{"id":1802,"date":"2020-06-01T11:26:57","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T11:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=1802"},"modified":"2020-06-01T11:26:57","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T11:26:57","slug":"madrid-one-year-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/madrid-one-year-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Madrid &#8211; One Year On"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I really wasn\u2019t sure what to write this week. With America, quite literally in places, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-us-canada-52872401\">burning with the injustice<\/a> of George Floyd\u2019s murder by Derek Chauvin, I wondered if I should write something about the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Ultimately, though, I decided against it if for no other reason than I\u2019d be knowingly doing so from a position of white privilege and didn\u2019t want to get the tone wrong. Equally I considered writing a piece about the \u2018othering\u2019 of football supporters, and Liverpool fans in particular, that has been brought about by the suggestion that some of our games <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/52846694\">should be played away from Anfield<\/a> when matches resume later this month. I may still write that piece, depending on the decisions actually taken by the Premier League and the police authorities over the next few days. Sufficed to say, it won\u2019t be a nuanced piece looking at both sides of the argument, instead being a venting of my frustration at the whole thing.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Has it really been a year?! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/volfH34FuR\">pic.twitter.com\/volfH34FuR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Neil Jones (@neiljonesgoal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/neiljonesgoal\/status\/1267351044482314242?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>But then I logged onto Twitter this morning, saw all of the tweets about this time last year and realised that the story to tell on this bright, sunny Monday was one of joy and celebration. Weirdly, the actual day wasn\u2019t a particularly brilliant one for me and was instead wrapped in frustration. I\u2019d bought tickets for my dad, my friend Andy and I to watch the European Cup final at the Shankly Hotel. They had dedicated the hotel to the experience, with the upstairs area that was normally set aside for weddings boasting big screens all over the place. They\u2019d reserved some seats for us right in front of one of the big screens, so we got there an hour before kick-off, got some drinks and settled in. The place was rammed and no sooner had the match kicked off than the projectors began to overheat, cutting out repeatedly. This lasted for the entire ninety minutes, marring what was supposed to be one of the best days of my adult life.<\/p>\n<h2>Winning Is A Shared Experience<\/h2>\n<p>Whilst I remain furious with the Shankly Hotel for not thinking ahead that the projectors would overheat on a warm day in Liverpool and with hundreds of people inside a closed space, I still generally look back on the evening as one of joy. This weekend my dad turns seventy and, whether I like it or not, I\u2019m having to accept that he won\u2019t be around forever. In the years after he\u2019s shuffled off this mortal coil, there will be moments that I\u2019ll look back on with a sense of undiluted joy. Standing arm in arm with him and Andy and watching Jordan Henderson hoist the European Cup above his head will unquestionably be one of them. I didn\u2019t actually appreciate the \u2018Hendo Shuffle\u2019 at the time, given that the projector cut out for the umpteenth time as he picked the trophy up and walked towards the waiting squad, but I appreciate it all the more now. We did get to see the lift, though, and the entire place erupted with him.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/OnThisDay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#OnThisDay<\/a> in 2&#xfe0f;&#x20e3;0&#xfe0f;&#x20e3;1&#xfe0f;&#x20e3;9&#xfe0f;&#x20e3;<\/p>\n<p>&#x1f3c6;&#x1f3c6;&#x1f3c6; SIX TIMES &#x1f3c6;&#x1f3c6;&#x1f3c6; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3n76ZWaiJc\">pic.twitter.com\/3n76ZWaiJc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Liverpool FC (at &#x1f3e0;) (@LFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LFC\/status\/1267330535694766080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It still boggles my mind that I\u2019ve been able to watch Liverpool win the Champions League twice as an adult, having <a href=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/me-istanbul-15-years-on\/\">written about Istanbul last week<\/a>. Most football supporters never get to see their club do something so momentous but I\u2019ve seen the Reds in four finals since I turned twenty-one. I didn\u2019t get to celebrate Istanbul with my dad, instead chatting to him about it on the phone. I made damn sure that wasn\u2019t going to be the case last year, however, and it\u2019s a memory I\u2019ll have forever. Whether at its best or its worst, football is a shared experience. You want to console yourself and others when you watch your team lose and there\u2019s nothing better than celebrating the wins with someone you love. That\u2019s what I got to do last year, soaking up the party in the centre of Liverpool with my dad and one of my best mates, popping along for a celebratory drink with another mate afterwards. You\u2019ll Never Walk Alone, indeed.<\/p>\n<h2>The Start Of Something<\/h2>\n<p>There are many differences between the two European Cups I\u2019ve watched Liverpool win over the past decade and a half. In 2005 not even the most optimistic of Reds could suggest that Rafa Benitez\u2019s team was the best in Europe. In fact, there\u2019s an argument that the team that lost to AC Milan two years later was better than the one that beat them in such an improbably fashion. Conversely, only the most swivel-eyed of opposition supporter would be willing to try to suggest that Liverpool weren\u2019t the best side on the continent when they defeated Tottenham Hotspur in the final last year. The win for Rafa\u2019s men felt like it might be the start of a return to the top, but under J\u00fcrgen Klopp is was confirmation that we were already there. Real Madrid showed us the year before that you need to be willing to do anything to win, with the defeat spurring us on to come back even stronger during the 2018-2019 season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Happy Madridversary everyone &#x1f3c6;&#x1f3c6;&#x1f3c6;&#x1f3c6;&#x1f3c6;&#x1f3c6; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/kQdkAv47xq\">pic.twitter.com\/kQdkAv47xq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sachin Nakrani (@SachinNakrani) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SachinNakrani\/status\/1267365457717321729?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 1, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The day after the final I travelled over to Liverpool with my wife Rachel to watch the parade. The atmosphere was absolutely bouncing and there\u2019s no doubt that the Liverpool side deserved every ounce of support that was on the streets to greet it that day. Hundreds of thousands of people decked out in red and white, waving flags, banners and scarves as the bus went past. It\u2019s a shame that they won\u2019t get to experience it again this year when the league title is finally sewn up, but I think it will give them the drive to try to win it again next year. If Kiev taught us anything, it\u2019s that these players respond well to adversity and missing out on the title last season before winning it at a canter this time around surely proves that. There are loads of other things I could say about the final, but there\u2019s no need. We\u2019ve all got our own thoughts about it, our own memories. For me, it will always be about watching the Reds win with the people that matter the most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I really wasn\u2019t sure what to write this week. With America, quite literally in places, burning with the injustice of George Floyd\u2019s murder by Derek Chauvin, I wondered if I should write something about the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Ultimately, though, I decided against it if for no other reason than I\u2019d be knowingly doing so from a position of white privilege and didn\u2019t want to get the tone wrong. Equally I considered writing a piece about the \u2018othering\u2019 of football supporters, and Liverpool fans in particular, that has been brought about by the suggestion that some of our games should be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1804,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1802\/revisions\/1804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}