Why did we root for Liverpool in 2005?

[Dennis Bendtner]

I have been contemplating this incredibly important and by no means pointless question.

I remember being really quite happy when Liverpool completed the comeback in the CL final. As was basically the whole country.

But why?

I certainly wouldn't now. What was different back then? Have we turned into ****s?

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

I don't think Arsenal and Liverpool have had any particularly heated rivalry over the years. Certainly not in the same way you have with United, or we have with Chelsea. It's always been reasonably friendly, considering we're both successful clubs.

And at the same time, it was only the start of the English domination of the CL for the next few years so there was probably a little bit of patriotic pride (I'm making this up as I go along since I've never given it a second thought either) whereas the next times it wasn't as big of a deal, so rather it was that it was us, it was as much that it was an English club.

I guess for next time () it would depend on who we were up against.

Edit: Though I daresay there were many Arsenal fans who wanted us to lose horribly, as well.

[Marc Overmars]

I wasn't rooting for them, why would I want to see a rival achieve something we ourselves are so desperate to do? After the comeback though I didn't begrudge them the win, it was a great night.

I suppose that Liverpool team was quite poor and given it had been 6 years since there was an English finalist, them reaching the final itself was no mean feat, so it captured the imagination.

[Dennis Bendtner]

Perhaps you have a point about English domination. It had been six years since the last ones to appear in the final. But even 1999 was after a long time. Did anyone cheer for United? Fuck that! Or maybe they did but I was a kid and definitely didn't. Your point about rivalry is true but does it account for the actual willingness for Liverpool to win? I would've thought it'd be ambivalence at best. Out of the entire country probably only United and Everton fans were dead against them.

I guess the magic of the Kop got to us.

[Dennis Bendtner]

I wasn't rooting for them, why would I want to see a rival achieve something we ourselves are so desperate to do? After the comeback though I didn't begrudge them the win, it was a great night.

I suppose that Liverpool team was quite poor and given it had been 6 years since there was an English finalist, them reaching the final itself was no mean feat, so it captured the imagination.

Maybe I misinterpreted the vibe, making this thread stupid.

I actually did want them to win.

Maybe I should change my name to Coney.

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

United are unquestionably the most hated club in the country though, no one wants them to win. Ever.

But I don't know if people actively wanted us to win, or whether it was just a case that the cup run and comeback was a memorable one and because of that people weren't repulsed by us winning it and had a begrudging respect for it. Many would have been dead set against us winning it though, not least Chelsea fans

Fuck it, I'm off to find a video of it...

[Marc Overmars]

Yeah, and I'm off to find a video of our 1-0 win over Barca in 2006.

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

I was reading Old GW the other week (I was incredibly bored) and the 2006 Match thread.

You all had such optimism for the future and in the project. What a difference 6 years makes...

[Özim]

I wasn't rooting for them either. Sorry.

I don't want any other English club to win it, sadly they seem to....except us.

[Dennis Bendtner]

I didn't even know they had a match thread for that. How many posts were there, 10?

This thread was really prompted by flicking through the Chelsea-Bayern thread and reliving our bitter tirades. Not sure why I went through it again.

In conclusion, the relative goodwill in 2005 was because Liverpool are less ****y than Man Utd and Chelsea and had a Bollywood run to the final. cool /thread