Matchday rituals - part 1

It's 6:30am - kickoff not for another 3 hours but who could sleep anyway?

Rituals: surf, post to forum(s) and shower. Check the DVR settings for the 10th time to make sure the game is captured. Procrastinate between choice of 4 or 5 shirts to wear. T-shirt or replica? Recent or retro? Long or short-sleeve? Home or away? Or no "colors" at all? It's a lot to think about first thing so I usually try to sort it the night before. (But always end up reconsidering regardless.)

Reading material: Metro/Arts/Sports sections from the Times, RAOTL and/or BOSS. And think about an LFC book as well but realize it's too much (and who am I kidding anyway).

Start feeling ill - the intensity of which is in direct proportion to the magnitude of the match. Never quite sure whether it's really nerves, the slightly awful Chock Full O' Nuts coffee I made or a little of both. Hope it passes as it makes me worry about an hour on the train. (It never passes and have managed the trip just fine up to now.)

Get the bag ready and get the hell out of Dodge, invariably a few minutes late. Queue up the tunes on my Liverbird-skinned brick of an mp3 player and walk/run to the subway. Almost always The La's or the Fabs - just makes sense.

And as I make my way through the streets of Brooklyn (and then Manhattan on the other side), I love to let my mind think of the thousands around the globe doing the exact same thing as we all make our way to the establishment of our choice to watch the game, always finishing off with thoughts of those making their way to Anfield or whichever ground is hosting the Redmen today. It's a beautiful thing, those thoughts - we are all indeed on the march in Rafa's army.

Alright - enough of this waxing rhapsodic. And as a result of it, I'm already running late...off to shower.

But one last thing before I go - LET'S BEAT THESE CHELSEA B*ST*RDS!

Have a good one, wherever you may be. Hopefully we'll have a big love-in later.