It's My Life!: Triumph (The Kop)

"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph" - Thomas Paine. There is no other institution in world football where these words ring more true than Liverpool Football Club. The season has ended and it has many of us feeling nostalgic, but also feeling optimistic about the future. Reminiscing on past failures and tragedies, then thinking back on glorious victories and conquests. Once we're done with that we are left with a smile on our faces, beaming. And we start to dream of how good it is going to feel when that ultimate glory returns to us again.

Overcoming strife to stand head and shoulders above the rest has been woven into the tapestry of this club. Our history is littered with moments where our backs have been against the wall, when no matter how hard we'd swing, the opposition's blows just knocked the breath out of us. Apparently damned, beaten to within an inch of death. And then doused in petrol, gruesomely set ablaze and left to char in the flames of defeat. Seemingly burnt down to the ground...only for the Liverbird to rise out of the ashes in a Phoenix-esque manner to prevail over the heavily stacked odds and reign victorious.

It is embedded in us and we are also constantly reminded by the anthem of this club to walk on and battle against the raging storm even though we understand that it is very tough. For we know that at the end we will be greeted with glorious light and a sky filled with endless promise. It is engrained within our DNA and can never be erased, for we are Liverpool. We never back down from a fight no matter how daunting it may be.

From being the almost boys of the 50's, always missing out on promotion toward the First Division, to being underdogs up against the talented Roma side that featured Conti, Falcao and Pruzzo in '84. From being 3-0 down within 24 minutes versus an efficient Manchester United side in '94, at Anfield no less, to being 1-0 down to a brilliant Arsenal team with only 18 minutes left on the clock in the FA Cup final of 2001. From the sad happenings at Heysel and unjust repercussion, to the extreme lows of Hillsborough.

We were under the cosh in all of these moments, yet somehow we bounced back and showed fight to stand tall. In '59, Shankly arrived, layed the foundations, and we soon won promotion to the First Division. We beat the much fancied Roma on their own patch, to become the 1984 European Cup champions. Nigel Clough scored a brace and inspired a remarkable comeback to help us draw against the Premier League champions, United. We netted two goals in the last ten minutes of the FA Cup final to lift it in 2001. Banned from Europe in the aftermath of Heysel, we turned our attention to domestic affairs and became even more dominant in England, gaining three league titles and two FA Cups. Hillsborough ended up uniting this club and showed just how closely knit it really is, with players, coaches, non playing staff and fans, all pulling together in support of each other and the families of the 96 who tragically lost their lives.

There are many examples of how sweet victory is after a struggle, but none more pertinent to Thomas Paine's words than Istanbul. In fact, our whole journey throughout the 2004/05 season brought the words to life. We were not even considered as real contenders when the Champion's League kicked off. With a really poor domestic campaign underway, and iffy encounters early on in our European group, we only in truth had an outside chance of qualifying for the knockout stages. Then came the Olympiacos moment. And after that, it was as if the shackles of fear and doubt had been taken off.

Strolled over Bayer Leverkusen, swept aside a really good Juventus team and this quarter final stage was really when everyone outside of the club felt the fairy tale would end. Not a chance...battled and grafted to win the semi-final tie versus Chelsea, to prove the doubters wrong and win a spot on the ultimate stage in club football: the UEFA Champion's League Final. We had made it. Against all odds, it was Liverpool travelling to Instanbul. In spite of the arduous travails of the testing Premiership season we'd endured, finishing fifth and not guaranteed a spot in the following season's edition of the Champion's League, we were there. Reaching the final was in itself a glorious triumph over the hard conflict that was our season. It was them Scousers again!!

It is with absolute certainty that I can say that everyone associated with Liverpool remembers what happened that midweek night, on May 25th 2005. For all of us fans, it was what epitomizes Liverpool Football Club. For neutrals wandering the wastelands of world club football with no affiliation to any side, it was their birth and passage to becoming a Red...the deciding factor. After watching a team pull off something like that, how could you not fall in love with them. Glorious in triumph, we literally snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in a conflict that saw us miraculously give as good as we got. David versus Goliath, a team of grafters and workhorses surprising those gifted with flair and awe inspiring technical ability.

A year later, we repeated a similar feat and lifted the FA Cup. A few months on and new owners rode into town, promising the world to the fans. Fast forward to October 2010: we have experienced arguably the most agonizing period in the club's recent history. Squabbles within the boardroom, greed from the owners, promises broken, ever rising debt, a good man stabbed in the back, the hiring of an inadequate replacement gaffer, protests by fans, not a single trophy won since the takeover, all of which started to have an effect on the field of play, with the cracks no longer being able to be covered up. This was a conflict as tough as any experienced and we had to dig extremely deep to find the will to beat this one.

NESV steps up, seizes the club from the wrong hands. They clear our debt, and make all the right changes, including placing the right man in charge of the team...and the rest, as they say, is history. But what it also appears to be is a future, and a bright one at that. It was a gargantuan effort to win this battle. It was a battle that if lost, could easily have led to the destruction of this fine institution. It will go down as an important moment in this conflict. Yet again, we managed to ignite to fire within our bellies and start to fight back, to win this war.

If this whole ownership saga and decline could be likened, or compacted into a football match, then Istanbul would be it. If thought to be over, it is not. Not by a long way. The comeback is in progress. September 2010 was half time...3-0 down, feeling down and defeated. May 2011, and we've started to hit back. Wins over the "big four", dashing displays of pass and move football, emergence of young talent, the Academy bursting with potential and an all round return to the Liverpool Way in all facets of the club.

It is 3-1 now and all of us can sense that we can go on and win this. Our rivals have noticed and are most certainly quivering at the sight of what is being cooked up at Liverpool Football Club at this moment in time. It is definitely happening, and we are not dreaming. It is going to take time, lots of effort and some getting up after being shoved to the ground a few times, but we WILL overcome. We will equalize and we will win. And after all the hard conflict, in the end, history will say that Liverpool Football Club stands Glorious in Triumph. - The Kop