{"id":9024,"date":"2020-06-16T18:31:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T15:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/liverpools-agonizing-title-wait-extended-by-coronavirus-pandemic\/"},"modified":"2020-06-16T18:31:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-16T15:31:00","slug":"liverpools-agonizing-title-wait-extended-by-coronavirus-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/liverpools-agonizing-title-wait-extended-by-coronavirus-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"#Liverpool\u2019s agonizing title wait extended by coronavirus pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Liverpool\u2019s agonizing title wait extended by coronavirus pandemic<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Liverpool was almost there.<\/p>\n

As the club brushed off Bournemouth with a 2-1 win on March 7, it peered down at the rest of the Premier League from its near-insurmountable perch: a 25-point advantage over second place Manchester City. When City lost 2-0 to rivals Manchester United the next day, Liverpool\u2019s magic number shrunk even more. Just two more wins, and it would clinch its first domestic title since 1990 before the calendars even flipped to April.<\/p>\n

On April 3, though, that dream was put on hold, perhaps even hurled into jeopardy. The Premier League suspended its season due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and an agonizing 30-year wait was extended even further.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw the panic, and the devastation,\u201d said Kieran Hardy, a member of New York City\u2019s Liverpool supporters\u2019 club (LFC NY) who does IT work at a hospital. \u201cIn early April\u2026 I was just devastated. But lives are more important than soccer.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Premier League shut down, Liverpool fans were essentially assured of their team\u2019s forthcoming title but with no pulse for when that would actually happ<\/a>en. Those fans now know the Premier League will return on Wednesday after extensive discussions. However, for a club with a recent history of being bridesmaids in the league, the lengthy layoff still brought back familiar feelings of dread.<\/p>\n

\"Kieran<\/img>
Kieran Hardy is seen supporting Liverpool at the club\u2019s preseason match versus Borussia Dortmund at Notre Dame Stadium last summer.<\/span>Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe did feel like we were getting screwed\u2026 nobody could have thought this,\u201d Hardy, 53, said. \u201cNobody was close, it was a juggernaut. They were running away with it. And the only thing that nearly stopped it was a pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardy, born in Belfast and raised in Dublin, moved to New York and began working as a bartender the same year as Liverpool\u2019s last domestic title win. But his \u2014 and hordes of other Liverpool fans\u2019 \u2014 anxiety over the league\u2019s predicament wasn\u2019t just because of the awkward wait they knew they\u2019d endure.<\/p>\n

At one point, their worst-case scenario looked far worse than an anticlimactic championship. Some, like West Ham vice-chairman Karen Brady (whose team is currently separated from the relegation zone only on goal difference) and retired Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand, were actually calling for the league to be voided completely, nullifying Liverpool\u2019s would-be title and reopening wounds from other almost-seasons.<\/p>\n

That idea has since been firmly squashed by the English Football Association, but the mere suggestion of another title slipping through the club\u2019s grasp touches at its tortured experience in recent years after a period of dominance in the 70\u2019s and 80\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil we see [club captain] Jordan Henderson physically go get that cup, get that trophy, and lift it over his head, there will still be doubts in Liverpool fans\u2019 minds that this is actually going to happen,\u201d said Tim Mahoney, 49, another member of LFC NY. \u201cAnd that\u2019s just because of the last 30 years of not winning it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been five second-place finishes since the club\u2019s last domestic title. There was the club\u2019s infamous collapse in 2013-14, punctuated by Steven Gerrard\u2019s \u201cThis does not f\u2013ing slip\u201d battle cry as Liverpool led the league with three game<\/a>s to play; he literally slipped two weeks later against Chelsea, allowing a goal in a loss that would hand City the league. There was \u201808-09, when Liverpool fell just short of bitter rivals United. Before that, Mahoney was convinced they\u2019d usurp Arsenal in \u201801-02.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t any one particular moment,\u201d Mahoney, who lived in Ireland at one point, said. \u201cYou chip away, you chip away at the confidence, you chip away at the ego of being a Liverpool fan.\u201d<\/p>\n