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Do you go that extra mile?

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ILD

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Sometimes in life we go that extra mile to see our favourite team play. We can't explain to non believers why we do it, we just do. Our forum members are scattered across the globe, across various timezones so I'm sure someone has a tale depicting their struggles to watch us week in week out? If nothing, it will give us a break from the the latest Lucas or Agger feud. ;)

I used to do my best to stay up and watch the Super Bowl or as much as I could. I felt a sense of achievement if I made it to the HT show. I was proud of my efforts and this event happens ONCE a year. I gave up following NBA and NFL live as I couldn't commit to the ridiculous late nights followed by tiresome week day mornings. Obviously my passion for Liverpool outweighs any 'love' I have for other sports as I wouldn't think twice for burning the midnight oil to watch our games. Some of our fans experience this every match day. This thread isn't designed to unearth closet super fans or act as a self congratulatory wank fest but merely an opportunity for fellow members to share their match day experiences whether you live two miles or two thousand miles from Anfield.

I'm lucky, being from Ireland I have the games televised and I can fly over for a few games a year. I didn't realise how lucky I had it until I lived in Cape Cod for a summer about 7 years ago. I was in college at the time and I was over on a working holiday visa. We were due to play a CL qualifier and I was gutted to be missing it. I think at that age I was as passionate a supporter as I'll ever be. Missing a game was sacrilege. We were playing Maccabi Haifa btw. It wasn't being televised on the cable channels we had in the house and after making a few calls I learned it wasn't going to be on in any of the pubs close to me. We didn't have laptops or cars so our only means of following it was to cycle to the library. The local library had odd opening hours and low and behold it was closed the one time we needed it.Typical. I remember Aidan (poster on here) and I, cycling to the bus stop to get a lift some of the way and cycling the rest. The woman in the library would only give us the PC for thirty mins IIRC but in that time frame I got to hear Mark Gonzales scoring on his debut. At the time it was worth it. I'm pretty sure we got lost on the cycle back home and our housemates thought we we're insane to cycle that far for thirty minutes of audio but it didn't seem strange to us at the time.

Living in Vancouver last year really opened my eyes to what our global fans have to deal with on a weekly basis. The 5am local time weekend kick off was the worst. You were in social limbo. One option was to stay in, avoid the pub and get up fresh for the game. It was impossible to avoid the pub though. The Friday feeling took a hold of you and you'd be propping the bar right after clocking off. Our routine for a while was to go out get drunk and try stay awake for the game. If you fell asleep there was no waking up but If some how by a miracle you did, it was hell, sitting there groggy and clearly drunk searching for a decent stream. It used to feel like hell anyway. I would often go drinking and then force myself to stay up for the game. I must have sat through a dozen games only to wake up and not remember a thing about it. There was also nothing worse than staying in for a game, waking up at 7am and watch the game only for us to crash and burn. Your Saturday potentially ruined by 9am. Midweek games weren't much better. You would usually miss them due to work but sometimes I'd try stream them on my phone, covering the screen with paperwork as soon as anyone would arrive at my desk. I would record them at home but I'm one of those people who has to know the live score and re watching a game isn't the same IMO, regardless of score.
Sometimes we would go to the supporters club to watch the game. I remember getting a taxi down town at 5am to watch Liverpool vs Man united and barely being able to get in the door. No alcohol was being served, just a crowd of Liverpool fans wedged in together to share the enjoyment of the game.


One of my favourite treks to Anfield was the time me Ross, Aidan and Amber cabs flew to Brum and drove up to Liverpool. We made some hard work of it. I'm amazed we got to the game at all.
David "Ah Aidan, can you to drive faster"
Aidan "Im already going 90 fucking miles and hour"
Cue Ross bursting out laughing.

I would love to get a bit of perspective as to what our global members deal with on a regular basis supporting us. Calling all lurkers too obviously, come on, regale us with your tales. It would also be nice to get a perspective from some of the lad who make the away trips. I think @Woland and @spionkop have shared some stories in the past and no doubt they've had a few 'experiences' on the road and touring around Europe. Or how about our senior posters take a trip down memory lane for us? Perhaps JJ can bring us up to speed with old faithful and the service it provided him throughout the years. Or simply what is the strangest situation or oddest place you've watched us from? I know a lad who claims he watched our games looking discreetly in his neighbour's window because he didn't have the channel. Sounds a bit dodgy if you ask me.

P.S. Does anyone want to join my GET BINNY TO ANFIELD CAMPAIGN? ;)
 
Our match timing over here isn't that bad (+8 GMT) though it's a killer when we have evening KOs (I just hate Monday night matches and Euro matches can be even tougher) ! The local Chinese channel had just one EPL match at a time, so I had to pray we were on, if not then it was off to the computer to try to find a stream (not easy when half the websites are blocked by the Chinese regulators) or constantly refresh Sky and 6CM commentary.

Last year a new satellite system came available and now every EPL match is screened live so life is sooo much easier - though now the wife complains I watch too much football :)

My visits back home (Wirral/North Wales) are few and far between (once every 5-6 years at most) and always seem to coincide with us not playing or be in the Summer. On my last visit I did manage a trip to Anfield to take in the museum and pay my respects to the monument to the 96, this brought me to tears but what was memorable was a passer-by gently squeezing my shoulder as he passed.

Still waiting for Liverpool to play in Shanghai / China (not HK) during an Asian tour !
 
The 6:45 AM starts are the worst for me, especially since my earliest class on any day is at 10:20 ;).

Nice thing is since NBC picked up the coverage this year, pretty much every match is televised, since we typically headline the timeslot. Much easier when you can just wake up and turn on the TV, instead of flipping through a dozen streams to find a decent one, just for it to freeze on you.
 
Spain was sweeeeet... think I missed about 4 games in 8 years...

Laos is patchier to say the least, but 3pm's are good cos you ( usually ) get them nicely at 9ish (10 now)... late Sunday games are an asshole tbh...

I think its very considerate of the club to not be in the CL on my account as watching at 3,4am is a young mans game and my workplace is way too hardcore to go in with just 2 hours kip.
 
I go from pub to pub on a saturday or whenever trying to find somewhere showing the game. I went to one which was showing the Everton, Utd ad LFC game at the same time on different screens, everyone was just shouting at each other
 
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