A "sea of fans" wearing red jerseys last night filled Fenway Park -- all
the way "from the bleachers to the top of the Green Monster" to see EPL
club Liverpool FC take on Serie A club AS Roma, according to Mark
Daniels of the BOSTON HERALD. Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers said
that playing at Fenway Park "is something his team will always remember,
and the old park looked great." Daniels writes the 37,169 fans "were in
high spirits." Prior to the match, as the teams "walked out of the Red
Sox dugout, fans stood on their feet singing 'You’ll Never Walk Alone'
from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical 'Carousel'" -- a song that
serves as Liverpool's anthem. Rodgers said, "It was incredible. I said
to the players before the game, ‘When you’re 50 you’ll be able to tell
your kids that you played football in Fenway Park.’ That's something
that will stay with them" (BOSTON HERALD, 7/26).
In Boston, Alex Prewitt wrote ever since Fenway Sports Group co-Chairs
John Henry and Tom Werner "purchased the team in 2010, the locals have
waited for this day." Prior to the exhibition, "roughly" 650 Liverpool
supporters gathered at local bar An Tua Nua in Kenmore Square. An Tua
Nua Owner Joe McCabe said, "I’ve never seen anything like this, not even
around the World Series. It’s all about Liverpool coming to the United
States. Some of these kids will never get a chance to see soccer at this
level again" (BOSTON GLOBE, 7/26).
MIDSUMMER CLASSIC?: In N.Y., George Vecsey noted summer
exhibition matches in the U.S. featuring European football clubs are "fast
becoming a midsummer ritual." It is "hard to take a midsummer soccer
match seriously when the lads have just come back from those brief
vacations from a sport that grinds bodies and minds down to nubs." But
data from SeatGeek indicated that tickets "were going for an average of
$110, with seats atop the scoreboard going for more than $400 and
standing room at $70." U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati
"speaks about 'signals' of soccer's incremental rise." It is "all a work
in progress," but the summer tour "is here to stay" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/26).
