THE showpiece event at the home of the Boston Red Sox ended in defeat for Liverpool as the Reds lost 2-1 to Roma at Fenway Park.
It was Liverpool’s first pre-season defeat, and the first loss under Brendan Rodgers’ tutelage; albeit meaningless in terms of result.
In front of a Fenway Park that resembled parts of Anfield, such was the Reds support in Boston, exciting starlet Raheem Sterling was given a start.
But it was young stand-in ‘keeper Peter Gulacsi who was called into early action, twice denying Roma’s Pablo Osvaldo in the opening 20 minutes, whilst at the other end Jonjo Shelvey was also twice denied.
Liverpool came closest to opening the scoring however, with ex-Roma darling Alberto Aquilani setting up Joe Cole whose lob landed on top of the crossbar, just after 30 minutes played.
Roma did open the scoring after 63 minutes with their new signing, US international Michael Bradley shooting past half-time substitute Brad Jones from a tight angle.
The Serie A side then doubled their lead when Alessandro Florenzi found the net with just 20 minutes remaining.
Charlie Adam, who looked impressive, halved the deficit when he drove a shot low into the bottom corner of the net from the edge of the area however, with 10 minutes remaining, the Reds were unable to find an equaliser.
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Went to the match with my son, our first Liverpool match. We sat in LFC supoorters section, it was a great experience. I think we both shed a tear or two as we finally got to raise our scarves and sing out YNWA with the crowd. Must have been 100 LFC supporters for every Roma fan we saw. Our section sang through just about the whole match and it was great meeting the fans who travelled from Liverpool.
The match was definitely a preseason match. First half crew played together fairly well and it was great watching Cara and Skrtel directing things right in front of us. Second half almost seemed as if Rodgers had given specific instructions to attack from the right. That right side crew, as they were in Toronto, were much too negative in their play. Pacheko sat in at least 20 yards free space all night as the ball was continually played from the mids to the right, away from him. I hope it doesn’t hurt his chances for more first team play, when the kid did get the ball he looked good. It was his play that set up the goal for Adam.
I am grateful we had the chance to see our team in person, an experience my son and I will always remember even if the final result wasn’t as we’d hoped.
What these friendlies have shown is how urgent the need is to sideline Carragher before he becomes a complete embarrassment. If he’s played against any of the teams in the top half of the prem he’s going to cost us points.