The G-Force (Istanpool 2005)

"even though i had to get up at 4am to make the flight to istanbul i didn't want to fall asleep -not even 24hours later. if i fell asleep someone might wake me up with the words 'hurry up alyson, you've gotta catch that flight to turkey' and it would all have been a dream."

such were the movin words of one supporter as she made the difficult trip to watch the final. well, i could give you 11 reasons why the liverpool win was the greatest in a cup final but i won't. i could quote you all the superlatives, suffixes, expletives and cliched metaphors that they've printed in english papers for the past five days but i won't. instead i'll give you reasons why God Almighty Himself was in the ataturk stadium last wednesday night.

for one, god came down and decided to park a polish bus in front of the liverpool goal at half time. and the name of that bus was jerzy dudek. this is not to be confused with another miracle of the lord, the late pope john paul II, the other polish keeper. bearin an uncanny resemblance to edward norton, it was like polish history x on the pitch, like liverpool fight club personified. nothin could go through them posts, god decreed. no point-blank headers from the ballon d'or winner nor penalties from top strikers of the world, yet at the other end xabi alonso could afford to miss and still rifle it in on the rebound. that grobbelaar wobbly-spaghetti-starfish-dance may have put off serginho, pirlo and my man shevchenko but just look at the milano faces when they took it -they knew they already lost anyway. look at the way sheva kicked the rejected ball to the roof of the net as soon as he missed. it was fatalistic resignation. one year ago he looked to the referee to blow the whistle as if he couldn't wait to get it done with to take the victory lap in front of the old lady fans. the papers confirmed this later -sheva said that it was "liverpool's destiny to win" that night. he never believed they could win after those stupendous six minutes in which the scousers netted THREE goals against one of, if not the, best defence in the world no matter how many grandkids you tell me maldini has.

the one who did believe was inevitably that man, steven gerrard. what can you say about steven-fuckin-gerrard? the man just didn't know how to lose. when michael howard was busy sayin "oh dear" at half time, the liverpool #8 actually came out at the breather sayin "we're gonna win 4-3". well he was wrong. but that deafenin red throng couldn't care less when he planted that header to spark the first flame. o by Our Lady there burned a fire in that boy which came not from mere human hearts! and as he woke up in the team hotel the mornin after with the cold metal still around his neck, he noticed that the cup was missin from his bed (talk about havin a trophy wife!) as someone had taken it somewhere else. he said "i felt like i lost a part of me". this was a man who was divinely inspired no doubt.

i contend that the scale of the comeback was just too supernatural for any earthly attribute you can attach to a team which was totally outclassed and outplayed so many times in the campaign. yet jamie carragher hurt his bollocks and was havin cramps all over but he made four big tackles right after. bear in mind that liverpool were four minutes from crashin out against olympiakos. bear in mind that liverpool somehow beat juventus and chelsea to have gotten to turkey in the first place. bear in mind that liverpool aren't even the fourth best team in england. bear in mind that liverpool were 100-1 to win at half-time.

so as the cup flew home to john lennon airport in seat 8E nestled between dudek and biscan, amidst the groans of bookmakers still payin out the 2million pounds lost that night, and every fair-weather fan was diggin up that forgotten red shirt, one has to wonder as simon barnes, chief sports correspondent in istanbul for the times did -

"...but then the tide turned in a manner which defied logical and even tactical sense. it was simply as if God had changed sides at half-time. the force, long absent, was suddenly with liverpool. why?"

liverpool FC, champions of europe 2005, the g-force was at work but was it gerrard or was it God?

ciao.

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Word Of The Wolf today is impervious \im-PUR-vee-uhs\,

adjective:

1. Not admitting of entrance or passage through; impenetrable.

2. Not capable of being harmed or damaged.

3. Not capable of being affected.

"Like a case of Jules and Vincent when they survived the hand cannon, endless arguments will arise as to the supernatural occurences that happened that fateful night in Turkey. Even as a neutral observer, it is hard to believe why the engraver wasn't tempted at half-time to just do the Cup, or why the impervious rossoneri wouldn't go on to hit six goals, but as it were the three goals that came were delivered by the Liverpudlians instead."

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Impervious comes from Latin impervius, from in-, "not"+ pervius, "with a way through, hence penetrable," from per-, "through" + via, "way."