, as were many others on the train. It was a mixture of Liverpool and Cubs shirts and jersey’s with the occasional Yankees and Leeds tops sprinkled in. We made our way to a place called Eggy’s Diner, which had a fair amount of gluten free options, including pancakes, which were a hit for Sarah (this time!). I had the crepes with Nutella, because, why the hell not, and Cameron and Wesley had some variation of pancakes and meat.

After the food, it was time to get to Soldier Field. And we couldn’t get an Uber to save our lives. And of course, we were not near a train stop. So a 30 minute walk meant we were going to miss the fan zone festivities, but we would be there in plenty of time for warmups and kickoff. Soldier Field itself is a decent venue. It kept the old memorials for fallen soldiers outside but inside was modern. It’s a bit silly that the Bears want to move out of the stadium. It’s a find venue with plenty of amenities. And it being on the lake can make things interesting in the fall and winter.

The fam

As for the Liverpool match, we all wore our Liverpool kits and I also had my Greek flag with me. Anytime there is a Greek player on a team I support and I’m going to watch the game in person, I don’t leave the house without it. And I wasn’t the only person that had a flag. There were plenty of Bosnian flags from Leeds supporters for Tarik Muharemovic, and Hungarian flags held by Liverpool supporters for Szoboszlai and Kerkez. I even spotted a Georgian flag in the next section over in support of Giorgi Marmardashvili. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Liverpool match without someone supporting Federico Chiesa with an Italian flag.

Leeds Supporters….in full voice ——>

We sat in section 151 which was billed as the “Liverpool” section in the north end of the stadium. Across the was behind the other goal, there were about 4 sections of Leeds supporters who were in full voice throughout the match. The majority of the stadium was red, but I have to be honest, I was a bit disappointed with the lack of singing from our supporters. I absolutely started some songs, which the two young men next to me obliged each time. I was also touched that in the 20th minute, we sang Diogo Jota’s song and the entire stadium clapped in unison. It was a goosebumps moment.

The state of this field at kickoff was horrendous.

The field was in disarray. More than half the field looked like shit. It was all patched up. The night before, Chicago Fire took on Charlotte FC in a match that featured the debut of Robert Lewandowski. He scored a brace in a 2-1 win.

Despite the field conditions, the first half for Liverpool reminded me of the Klopp era a bit and the beginning of the Arne Slot era, where Liverpool were counter-pressing and causing havoc. Liverpool took the lead off a corner where Kerkez served a ball up to Luke Chambers who calmly finished from close range in the 7th minute. Liverpool doubled the lead just before halftime with a lovely cross to Frimpong who volleyed it to Florian Wirtz, who finished nicely to make it 2-0. That was the score at halftime. The second half featured several changes for both sides and it was all Leeds United. They score 4 unanswered goals to win the match 4-2. The second half reminded me of how the Liverpool season went last year. Giving up easy goals and poor marking on set pieces. You can single a couple players out, but it was clear that Curtis Jones had no interest in tracking or marking as a defender. He was solely responsible for two of the four goals in the second half.

Me with a new addition to the collection!

After the match, we made our way down 13 rows to the railing where I was met by two Norwegian lads with Norway jersey’s. You can guess the player, I’m sure! Liverpool left back and fellow Greek, Kostas Tsimikas was making his way around our end, clapping for the support. I was wildly waving my Greek flag and he spotted me and gave me a wave while he was talking and walking with Harvey Elliot. Harvey went one way and Kostas kept walking by the section. I was able to get his attention again and this time, I pulled on my top and yelled if I could get his shirt. Kostas obliged and he threw his shirt up to me. I thanked him in Greek of course and he gave me a thumbs up. What a moment! I turned to Sarah and she couldn’t have been happier and frankly in disbelief that it happened. I was legit only hoping for a short conversation to say hello and ask for a picture. But I took a chance and asked for the shirt. I was also congratulated by other Liverpool supporters which was equally as cool.

If you collect soccer jersey’s as I do, you will know that there are actually two different types of jersey’s you can get. Once is a player version and one is a retail version. The retail version is made so that is it comfortable for people to wear and the sizes are normal. Player issued jersey’s are typically slim fit style and the material is quite different. The Tsimikas jersey is no different. The material is very light and almost see through. It fits like a glove though. For the record, I did have to wash it because it was absolutely gross and nasty after a professional player was sweating through it in the heat of Chicago!

Tsimikas wasn’t the only player to give away their stuff. Kerkez gifted a young Hungarian supporter his cleats. Giorgi gifted his gloves and shirt to the Georgian supporter I mentioned earlier. It was a memory making day for many. And of course, many other players were signing autographs. Sadly, I didn’t make the cut for Inside Chicago (if you know, you know.).

After the match, we destroyed several rolls of sushi in Evanston, which was absolutely amazing sushi by the way. Their ramen was excellent as well……that broth, man! Monday was a travel day so we walked around a bit before to do some shopping before heading back to O’Hare on the Blue Line.

Overall, it was not enough time in Chicago, but it was the most memorable one.