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Analyst, TSN Radio 690 Montreal

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The football colloquialism, “Pull your team up by the socks (or is it by the jockstrap?)" was invented for Steven Gerrard. There was no clearer illustration of this at Anfield than on that monumental European evening back on December 8, 2004.

You know the script by now. It’s Matchday 6 of the 2004-05 Champions League and to qualify for the knockout stage, Liverpool need to beat their opponent, Olympiacos, by two clear goals

Enter Sandman, Steven Gerrard. It’s minute 86.

My words could not ever do justice to what Gerrard did at the very moment for his team, his club, that entire extended global Liverpool Football Club family of his.

Let’s just say delirium exploded and erupted from that world renowned Kop – one of planet futbol’s original volcanos. A unique football emotion immediately spread like a contagion to infect every single pore and facet of that most majestic of football settings.

Ingrained now in Anfield’s fabric forevermore, thanks entirely to that Liverpool man of men, the local lad in every sense. 

Gerrard likely wishes his fame and fortune had not taken him to his gated-type home and escape, but that he, his wife and two young daughters could live in one of those two-up, two-down-type classic terraced houses which litter those famous streets immediately surrounding the "Church of Steven Gerrard" would be a dream.

Having last Saturday played his very last match in front of that adoring Liverpool faithful and choir - on Sunday afternoon the word "GERRARD" will emblazon that fabled number 8 Liverpool shirt for a final time.

I have only had the privilege of witnessing Gerrard in the football flesh a handful of times. The two stand-out moments were from late 2009 and early 2011. One, a rare Anfield defeat and the other an away win, both against other so-termed "top-four -opponents."

On December 13, 2009 I was among a jammed crowd packed into a heaving Anfield for the BPL visit of Arsenal. For the final 30 minutes or so after Andrey Arshavin had given the visitors the 2-1 lead, all I witnessed Gerrad do was urge on his team by word and by deed. Gerrard’s  team that Sunday afternoon, as always, included the 40,000-plus on the terraces. There simply is no backing down even when staring defeat right between the eyes.

I was there at Stamford Bridge on February 6, 2011 for the Chelsea coming-out party of one Feranando Torres. A most significant moment occurred as Gerrard led his Liverpool team out of the tunnel onto the pitch. It was as if Torres was channelling his old Liverpool self.

As El Nino emerged onto the pitch, and from my position in the stands directly above the tunnel area, it was to the masses of Liverpool rank and file to his immediate left that Torres glanced towards and not the Chelsea magnificence of a packed out West Stand.

I knew then and there that the debut of English football’s most expensive player was doomed. Ironically it was only two minutes after Torres was substituted around the midpoint of the second half that Raul Meireles sealed away Liverpool’s winner and a most deserving three points for a King Kenny Dalglish  Liverpool team.

It will, of course, though, be Istanbul on May 25, 2005 that Gerrard entered into Liverpool folklore and fabric forever.

Not one other English club defines and expresses itself through the twin forces of agony and ecstasy of European football even remotely as close as Liverpool does. Plastic flags not included, proper supporters showing up on each and every Anfield occasion.

Your club down 3-0 in a Champions League Final was just the perfect moment to let the Liverpool team know, who were furiously setting about a second-half tactical switch in their dressing room, that, yes, indeed, almost the entire red half of the Merseyside had decamped to Istanbul. 

At that very moment, it seemed just as if even Anfield itself had transported itself inside the Ataturk Stadium.  It became AC Milan’s "squeaky bum time" if ever they had one. Don’t believe me, then just ask Carlo Ancelotti.

Then, before you could draft any victory speeches for the Rossoneri, Liverpool FC rewrote the script and itt took only five second-half minutes.

Gerrard - who else? - got them on the score sheet in minute 55 and by the hour mark, it was 3-3. Realistically, Milan was already psychologically defeated. Physiologically, it would take just over another hour when a demoralized and dishevelled-appearing Andriy Shevchenko had his penalty kick saved. Actually calling it a "kicK" might be more than an exaggeration.

Cue Ataturk Kop pandemonium as Gerrard led his team into delirium. Now, almost exactly 10 years to the day the legend of "One Night In Istanbul," Stevie G. is now set to take his Liverpool bow.

Gerrard’s Liverpool legacy, though, is far from written.  Eighteen months in Los Angeles will provide enough time to both start and then complete his UEFA coaching badge, Rookie Class.

To be enshrined into the Liverpool Boot Room, then cometh opportunity in good time to get Liverpool safely back atop their perch of English football and get a sixth European crown in the crosshairs..

World football owes Liverpool FC and Steven Gerrard.  I, like so very many  of us, look forward to chipping in. 

Noel.Butler@BellMedia.ca 
@TheSoccerNoel on Twitter