Day 11 Aston Villa vs Liverpool

We left Jurys Inn at 9:30 AM for the 3 hour bus ride to Villa Park in Birmingham for the Aston Villa vs Liverpool match. Arriving at 1 PM, we were met by Russell, Aston Villa's head of public relations for a private tour of the park. Kick off was at 5:15 and the park was buzzing as we toured the locker room and pitch. Imagine touring Fenway Park and the clubhouse the day of a game. This was a rare treat all made possible by one of Irl's contacts.

Aston Villa is one of England's oldest and most storied clubs but has not won anything of consequence since winning the European Championship in 1992. American ownership of English football teams is a growing trend with Villa joining Liverpool and Manchester United now under the direction of American owners.

After the tour we visited the club store for more shopping. As we were gathering in the parking lot heading back into the stadium, a couple of our boys purchased some Liverpool flags (opposing team). Russell warned us not to show the flags, or opposing team colors of any kind, in our our seating area for our own safety. This is no idle warning. There was a large, obvious police presence and great pains were made to separate the away from the home fans. The stadium seats approximately 43,000 fans and only 3,000 tickets are sold to the away team, and all of them are stuffed into one corner of the stadium. For safety purposes, away team fans are not allowed to purchase more than the allotted amount of tickets, even if the game is not sold out. On the way into the game we bumped in to Graham Taylor, former Aston Villa and England national team coach, emerging from his Jaguar and I was able to snap a picture of him with Seth and Irl.

Our seats were in the upper grandstands near midfield. It was a very exciting game featuring the debut of Liverpool's Fernando Torres, the most expensive signing of the summer. The home team was on the ropes for most of the first half. As the TV announcer colorfully put it "Liverpool is moving forward with the menace of a great white off the Cornish coast" and took the lead in the 40th minute on an own goal by a Villa defender Martin Laurson. In the 85th minute Gareth Barry evened the match on a penalty kick only to have Liverpool win the game on brilliant goal from Steven Gerrard in the 87th minute. What a great way to end our trip.