For a whole new generation of Liverpool supporters, a thirst for trophies grows.

By Jordan Carreno

We could have all been forgiven for feeling like we had somehow taken a huge leap backwards when the final whistle had gone on May 26th, 2018. Whether it was the amount of alcohol that had been consumed or the manner in which defeat was handed to us, you wouldn’t have been blamed for feeling like the world had come to an end.

I myself stood with my hands on my hips, shirtless, outside London Heights letting it be known that I personally thought that Karius should be tried for his war crimes (a sentiment that has since drastically changed). However, at some point following that, somewhere between Klopp jumping around in his hotel room singing the morning after and the 4–0 victory just enjoyed on opening day, I was able to come to my senses a bit.

The first thing I had done when the whistle went, as any grown man should, was cry. Sometimes the only way to process a loss like that is to cry. Then a friend of mine put her hand on my back and told me to look around.

I had gone to experience the final at London Heights. Having been to every prior LFC Tampa venue, it only felt right. Another notch on my belt to go alongside MancDintons, Four Green Fields, and Pokey’s. Plus I heard the place could probably hold 200 people and football is one of the few things I enjoy in uncomfortably large crowds.

As promised, we filled that place to the brim. We finished the Carlsberg before the band even played. There was even pyro enough to satisfy all necessary party qualifications. I also finally got to lead a pub of Liverpool fans in the Gary Macca chant. It was like a dream.

London Heights filled to capacity for the LFC Tampa Champions League Final watch party.

Just 2 years prior to the Champions League Final, we had crammed 100 odd Tampa Bay Liverpool supporters into Four Green Fields to watch the ill-fated Europa League final against Sevilla. So in two short years, and in our first season back on the biggest stage of club football, to have well over 300 people show up to watch with us, LFC Tampa, is a bit insane.

As I said earlier, I’ve ran the gauntlet hand in hand with LFC Tampa. I remember getting up at 6:00 am during the end of the Rodgers reign to go to Four Green Fields, in the company of maybe 5 other supporters, to watch as Liverpool snatched draws from winning positions against [insert generic mid table team managed by an Englishman firmly planted in the Premier League’s coaching carousel].

Back when you could have convinced me that FSG were just doing the Hicks and Gillette special — that’s where you implode your 2nd place league team by selling the best players and then buying overpriced donkeys. Nothing says glory quite like a hazy Florida morning sat in a dark, moist, empty pub while staring at a projector screen.

I don’t even want to get into the Roy Hodgson ‘moment’ or what times were like watching Stewart Downing and Charlie Adam put on a world class clinic on how to almost score goals; but, if the final was your first taste of Liverpool FC and LFC Tampa, then I think you should be subjected to waking up at 7 am on random Saturdays, with a hangover, to watch Stewart Downing highlights on a 2 hour loop to help you see the bigger picture.

What transfer windows looked like just 6 short years ago. From left to right, current captain Henderson, a donkey from Blackpool, King Kenny, the first keeper we stole from Roma, and a donkey from Aston Villa.

So, when the tears dried up and I took my friend’s advice to look around, I saw a few things. I saw that getting to a Champion’s League final in your first season back in the competition is no small feat. That it’s even more impressive when you consider a large majority of the starting 11 never played European football together.

I then coupled that with securing back-to-back top 4 seasons for the first time in a decade and a record breaking season from a new signing. Then I realized we had more than 300 people getting together at two different venues under the LFC Tampa Bay banner for pre-match festivities and to watch the final. What had felt like an utter collapse of all the promise of the team was actually a mere hiccup in a meteoric rise under Klopp.

Regardless of whether we had won in Kiev, the necessary next steps had already been made by all. Liverpool had secured itself successive top 4 finishes for the first time under FSG’s ownership. We splashed the cash on a record signing and won his interest over our rival’s (albeit due to some shady happenings in Blackpool). We had properly reintroduced ourselves to wider European football audience. Anfield even reached new levels of magic. Klopp finally turned us all from doubters to believers.

The day Klopp signed, the ground zero for our current success.

And for us here with LFC Tampa, we had arguably our best moment in our history. I wouldn’t have imagined it while sat over a cup of coffee after drawing Everton in Rodgers’ last game.

We’re all a very far distance from where we were in the fall of 2015 (let alone the beginning of FSG in 2011), and we’re all continuing to march forward. Hell, we’re all further ahead than where we were at that final whistle on May 26th.

For us, the progression of the team and our own club has led to record membership signups and growth. We now have 3 locations in the Bay Area under the LFC Tampa umbrella. And this success mirrors the growth of the larger club itself.

FSG have gone and invested in the squad significantly. Klopp seems to have turned another screw on this Red machine he is constructing. Most importantly, blind belief has been replaced by assured confidence in the team. This is what makes all that suffering worth it.

Scenes outside London Heights prior to kick off — no pyro, no party

We’re not yet to the climax of our collective story, but we’re still moving in the right direction. I know there exists a real appetite in our growing fan base to see some real success in the form of trophies. It made that loss feel all the more devastating.

It’s no fun watching your mate pick up football, choose City, Chelsea or United, and then celebrate a title a year later. However, achievements are more appreciated when they are hard earned, when they are paid for in soul crushing heartbreaks at the hands of Crystal Palace or Fulham. Sometimes bitter defeat is the type of foreplay that makes the hair raising orgasm of victory even stronger.

So whilst I want Liverpool to win trophies and believe they have all the parts necessary to do so this season, lack of silverware won’t kill my optimism if obvious progression is made. I have faith in the process given how quickly we’ve risen in such a short time under Klopp. I know that continuing to progress will eventually mean plenty of silverware for us to enjoy. More important than winning trophies this season is making sure we continue to leave our recent past as far behind us as we can.

As Klopp would say, “we’re in a really good moment.” As a team, as a club, as a supporters club right here in Tampa Bay, we’re doing all the right things and continuing to grow. That golden sky is very near. If there’s one thing that Liverpool has taught me in my years of supporting them its that continuing to move towards that golden sky is what matters most. And in my experience, if you continue to move towards something, you always wind up getting there.