As the United States continues to bask in the afterglow of World Cup fever, the beautiful game has found another stage: Yankee Stadium.
More than 40,000 fans packed into the Bronx to watch the backups of Liverpool take on the backups of Wrexham in the Premier League Summer Series. It shows just how hungry American fans are to keep the soccer momentum rolling after the World Cup.
From a business perspective, scheduling the Summer Series immediately after the World Cup is a brilliant move. Strike while the iron is hot. But it does make you wonder: how many people were there hoping to catch a glimpse of Ryan Reynolds, or didn’t realize Mohamed Salah wasn’t even in Liverpool’s squad? We may never know.
The atmosphere was lively from kickoff, with both teams moving the ball quickly. Liverpool controlled possession throughout the opening stages, looking every bit like the stronger side. We reached the halfway point of the first half and believe it or not there was NO hydration break. Thank goodness we were back to normal football, because apparently professional athletes can survive more than 27 minutes without stopping for water.
As the first half wore on, the pace slowed slightly. Neither side managed to gain a real advantage, and the teams headed into halftime deadlocked at 0-0.
Liverpool came out after the break looking determined to change that. They dominated possession and created several quality chances, only to be denied time and time again by Wrexham goalkeeper Danny Ward. Save after save, Ward kept his side alive. It was a reminder that even Liverpool’s second-string squad has the quality to completely dictate a match when it wants to.
Then came an interesting twist.
In the 62nd minute, Wrexham made what looked like a complete line change. Conventional wisdom would suggest that Liverpool would capitalize immediately. Instead, the opposite happened. Wrexham suddenly found a rhythm, controlled larger stretches of play, and created a handful of dangerous scoring opportunities of their own.
The breakthrough finally came in the 75th minute. A deflected effort from Rio Ngumoha found its way into the back of the net, giving Liverpool a 1-0 lead.
Late in the match, Liverpool supporters attempted to get the entire stadium singing the club’s famous chants. The effort was admirable, but American fans clearly haven’t gone quite that deep into their Google research yet. It wasn’t Anfield, but it was another sign that soccer culture continues to grow in the United States.
When the final whistle blew, the Liverpool supporters left Yankee Stadium happy with a 1-0 win, Wrexham fans had plenty of positives to take away, and I walked away with one simple thought.
As the great Danny Rojas from Ted Lasso so perfectly put it:
“Futbol is life.”
